Managing your lane, no matter what role you are, is an important fundamental to learn. Taking a few extra steps to control the flow of minions can be the difference between winning and losing lanes, objectives, and even entire games.

Freezing

Freezing occurs when one side of the minions outnumber the other side, in which case you will want your enemy's minions to out shove your minions. Freezing your minions in a given position gives you complete control over your lane.

If you have the upper hand and are out matching your opponent, you will want to freeze your lane as close to your turret as possible, to force the enemy to leave the safety of their turret if they want to farm minions. This is also beneficial when your opponent has the upper hand, and you need to farm minions closer to your turret. Keep in mind that the closer the minions are, the more likely the turret is to kill the minions before you can last hit them, so be mindful of their positioning.

When in a matchup that favors your opponent, the wave will usually end up crashing into your turret. You will want to thin out the enemy minions so that they are only a few minions larger than your wave, stopping their push from going much further. You can use this opportunity to trade with your opponent, especially if they are using all their abilities to push the wave against you. However, always be mindful of the minion wave when trading or engaging on your opponent, especially during early game, as the minions can easily deplete your health and lead to a less favorable trade.

After you freeze the wave you will eventually build up extra minions since your enemy is usually not farming very efficiently. You can use this opportunity to engage on the enemy and gain a kill advantage or communicate with your jungler to come in for a gank. After defeating your enemy, you will have extra minions to leave behind to crash against their turret so that you can recall to base and spend your earnings. You do not want to push against the turret unless you know for sure that no one can rotate to punish you.

In most cases, you will want the wave close to your turret so that your opponent is in a risky position. This gives your team a good opportunity to gank for your lane and lowers the chance that the enemy will come to gank. Try to limit how often you use abilities on the wave, so they do not get too far pushed, and so you still have the resources to trade with your opponent.

In some cases, like when you are against a mage, they might use their abilities to heavily push the minions and cause their wave to crash on your turret when you attempt to freeze. When this happens, you will want to use your abilities on the enemy and effectively trade since they have already used their resources on your minions, and then work to freeze the minions in the middle of the lane. Once frozen in the middle, you will want to mirror the enemy's clearing speed. Keeping the wave frozen at the middle is especially effective when playing in the midlane, as the lane is smaller and you are usually up against bursty mages.

If your enemy is freezing against you, focus your abilities onto your enemy rather than their minions, so that their wave will inevitably build up faster than yours, and off balance the freeze. Keep vision up in the river and jungle since you will be vulnerable and over extended in the lane, and look for the positioning of the other lanes to anticipate a roam or gank.

Keep in mind that whenever you recall to base, whether or not your opponent is also recalling. You want to time any backings with your opponent, whether they have died in lane, you traded and left them very low, or they are simply backing for items. This will help balance your wave so it does not crash into your turret, which will give your enemy an opportunity to freely roam or get free turret plates.


Objectives and Roaming

When an objective is about to spawn, like Dragon or Rift Herald, or you need to roam up and gank for your team, it is important to ensure your lane is in a good condition. If you have enough time before an objective spawns, you will want to shove your lane into the enemy's turret. This same idea goes for any time you decide to leave the lane, whether you are roaming up to get a kill, or are returning to base.

This is beneficial because it prevents the wave from crashing into your turret, which gives your enemy a perfect opportunity to take turret plates, especially if you will not be back in your lane for a prolonged period of time. If your enemy decides to follow you to the objective, and they left the lane where you had pushed it to, then the minions will be left unmonitored and will be able to damage the turret freely. If they take the time to instead push the wave back into your turret, then you will have the upper hand during the objective or roam. If you do not have the opportunity to push your lane, and your allies need your immediate help, it is a better idea to join them as soon as possible. Whenever you rotate, make sure you communicate this information to the rest of your team with a quick message or ping, so that they can be aware of your movements and be ready to assist you.

Split Pushing

There is more to winning the game than killing the opponent and securing objectives like Dragon and Rift Herald. It is important to keep your lanes pushed out before leaving them unattended, especially before a big fight. You will also want to spread this pressure throughout all lanes, not just a single lane, as it will be harder for your enemy to defend their base from multiple lanes.

So, when is it a good time to push the lane? Each game will affect this answer differently, depending on what the enemy can do to counter your push. It is best for the split pusher to be someone who can deal with at least two enemies, so they do not immediately die when someone comes to stop them, or someone who can easily escape from a fight they cannot win.

Whenever you push out a lane, make sure you leave wards in the enemy jungle to help see when they rotate up to counter you. This will help you anticipate an engage and either set up a counter engage or get away safely. When pushing into the enemy's base, it is a good idea to leave a ward by a destroyed turret or inhibitor to give you vision of their positioning even after they clear your minions. This can feed you needed information when deciding what lane to push out next, what objective can be secured, and if you could potentially back door them with a Teleport.

When running Teleport, you will want to choose a lane furthest away from the objective your team wishes to secure. This is so you can Teleport back into the objective if needed, while having your enemy decide between the pushed lane and contesting the objective on the opposite side of the map. If you go alone to split push, it is less likely multiple enemies will come to stop you, allowing you to have a safer position in lane.

If your enemy has the advantage, be mindful of how far you push out lanes. You will want to keep at least one lane closer to your turret, towards the middle of the lane, so you and your allies can still safely farm up minions to catch up to the enemy team. Keep an eye out for the enemy split pushing against you, as you do not want to leave a lane open and give them free pressure. The key to keeping up the advantage and countering the enemy is to rotate frequently and spread your pressure throughout all lanes. Remember that whenever you rotate or split push, make sure you communicate this information to the rest of your team with a quick message or ping, so that they can be aware of your movements and be ready to assist you.

Pay close attention to your positioning and the enemy's positioning so that you do not over extend to where your allies can not assist you, especially if they are moving to secure an objective. Having pressure on a lane as your allies are doing an objective is ideal, especially when you have Teleport ready. Split pushing can be far more punishing without Teleport, since you will want to force your enemy to make a decision to deal with you or try and secure the objective from your allies while you are gone. If they leave you alone and move on to your team, you will want to have Teleport to quickly counter them and give your team a better chance in the fight.

When making these decisions, here are some important questions to ask yourself:

Did I see my enemy laner return to base or have they recently died? If yes, it is a good idea to shove the lane up and return to base for resources. If you do not need to return to base, look for an opportunity to roam to another lane for a gank.

Did my ally die in lane, or leave their lane unattended? If yes, keep an eye out for the enemy laner to roam to your lane for a gank, since they currently have the advantage in their lane.

Is an objective spawning soon? If yes, it is a good idea to shove your lane forward, make sure you have enough Health and Mana, and prepare to rotate towards the objective. If your allies are not close to secure it, try to gain vision of the area to monitor your enemy to see if they come for the objective themselves.

I am pushing out my lane to a risky position, do I have the area warded? If not, gain vision as quick as possible and expect the enemy to be nearby if they are not otherwise showing up on the map.

In Conclusion

Managing your wave is an important skill to learn and will help you have more positive outcomes in your games. Freezing the minions so that your enemy is forced to farm in a position of your choosing or pushing the wave to apply pressure against your enemy will give you and your team the upper hand. Leaving the wave in a healthy condition will make your roams and your recalls less punishing and can cause your enemy to make impactful mistakes.