The sticky has a really detailed explanation of the game, key mechanics, etc.

EzMoneY wrote League of Legends (LoL) is a strategy game developed and published by Riot Games and inspired by the popular Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) map for Warcraft III. The game is Free to play so you do not have to worry about spending any money and not liking the game. In a game players are divided into teams of 3 or 5 with the main objective to destroy the enemies base. Games generally last anywhere from 20-60 minutes depending on if you are playing 3v3 or 5v5.

The meta for League is you have the 3 lanes, Top, Mid and Bottom as well as the Jungle.

You would usually see an AD Carry and a Support champion take bot lane.
An AD Carry is a champion that deals a high sustained amount of damage; a ranged champion with high attack damage and attack speed. The key focus of AD Carries is usually getting basic attacks on enemies rather than abilities.
The supports role is to help the team by having high CC, making the plays for everyone to follow up on (Not really seen at low levels/leagues). A support's job in the early game is to help the ADC get quick kills and keep them alive.

A bursty, high damage champion would go mid. These champions are all about abilities... Taking you from 2,500 HP down to a simple one hit kill within a few seconds due to the combos they can get on you. An example is Veigar, he can trap you within a prison, follow up with a missile from the sky and a primordial burst to finish you off - You won't last two seconds as soon as you are trapped in that prison, the key is to Flash out (Like a Stalker blink in SC2 - if that helps explain further)

Top lane can vary however the key is to just farm and dont feed. Top will usually be a tanky player or ones that can help the team with a lot of CC (Crowd Control) abilities... These are things such as stuns, slows, silences (Silences prevent you from using your abilities).

Finally, you would usually see a jungler however some games you may see a duo going top.
The key to jungling is clear the minions in the jungle to level and get gold as well as "gank" lanes to secure that lane an easy kill, or two.


Any other questions, the sticky should help, or just send me a PM about a particular portion of the game and I'll fill you in.