One of the perceived pains of Top Lane is the role's inability to affect the map since as a Top Laner you’re basically on a one versus one island. But I’m here today to coach you up on a key concept that all Top Laners should be familiar with - split pushing!

Split pushing is one of the best ways to carry the game from Top and should never fall out of your arsenal of tricks! Today we'll be breaking down how to split push, when to group and roam, and we'll cover some Champions that execute this strategy to perfection, alongside a few other tips and tricks here and there!

1. The Mindset, Gameplan, the Pros and Cons

Split Pushing is all about getting Turret Plates, Turrets themselves, and then snowballing. The mindset behind a split pusher amplifies the islandy nature of Top Lane and pushes you to carve a path to victory by outplaying, dominating, and counter-pressuring any plan your opponents are looking to execute across the map.

Meaning, if they're taking a Dragon, you're looking to take their top lane turrets. If they're trying to force Baron, you're making them regret leaving that Inhibitor open and alone. So, truthfully, Split pushing is all about exchange and through your pressure making the exchange uneven and in the favor of your team.

So, before we go further, let's break down the Pros and Cons of this strategy of play, and maybe that'll give you the info you need to know to see if this style is for you!

The Pros:

Your pressure becomes the pivot point of your team. As a split pusher, you generate global pressure, while your team and the enemy is dancing around Dragon, you're taking their top Inhibitor with a smile. You're always moving to execute that uneven exchange plan, and in the situation that the enemy fumbles, your team does nothing but benefit from it! Your execution opens the map up and enables your team to take and pressure even more as the game goes on.

Your CS will be ridiculous! If you're a player that enjoys hitting tab and seeing yourself Flame Horizoning your opponent, then split pushing is your style. By constantly influencing minions and sneaking Jungle camps, you're never going to be down in this strategy. And the surest and easiest way to build a lead in League is to CS efficiently.

The Cons:

Playing well is an absolute must. You can't slack or slip with this strategy of play. Split pushing effectively starts with going even or winning your lane, and that requires good trading, wave manipulation, and map awareness. True split push Champions are able to solo-climb their way back into games, so if you fall off from your own mistakes, you're a wet noodle and weakness to your team.

Split pushing exposes you to pressure and ganks. A large portion of your time splitting is going to but up against the enemy turrets and deep in the enemy's side of the map. In this area, you're heavily exposed to ganks and collapses. If you aren't warding or watching your minimap and are just mindlessly pushing, you're literally asking to lose the game.

Split pushing every game isn't effective. Regardless of how well you manage your waves, how well you trade, or hard you dominate your lane, there are going to be some games that splitting isn't going to be effective in. We'll break down these types of games later in the guide, but this isn't an end-all-be-all strategy and you must keep yourself flexible in playstyle from game to game.

With all that said, let's break it down and get into things!

2. Pregame and Itemization

The first tip here is obvious, but don't queue up on a Champion you're unfamiliar with. Yes, Nasus or Tryndamere might be easily executed, but until you've put a couple of normal games under your belt, even on easy Champions you're going to make yourself a liability. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your Champions takes time and exposure, so always invest in your Champions for better outcomes.

Now, with your Champions primed and the draft underway, consider your matchup against the two people you'll be seeing the most as a split pusher: the enemy Top and Jungle. Your exposure to these guys will be higher than Mid or Bot Lane's, so you'll want to outfit yourself with the tools to counter and expose their gameplans. This first starts with your Summoner Spell choice. Naturally, you'll always take Flash, but the choice then boils down to Ignite, Teleport, or Ghost.

Ignite is a more selfish selection as it alone generates dueling pressure. Any trade that you take 1-on-1 will always be in your favor thanks to this spell (assuming the enemy took TP) and your potential to kill and snowball increases with it. The downside to its selection comes when you're not snowballing and are having a rougher time in lane. Say your lane-focused Champion pick was countered by a stronger Early-To-Mid Champion, or you're falling off against a Tank matchup who's played it safe until he's itemized against you. If Ignite didn't net you kills early, it's proving itself to be a waste of a spell. With that said, I only suggest its selection if you're fully confident in your lane phase abilities.

Teleport is the quintessential Summoner Spell Selection as it allows Top Laners to not miss out on big waves of gold and EXP, capitalize on the leads they create by allowing for quick push-to-purchase plays, and allows them to stay relevant for teamfights while still being across the map. Taking Teleport also pushes you to learn the true limits of your Champions since you won't be relying on Ignite's burst to carry you through poor trades. So, Teleport should be your default option in most cases. Keep in mind though, Teleport can be interrupted. So, if you're looking to join a fight or make a cheesy escape, be sure to do so away from your opponents if they provide any sort of displacement.

