Can I choose the lane on which bots go when playing a LoL custom game?
When playing a League of Legends custom game, whatever the champions I may select in my team, I always end with:
- two bots going on the bottom lane
- one bot going on the middle lane
- one bot going on the top lane
Beside the complete lack of sense in some choices (Shen in middle lane is quite common), this forces me to play as a jungler or go on the top lane.
Is there a way to change the lane used by the bots, to allow me to practice playing in the middle lane for exemple (or play on the bottom lane with a support)?
No you can't. It is a part of bot AI and they choose on their own where to go.
edit: this answer is out of date and as gbn stated in his answer, apparently the lane decision works a little different now: "Custom game bots now adjust to players' initial laning decisions before the first minion wave spawns". For more details please check his answer.
On the other side, you won't gain much by playing on your own against bots (except if you want to practise jungling - this way no-one will touch you). You will only learn basics about the skill set of the champion you're playing and you will learn bot AI patterns which won't help you when you start playing against real players. You will have to apply different tactics against humans and learn when to activate champion skills based on how humans react. If you really want to play against bots, why not play Coop vs. AI?
The bot order is as follows (disregard positions of any human players when doing this counting):
- 1st and 4th bots in order will go bottom,
- 2nd and 5th bots in order will go top,
- 3rd will go mid.
To make it easier on yourself while setting the order, add each bot one at a time, set their character, then add another bot.
Or, just remember that whenever you change a champion, they go to the bottom of the list, so you need to build your team from the top first.
The lane the bot goes in depends on the order they appear when you "Add Bot" when making the custom game. For example if you had you, Soraka, and Sivir on your side, in that order going down, and Soraka, Sivir, and someone you want to lane against in that order going down, then you will have to run middle lane to face your opponent. Try it and you will see.
The other answers are out of date since the Jayce patch
If you pick a lane, then the bots will ignore this and redistribute themselves. See the patch notes
Custom game bots now adjust to players' initial laning decisions before the first minion wave spawns
However, you have to be on a certain area of the lane. I've hidden in bushes mid and the bots came to lane anyway. When hanging by the turret, they detect me. I think this relates to the jungling detection in patch 144
Fixed: Custom game bots now lane properly when allied players are jungling