There’s no denying that the MOBA genre, Smite included, is one of the most strategically complex and nuanced forms of competitive gaming out there. One of the reasons for this is that things aren’t always as they first appear; what seems like an absurd strategy or a ridiculous playstyle can, in the end, lead to a superior result. This is the case with the peculiar piece of strategy known as Lane Freezing, a tactic well known to dedicated players but completely unknown to many, especially MOBA rookies.

It should really come as no surprise that Lane Freezing is a difficult topic to grasp. It runs counter to one of the first and most major things new players learn about the game: kill the minions. And in most matches, at most times, this is a good idea. Killing minions is the primary means of acquiring gold and experience for most roles on the team, and so most of the time there’s no reason not to push your wave of minions and be as aggressive as possible. There’s a few situations, though, where this isn’t your best move.

This is where Lane Freezing comes into the picture. If you’re unfamiliar with the topic, you must be aching to know by now: What is Lane Freezing? At its simplest level, it’s just letting the minions waves walk up to each other and then doing… absolutely nothing.

Lane Freezing as a strategy is created by the interaction of a few different facts about Smite itself and the way the game works: First, you must be within a certain radius of a dead minion to get full gold and XP credit for its death. Second, you still get full gold and XP for a minion kill plus some bonus gold if you get the last hit on a minion, even if other minions dealt most of the damage to it.

Now, to apply these factors to a Smite situation. Let’s say you’re in a Conquest match, playing as Apollo against a Hou Yi in the duo lane. You’re level 14, and your opponent is level 12. You’ve gotten a couple of kills in lane, and you want to keep attacking him, but there’s an issue. Hou Yi refuses to leave his tower. You clear every wave instantly with So Beautiful, and you’re doing just fine, but Hou Yi is sitting just inside his tower and clearing every wave of minions with a Ricochet and couple of basic attacks, and you can’t do anything about it. You want to be aggressive and push your advantage in lane, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to do it. What to do? Don’t do anything. Freeze the lane. Just let the minions walk up and hit each other.

That’s right, this is a strategy characterized by actually NOT doing something. Lane Freezing is an obtuse but beautifully functional idea: If both minion waves walk up and meet each other with no interference, they are equal in damage and health, so they’ll just stop in the middle and attack each other. Because they’re equal, they’ll eventually just die in the middle of the lane without going anywhere. Normally, players want to clear the waves quickly to keep this from happening; the whole point of the laning phase is to kill enemy minions and use your own to pressure the opponent’s tower. In a case like the one described above, though, pushing a wave is counter-productive. It just gives Hou Yi more farm and more chance to catch up. Instead, it would be most efficient for you, playing as Apollo, to just let the minion waves hit each other, your only interaction being to Last Hit nearly-dead minions to pick up some bonus gold.

If the minion waves are stalled in the center of the lane, your own minions will start to die. This may seem like a bad thing, but if they die to other minions, in the middle of the lane, while the enemy ADC is sitting under tower waiting for the minion wave to come to him, you’re actually denying him gold and experience. By letting the enemy minions kill your own, you’re locking him out of the precious farm that he needs to catch up and get back in the game. All the while, you’re finishing off badly damaged enemy minions for full gold and XP and getting farther and farther ahead.

If Hou Yi realizes what’s happening in this case, he might emerge from his tower to try and at least get near his minions, to pick up on some of the gold and XP from their kills. That’s your opportunity to play aggressive. With your level advantage and assuming even skill, you should be able to win the boxing match and either send him back under his tower or kill him outright.

Like other advanced techniques, Lane Freezing forces your opponent to take one of two bad options: either sit under their tower and lose farm, or try and play aggressive and risk a losing fight. It’s a beautifully simple technique that, though somewhat counterintuitive, can put you even farther ahead in a winning lane.

The uses of Lane Freezing aren’t even limited to the above scenario. It doesn’t have to be used in the duo lane, and it’s not necessarily exclusive to winning lanes. If you’re losing solo lane badly, and the enemy solo laner is killed or rotates to his buffs, you can use the opportunity to freeze the wave and pick up a slight experience advantage while he’s gone, instead of pushing the wave and giving him more time to return and pick up the experience from minions under his own tower. Lane Freezing is a somewhat situational technique, but it’s perfect for gaining a clean experience advantage.

This being said, of course, Lane Freezing has its own downsides and caveats. You should never try to freeze a lane that you’re behind in if the enemy laner is present. They’ll simply engage and poke you out of lane, or just kill you. Lane Freezing is also time consuming. You must stay in lane constantly to efficiently freeze the lane, and if you push up the wave and clear it brings opportunities to rotate. Still, Lane Freezing can be marvelously effective in the right situation. Give it a try in your own games, and learn for yourself where it’s effective and where it’s not! Used in the right hands, Lane Freezing can be a powerful technique to build an advantage or close the gap to come back and seize the lead.

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