Split pushing - it’s a tough League of Legends concept to grasp, due to how easily it can go wrong and get you killed. Pulled off well, however, it is extremely frustrating to play against and hard to stop. This guide will help explain what split pushing is, how to effectively pull it off, and what each position in the game can do to enable split pushing - and yes, every position can help in some way or another!

What Is Split Pushing, and How Can I Effectively Use It?

Split pushing is something you generally want to opt into once your team destroys the first tower on the map. The point of split pushing is two things - first, you want to rotate a certain lane into a different spot on the map where they can have a high amount of impact, and two, you want to put your strong solo laners in a spot where they have more room to play off of.

For split pushing specifically, it depends on the champion you are playing and the matchups you have on your lane in the split push that will affect where you want to put your split pushers. Sometimes you can even have your ADC go into the side lane and keep your mid laner in the mid lane if it is more effective. If your mid laner is playing Twisted Fate, for example, he is a champion that can go and split push and do okay, but he has more access to the map with his ultimate if he is in middle lane since he can reachboth sides of the map, but it also depends on what ADC you have on your team.

Someone like Lucian or Ezreal can easily go into side lane and be safe due to their range and mobility, but if you have a Jinx or Aphelios as your ADC, you may be better keeping them mid even if you have someone with a global like Galio or Twisted Fate because they need the shorter lane in mid lane in order to avoid being ganked or dove if they push past the halfway point in lane.

Now that you’re thinking about your split pushing matchups and have put yourself into a good split pushing matchup, you now have to think about what the state of the game is and how that can affect how you will play the splitpush. If you are playing someone like Irelia or Tryndamere and the enemy has their outer tower destroyed, it means you have a lot more space to chase someone down, which can be a great benefit to you. As a result, you can feel more confident in being able to push up that far and chase for kills. If you’re playing someone like Orianna however, you may want the waves to be a lot closer to your tower and even try to freeze out your lane so that you can continue to safely farm while your team makes plays elsewhere.

When split pushing and looking to pressure or kill the enemy split pusher, you should always be thinking about the enemy’s response to your plays. Do they have a Teleport up on their other split pusher? Is their jungler on their side of the map? Can their team rotate in time to help their teammate out before you can kill them? Is your team able to back you up on your play? This isn’t everything as there will be more explained under each individual role, but these are important questions you need to figure out the answer for. Split push plays need to be incredibly calculated, as while effective split pushing can be devastating for the enemy team, sloppy or poorly executed split pushing can be disastrous for your own team.

Now that a few general concepts have been established, let’s take a bit of a deeper dive into how each lane/role can affect/improve split push pressure.

Top/Mid

Top lane is oftentimes one of the roles that is split pushing, since unlike mid lane, a majority of top lane champions are very good at split pushing. First and foremost, as a top laner, you should understand what your champion can do in a split push. If you’re a carry laner like Jayce, Camille, or Wukong, you probably want to look to pressure the map and fight the enemy split pusher if you are strong enough to do so. If you’re something like a Sion or Ornn,you are most likely looking to just neutralize the enemy split pusher and clear waves until you need to group up with your team.

Once you have established that, you should ask your team to set up wards accordingly based on how you want to play the split push. If you have the advantage and can kill the enemy split pusher, you should tell your team to set up wards on your side of the map. The reason for this is that you will be able to spot the enemy out if they try to rotate to help their split pusher, and if they aren’t showing on the vision you put down on the enemy jungle, it most likely means that they’re on the other side of the map; that is the go signal for you to try and fight/pressure/kill the enemy split pusher. Sometimes you will also have to wait for your team to create pressure on other parts of the map before you can start fighting your opponent, which will make your life much easier since now the opponents are split between responding to your kill threat or your teammates pressure, and that can lead to easily punishable mistakes if played properly.

Mid lane has a few shared concepts from above if you are an assassin, fighter, or marksman, but for control mages split pushing is a bit more difficult. Most top laners are safe to some extent on pushing up in a split push, but control mages do not possess high mobility or the tankiness that most top laners have. As a result, you should look for two things if you are a low mobility control mage - either you look to keep yourself mid and have your support and ADC rotate to the lane where the Baron/Rift or Dragon are alive/about to spawn, or you put yourself in a lane where you have an outer tower to hide under. The former is preferable, but sometimes people will be difficult and force you to go into a side lane, in which case the latter is necessary to pull off.