Ghost is an option taken by a few high snowball and rundown style Champions. It provides its user not only with the added mobility by allowing them to ignore units, but it also boosts the user's movement speed for the duration making them quite slippery. You'll typically find this spell being utilized by the likes of Darius, Singed, or Tryndamere as they're champions that benefit from these effects the most.

Alright, we've got our comfort pick, we've got our Spells, let's check our runes!

U.GG might provide you with the "best" cookie-cutter Keystone + Rune combos, but we're looking to stay adaptive. As a split pusher, you'll want to have your focus on your lane opponent and the enemy Jungler. These two are going to be who you see the most throughout the game, while the other three enemies will fall to the wayside. So, while Legend: Alacrity might be suggested to boost up your turret taking potential, Legend: Tenacity might benefit you more if you're going up against a Top-JG Duo with hard crowd-control. Aftershock and Bone Plating might help you with your all-in potential, but if you're going up against an opponent that can poke off the Bone Plating and dash around your Aftershock proc, are you really getting the most from your rune selection? Always consider your matchups! Mindlessly following preset pages might be 'fine' but you want to be 'better' to win!

Keeping that in mind, we'll want to itemize the same way. If our opponents pack hard CC, Mercury Treads is going to help us before we get Legend: Tenacity up and running. If we're against a Vlad or Fiora, Executioner's or Bramble Vest will go along way in stifling their sustain and trade potential against us. But, if we're smashing our lane opponent and the enemy Jungler's popping off, we're going to want to prioritize our items against them. We may be matching a Jayce, but if his buddy Elise is frequently visiting us, MR is going to be more beneficial that stacking more and more armor. Always keep your build adaptable.

3. How & When to Split Push and the Advantages it Creates

So, you’ve gotten into the game, you’ve done well to smash your opponent. Through proper itemization, you’ve created an advantage that could net you successful 1v2s should the enemy Jungler come to stifle your pressure. You're looking great! But you may be asking, do I just keep mindlessly shoving my opponent in and look to outplay if more than two come? No. You'll need to be looking to coordinate your pressure with your teammates and the map objective spawn timers. So, let's unpack that a bit.

As said, key opportunities to exert your pressure are when objectives are spawning, like Dragon or Baron, or whenever your team is grouped as a 4 to siege a lane. In these instances, you’ll want to be in the lane that is farthest away from the action. So, if the Dragon is spawning and your team is moving to it, you’ll want to be Top. If it’s Baron, you’ll want to be Bot. In any other situation, you’ll mirror your team’s movements whenever they group.

As you push, keep in mind the position of your allies and what objective they're taking. If they're claiming a neutral point, Dragon or Baron, you're going to want to hard shove your wave. The combined pressure of you and your minions are going to force the enemy to make the choice of sending someone to respond to you or to try and force the fight against your team while you take their side-lane.

If your team is sieging turrets in lane, again, mirror the opposite side of the map and do your best to have your wave match the pace of your team's. Having the waves crash together at the same time again creates a situation where your opponents are forced to make a choice. Either they respond to you, or they respond to your team and either way you're typically walking away for the better.

How your opponents match you is what is really important. True split pushers favor 1-vs-1 situations heavily, and their kits are often designed to oppress and outplay Champions that match them. So, if your opponents are responding by only sending one person, then look to be aggressive by pushing the wave harder, trading aggressively, and poking heavily. If you've played your lane well, your opponents will be forced to send another person to respond to your pressure (typically their Jungler), and this will create a numbers advantage for your team to capitalize on.

But with all that said...

When To Stop Splitting

Split pushing is a powerful strategy that can net you plenty of wins, but as mentioned, it has its weaknesses and there are going to be games where your efforts are simply better left grouping and playing with your team. So, what are the situations where splitting would be a poor option?

When Your Team Can't Effectively 4v5

If your team is behind, and your allies are dying at the drop of a hat, you cannot split. Even if you feel useless in a teamfight situation, your body and influence does more to deter your enemies that it does off in a side-lane. You want to stifle any snowball potential that you can, and that requires you to be present and accounted for in 5-v-5 situations.

If Your Team Isn't Built To Disengage

If your allies have drafted a team that's all about going forward, then they're not going to be able to successfully disengage whenever your opponents respond to the numbers advantage you create for them by split pushing.

4. When and How to Group

Now you're asking yourself, "But how do I go about grouping? If I'm playing a split pusher, I'm better served playing to my strengths!" And you're completely correct, playing to what your Champion is strong at will lead you to victory, but in situations like the ones mentioned above, you're going to have to adapt your gameplan. So, we're going to talk about how to adapt out gameplan through Roaming and Floating between the lanes!

