User blog comment:QuantumFeint/Botlane meta - where did all the supports go?/@comment-15244341-20140907114313/@comment-24464243-20140908074725

It's mostly a matter of champion design. Supports as champions can go any lane, with any configuration, and still provide tons of utility. Supports as a role mean one thing: baby sit the carry, buy wards.

In a sense, the pros may not have a support role on the team, rather a support champion that's more of a roamer that maybe will stick with the carry the first few levels, but maybe not. They're actually more of a supportive role than non-pro supports, since they support their entire team through out the entire game rather than just one member for a huge chunk of it. That said, this roaming support may or may not actually be a support champion.

I'd really say that, yes, bottom lane support really could use another name. Kind of what Riot did with marksman and AD carries - you certainly have AD carries that aren't marksmen, but you wouldn't often take them bot. That's why there's the marksman tag in the first place, to differtiate between champions that could concievably go bot due to their playstyle, while making it clearer that champions like Yi aren't supposed to head their despite fullfilling the same general purpose.

Also, Gangplank is a support champion. It's just that he's also a lot of other things. Too many things, really, it's why he's numerically weak right now because if he was stronger then he'd bring too much to the table. Also the reason why he's on the rework list.