Split pushing is one of the most basic strategies in League of Legends, but it's actually fairly difficult to pull of in a solo queue environment. With a general lack of communication combined with players wanting games to culminate in 5 on 5 teamfights, trying to split push is a difficult strategy despite its simplicity. However, it can be effective for the same reasons that it is hard to implement - a 4-1 split push can take advantage of a team's lack of communication to take advantages across the map.

What's in a Split Push

Split pushing is a fairly misunderstood concept. For every successful split push, there is a game where a top laner AFK farms in the top lane for thirty minute while his team is destroyed. The goal of any split push should be to give your team a positional advantage, whether they're pushing a lane or attempting to control an objective. In a split push scenario, your intention should be to give your opponents a choice between two options that are worse than the options would have been if you had not chosen to split push.

In the dedicated 4-1 split push team composition, where one player remains apart from the team while the four contest objectives, it's important that the four man pod has a plan on how to deal with short-handed teamfights. As such, it's important to mention your plan to split push before the end of champion select so your team is able to build around your plans. A traditional 4-1 split push pushes the side lanes, giving the 1 the ability to react to an attempted collapse. A 3-1-1 push often has the main push in the middle, while the duelists shove the side lanes.

There are a few ways a team can do this - they could choose champions like Sivir, Janna and Braum that give them a strong disengage, or they could rely on poke champions like Nidalee, Azir, and Ezrael that allow them to contest objectives safely from range. They can even go with a lock-down heavy team that delays at objectives and attempts to collapse on the enemy when they rotate to try to and stop the split push.

It's also important to note that while top laners are the most common split pushers, they're not at all the only role that can split push. Strong duelists can split push from whatever position they're from, and Zed and Vayne make particularly strong split pushers. Again, it's important to note your intentions early on in the game so that your team can make up for the lack of burst damage or consistent objective damage, in teamfights.

Sivir also makes a good choice for a split pushing AD Carry, as she shoves lanes incredibly quickly and her ultimate allows her to quickly escape when the enemy collapses on her.

When to Split Push

As important as why you are split pushing is when you decide to go off into another lane. While you might want to go into another lane, if you're doing it when your inhibitors are being shoved you're only going to hurt your team. So when should you split push?

When your team is setting up around Dragon or Baron. Split pushing is one of the best distractions you can do for your team when they're taking a river objective. The importance of winning the fights around the Dragon/Baron pits means that the enemy team will be faced with the choice on hard contesting the objective (costing them a turret or allowing you to flank with Teleport) or retreating to stop you (costing them the objective).

This doesn't necessarily mean you should "start pushing" once they start Dragon - in fact, if you wait that long you won't be threatening their turret when they have to make the decision. Instead show up in top lane and start shoving as your team sets up ward coverage. You might ensure a 4v4 during the hard contest by drawing one of the enemies to you before they know of your team's plan.

When your opponents are taking an outer or inner turret. When the enemy groups up to force down a turret, you have the opportunity to equalize the gold across the map by taking one of their own structures. This gives the enemy the choice between easing the pressure of the siege on your team or allowing you to even the gold.

Special care should be taken when pushing here though. If you are your team's sole source of wave clear, you obviously can't go off on a solo adventure. Similarly, if the enemy team is two to three levels up you might need the remain with your team to help deter the tower dive. Finally, this gets much more dangerous when the enemy is pushing on your inhibitor turrets, as your split push might be interpreted as an invitation to race.

When your team is sieging a turret. When the roles are reversed, split pushing with a 4-1 or a 3-1-1 stretches the enemy team across the map allowing your team to whittle down turrets without facing the entirety enemy team's wave clear. As long as you have good vision on the enemy team during the siege, the split pushers should be able to freely push without being preoccupied by the worry the entire team is going to show up in their lane.

If you choose to split push while your team is sieging - picking which lane you siege determines how you react to a team-fight or tower dive. If you pick a near lane, you should rotate as quickly as possible to equalize the numbers. If you pick the far lane, however, you're much less likely to arrive in time to help your team.

In a 4-1 split push, placing a ward behind the gates on the base wall will protect your solo laner considerably and allow you to instantly react to the enemy's decision.

When the enemy team has an open inhibitor. An open inhibitor opens the map for your team. It forces the enemy team to focus their efforts on clearing super minion enhanced waves, and allows your team to clean up the jungle. However, the enemy team might attempt to contest a fifth Dragon or baron (knowing it to be their death knell). The super minion shove gives you two options when going off to force them away from your team.

Shoving with the super minions means that you give the enemy team a choice between retreating to stop you or losing the game. However, pushing another lane at the same time as the super minions close in on the nexus can make the situation even worse for the enemy team. In this case, their "best situation" is losing another inhibitor and probably allowing your team to take the objective while one of them stops the super minions from taking their nexus.

Next time we'll look at how to manage minion waves when leaving a lane you were just in as well as how to build up waves to your advantage.

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