Roaming is simple. After you've pushed your allied minions into enemy territory, you move from the side-lane and towards your allies to participate in teamfights. Floating is hovering between the lanes (aka in the Jungle) where you're looking to execute a flank or pick off an enemy in transition between the lane you're moving to and the wave you just pushed.

Above, on the poorly colored map of Summoner's Rift, you'll see I poorly scribbled in a few areas of each lane. The scribbles are colored according to the amount of threat you're under when farming or pushing from these positions. That segmented/zoned nature of the map is a good visualization to have in mind when Split Pushing and looking to roam back to your team. (Naturally under the assumption you're Blue Side).

The green scribbles here represent relative safety and areas that you can collect your waves to start them pushing back out. Here you should find yourself uncontested. The Yellow scribbles are neutral zones. When CS-ing and pushing from this area you can expect to contest wave influence against the enemy matching as well as ganks. The red scribbles are the pushing/high threat zones. When looking to roam back to your team, you'll want your minions to be as deep in this zone as you can make them before you look to move away from the lane. Keep in mind, lingering in this area is dangerous and exposes you to a key con of split pushing, getting ganked. And should you be in this area as say a Maokai or Sion, a Champion with generally low mobility and damage output that could survive getting ganked, you're probably asking to die being pushed up and away from your team this far.

The amount of pressure you exert with your Champion in not ideal split pushing conditions is based entirely off of your Champion selection. As mentioned, Maokai doesn't provide the same side-lane pressure as Tryndamere, and conversely Tryndamere doesn't provide the same teamfight presence as Maokai. And though you may need to adapt your strategy to cope with the strength of your team, play effectively and to the strengths of your Champion as best you can. Mages/Fighters might benefit more from Floating rather than hard grouping. While Tanks or Supportive laners are going to want to push and immediately move to their teams for the most impact.

Finally, if you’re THE strongest member on your team, you’re going to want to be around to apply your influence in a teamfight situation. Be you a Bruiser, Tank, or Mage, your lead is better served snowballing your teammates rather than being selfishly held to a side-lane.

5. Suggested Champions

As mentioned, there are some Champions that just split push better than others. And though all Champions can split to some degree, if you’re looking to focus this strategy to win, you’ll want the best tool for the job in your hands. So, with that said, here are some suggestions that perfect for the job!

Tryndamere

Trynd is the quintessential split pushing Champion. He comes packaged with what every split pusher needs to succeed: a dash, sustain, easy to execute kit, high snowball ability. His kit isn't designed to succeed in teamfights without a lead so he promotes players that manage waves, time their split pressure, and flank.

Jax

Jax comes packaged with the same bits that Tryndamere does, but he packs a little bit of AP and a bit more tankiness into his kit. Jax’s hybrid damage output makes him flexible in the draft and he can flex into the Jungle much better than Tryndamere can.

Fiora

Though Fiora is considered easy to execute, there’s a lot more skill expression in her kit in comparison to Jax or Tryndamere. If you enjoy the mini-game of her passive and like to make flashy outplays that don’t just consist of right-click-to-death, Fiora might just be your flavor.

Nasus

Susan plays far more passively than the other picks mentioned here, but he scales just as hard as Tryndamere and Jax while also having more flexible build paths and runes to adapt to his lane. Viable Keystones on Nasus include: Conquerer, Grasp, and Unsealed Spellbook. And with recent buffs to his Wither, he can work well in coordination with aggressively early game Junglers.

Shen

Shen might not possess the same damage output as the previous picks, but he makes up for it in his ability to influence the map and snowball his team while still applying great split push pressure. Shen’s ultimate, Stand United, is invaluable in quickly hopping the map to change the tide of a fight. And when packaged with it and TP, he can be back and forward between a fight and lane faster than light!

6. The TL;DR

You should now have a pretty good idea of how to execute a split push strategy. But, to give you’ll a quick reference, we’ll make a short TL;DR!

• Practice and Pick a Champion that can split push well
• Itemize against the enemy Top & Jungler. Give preference towards the one that’s more lethal to you.
• Mirror the biggest objective on the map / Where your team is pressuring
• Keep your wave in sync with the lanes your team
• Hard push whenever your team is looking to take a neutral objective
• Roam and fight with your team if you’re their strongest asset or if the enemy won't allow you to split

Copy that, and toss it on a sticky note and look at it over the course of a game and you’ll always have a quick reference of what you should be doing and looking for over the course of the game!

I hope this helped you guys learn how to better execute your Split Push, and may these pointers serve your Solo-Queue climb well!