When you look at other games like Dota 2 or HoN, the meta isn't "set" the same way.
In League, you send a carry mid (usually AP carry, or possibly AD carry, anyone who can gank well by bursting down enemies). This isn't something new, seeing as the middle lane gives easy access to both bottom and top, and thus makes for easier gankes. It makes sense you'd want someone who can just show up in an instant and just burst down the enemies, right? Of course, back in the olden days it was also more common to send carries there to farm, specifically Ezreal or Ashe because of their global ultimates. I'd say anyone who nowadays can quickly burst down an enemy if given the chance makes for a suitable middle lane champion.
Jungle is easy enough. Does a champion have a way of sustaining themselves when fighting neutral monsters, or are they just really awesome at ganking with their abilities somehow? Or both? Throw them into the jungle. Nothing weird here, really. The only difference is that in LoL having a jungler seems almost obligatory, while in the other games it's more of a bonus, but it's alright if you don't always have one.
Bottom lane. Attack damage carry and a support. The carry being anyone who can deal sustained damage through ranged auto attacks, and of course scales well with attack damage, and a support who can guard them with their high utility spells. The support, because they don't need gold to serve their function, thus becomes a warder, having to provide the team with wards around the map every now and then. Others should help with that too. Utility for a support usually means buffs or crowd control, like stuns/slows. If you have two champions, one who gains 50 damage for each of his abilities just from having an extra 100 attack damage, and another one who only gains the 100 attack damage from the... 100 attack damage, which one would you rather give the 100 attack damage?
Finally there's the top lane, or... well... the leftover lane. People tend to like going here because it means fighting 1 vs 1, but junglers usually get involved here too with ganks. Still, most champions who doesn't fit the roles of either middle, jungler, support or ADC gets tossed up here just because. They just try and sit there and farm all day, and then move on to crushing the enemies once they're a powerhouse. Unless the enemy top laner becomes a powerhouse first. House fight!
The game is about overpowering your opponents, so why does everyone insist on sending evenly matched lanes at each other? People have gotten lazy and don't want to think about team comp. Dicussing tactics? What tomfoolery is this! Just pick Janna and go support that Caitlyn already.
The players of League of Legends have grown fat and lazy because of the current meta, people don't want to change the tactics up because it's apparently too hard to discuss how to be clever.
Now, what really bugs me is that these rules seem to apply every single game. If you have a friend and you'd like to go to the top lane with him? Yeah, that wont happen unless you want a bunch of reports coming your way. You need to follow the meta or you're trolling. Why is the meta so widely followed? Or more specifically, why do both teams send the ADC and support to the bottom lane?
The way the map is constructed, it's meant to be a perfect mirror from both sides. That makes it perfectly balanced, right?
Not really, no.
Camera position aside, there is one static thing about Summoner's Rift that ruins the perfect balance. The position of Baron Nashor and the Dragon.
Baron Nashor is sometimes the game decider for lategame matches. Whichever team gets the kill gets an incredibly strong buff which can let them win the game if they use it well enough, but that's all the way in lategame! Who has time to think about the future? Pssh.
Now, in early-mid game, the battle most often tends to break out around middle, or, dragon. And where is the dragon located? Near bottom lane. And who is fighting at the bottom lane? Two people, the ADC and support. The added bonus of the support being there is that they can ward the Dragon to make sure it's not taken without your knowing. Jungler gets a good gank on the enemy carry and you score a kill? Neat! Let's go kill the dragon while they're weak!
I think that the entire reason this entire meta has been formed this way, is because of the position and importance of the dragon early game. The top laners are sent top so they can farm as long as possible, the mega-monster near their lane isn't important usually until around level 15+ or so (sometimes earlier). The dragon can be important already at level 5, so people want as many to be able to help as soon as possible with it. Jungler, middle laner and bottom laners can all get together real quick and kill it if you've chased away the enemy.
But what if the teams were "unbalanced"? Your team sent your "top" laner to the bottom, and your carry and support to fight 2 vs 1 against their top laner?
Most likely? When the time to fight the dragon would come, you'd be fighting 3 vs 4, since you have 2 people at the top lane instead of just 1. Sure, the two top laners would now be able to help kill Baron more quickly... right?
Except by the time Baron is killed, the game is all about teamfights, and everyone is already always grouped together.
I've been thinking of possible solutions to this frozen meta problem. Just to keep this post from becoming too much of a wall of text, I'll post them later instead.
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