Two questions, one draft#

Attributes told you what a hero turns gold into.

Roles tell you how much gold a hero is expected to get.

Between them, that is most of what a draft is arguing about.

The habit this week breaks#

Five players who all want position one.

Or, more quietly: picking a support and playing it like a core — competing with your own team for the same gold.

One to five is not a job description#

Position one takes the most gold. Position five takes the least.

Everything else follows from that order.

Core and support#

A core turns the team’s resources into late-game power.

A support spends their own time protecting that conversion.

Neither is the senior partner.

Power spikes#

Every hero has a window where they are at their strongest.

A team’s plan is built around whose window is open right now.

That is why positions are agreed before picking — not sorted out once the game has started.

Start on position five#

Not because it is easier. It is not.

A support’s decisions surface soonest and cost the team least while you are still learning to make them:

where to ward, when to rotate, whose life to spend yours on.

The other side of the argument#

Most beginner guides say support, for roughly our reasons.

A serious minority say mid: a self-contained game, no dependence on four other people, the most direct feedback there is.

Both cases hold up. Ours is the one this course is built around — and the Lobby Lab is where you argue with it.

Experience is shared#

Gold goes to whoever takes the last hit.

Experience is split between everyone standing near the wave.

So who stands in the wave is not a detail. It is the team allocating a resource.

This week’s heroes#

Crystal Maiden — Brilliance Aura A support whose value does not sit on her own hero at all.

Juggernaut — Blade Fury A core spending resources on its own safety, very early.

This week’s item#

Arcane Boots.

The first item bought for the team rather than for yourself.

Who does this item’s benefit belong to?