You cannot recklessly push up in a side lane as a control mage because you can be very easily punished, and so having a tower to protect you is something you can exploit to make the enemy split pusher have a tough time creating pressure. Because you are so close to your tower, it means you are close to your side of the jungle, so you can easily rotate towards plays that the enemy may try to make in your jungle.

In all, as either a top or mid laner, it’s your job to set yourself up in a favorable split pushing matchup, play off your team’s map pressure well, and ask your team to help set you up so that you can pressure more in the split push, whether that be through vision coverage or rotations to your lane.

Jungle

Jungle is an interesting role when talking about split pushing because jungle can oftentimes just have as much impact, if not more, than the actual split pusher on the side lane. Playing off of split pushing is something that I see not many junglers do, but it is quite effective if pulled off well. There are a few things you want to make sure of, however, when making plays on the enemy split pusher as a jungler.

First and foremost, you want to make sure that whatever you get on the split push is worth the trade you are making on the opposite side of the map. If the drake count is 1-1 for example, it can be worth making play on the top side of the map if you can get a kill, a tower, and/or a Rift Herald in exchange for your play, because the short term gains can snowball into a much quicker curve than a few extra stats from getting a single dragon can give. If Baron is up and you can identify that the enemy team cannot trade Baron before your team can respond to stop/kill them, you can even make plays away from Baron and onto the enemy in a split push that can decide entire games. No matter what, you have to make sure that these trades are working - if you kill a split pusher but lose multiple towers or a Baron in exchange for one kill and an outer tower, that isn’t worth it at all even though you got the pick.

It’s also worth having a mindset of viewing split pushing like you would normal laning, in that you can also do things like counter gank a gank attempt that the enemy might try to make on your split pusher. You can also clear vision out of the enemy jungle/your own jungle to increase split push pressure and make the enemy more nervous to play aggressive in a split push, as well as potentially pull people to a certain side of the map. This allows your laners on the other side of the map to then create more pressure and make their own plays that punish bad map movement. Additionally, you want to work with your support to help secure vision for your split pusher, so that similar to how a split pusher makes decisions on when to pressure, you can assist with that pressure based on your vision and either respond to the enemy plays, or make proactive trade plays on the other side of the map.

ADC/Support

ADC tends to be the odd one out in split pushing, in that you tend to just sit back and either safely collect waves or pressure along with your split pushers. You don’t have too much autonomy when it comes to how to help your split pushers, and you mostly want to play off your jungler and support when making plays. Still, you aren’t completely at the whims of your team’s decisions/actions, as your impact comes from being able to stay on the map without dying. It might seem like an odd way to create “pressure” by avoiding death, but if you walk up to try and clear a mid wave while your support and jungle are nowhere near you and die, your split pushing pressure will instantly crumble since the enemy team is no longer threatened in mid by your presence and they can go to whatever lane they wish with little to no consequence for their actions. Ultimately, view yourself as the foundation of a house, and if that foundation fails, then the rest of the house will fall with it.

If you are a split pushing ADC like Ezreal or Lucian, most of what I said about Top/Mid will apply to you, and there isn’t much beyond that since those champions function the same in a split push.

As for support, you are one of the most important people when it comes to split pushing, and that is due to your vision control being absolutely critical for controlling how your split pushers play, as well as how you, the jungler, and the ADC work to pressure to help out your split pushers. You can help in a variety of ways, such as trading on the other side of the map if a play is being made by the enemy team on one of your split pushers, or by pressuring mid lane while both your split pushers pressure their own lane. When it comes to warding for your sides, oftentimes as a support what you want to do is help your ADC push out the mid lane first (since oftentimes the default set up is to put the bot lane in mid), and then walk with your jungler and ADC to ward up the split pushing that you wish to protect with vision so that they can play more aggressive. You want to make sure that you are able to control and keep this vision, as vision that is placed down only to be immediately cleared by the enemy team is ineffective and can bait in your teammates who think they are safer than they actually are. Similar to the ADC, you are the foundation of pressure, so make sure to avoid dying when either pushing out a lane and while going to ward, as those are the two biggest timers for the enemy team to try and look to pick you.

Conclusion

Split pushing is a core part of the game past laning phase in being able to close out games effectively, and hopefully this guide has helped put into context which each role should play in helping out split pushers or play out a split push themselves.

Best of luck on the Rift, and stay safe out there!