What Is a Team Composition?

A team composition are the five champions on one’s team, however they can also refer to the different styles that teams play. There can be predetermined team compositions with built in strategies such as dive compositions, poke compositions, teamfight compositions; the list is endless. When all five champions on a team have a similar way, they want to play the game, the game plan and approach to that game becomes much easier. Certain team compositions can counter each other, and certain champions can counter entire team compositions. Learning different team compositions is a great way to expand your game knowledge and further improve your play.

Why Play a Split Push Composition

Split push compositions are one of the more difficult team compositions to play since it requires lots of team coordination and patience to execute well. The goal of a split push composition is to spread the opponent apart and slowly take away their structures from the side lanes. Split push compositions try to avoid teamfighting unless it is for a major objective such as Dragon Soul or Baron. Split push compositions focus on their side lanes being able to win the 1v1s, escaping the enemy, creating space for the rest of your team, and taking away the enemy’s resources.

Key Components of a Split Push Composition

With split push compositions being focused on their side lanes winning, it is also important that the other three champions can safely push mid lane. The map set up of a split push composition would be one in the top lane, three in mid lane, and one in the bot lane. As for the early game, it is important for the champions that are going to be in the side lanes to not fall behind. These champions can either be scaling champions that will be strong in the side lane later or be able to create their own leads during the early game and transition them to the side lanes.

A scaling champion that can become strong in the side lane would Tryndamere and a champion that can create their own lead early and scale would be LeBlanc. As for the three champions going mid lane, you want champions that can easily disengage the enemy and still be able to siege if the enemy moves to the side lanes. Some examples of champions that fit under these criteria are Caitlyn, Karma, and Gragas.

In the next section we will be looking at an example split push composition and breaking down what each champion does for the composition.

Top: Camille, the Steel Shadow

Camille is a very strong split pusher due to her slipperiness from her E and her overall dueling power built into her kit, particularly her Passive, Q, and R. Camille scales well from the true damage on her Q2 and can stand up to most other duelists. While this is a lot of room for error on Camille in duels such as missing Q2, the W heal, or her E stun, she has lots of potential to be one of the strongest split pushers in the game. The mobility of E also can help her get to other teammates that are fighting or set up fights at objectives.

Jungle: Trundle, the Troll King

Trundle serves as a disengager in this composition all because of his E. Trundle E makes it very difficult for the enemy to get close to his allies and he can also escape with the move speed from his W. Trundle even serves as a great duelist if he is ever needed in the side lane due to his Q, W, and R. However, it would be best for the jungler to not be in the side lane since it can open objectives for the enemy.

Mid: Twisted Fate, the Card Master

Twisted Fate is someone who can create a lead early on and carry it over to the side lanes. Twisted Fate can take down towers very easily due his W and his build with Lich Bane and Rapid Firecannon. He can also help his other side lane gain a lead early, so both can control the side lanes in the late game. Twisted Fate also can join his team from far away in case they get engaged on.

Bot: Tristana, the Yordle Gunner

Tristana is someone who can shred turrets if she is left uncovered. Her long range in the late game from her Passive, as well as being able to take down turrets with her Q and E makes her very dangerous. She can also easily disengage fights from her W and R. Tristana is another champion that could be played in the mid lane and be used in a side lane to split push, but for this example she will be in the three of the 1-3-1.

Support: Bard, the Wandering Caretaker

Bard is another disengager in this team composition from their Q and R. They also can move around the map quickly from their Passive and E. The E is the main powerhouse here since it can move a whole team to assist someone in the side lane or bring someone from the sidelane over to an open area to push.

What Beats a Split Push Composition?

After understanding how a split push composition works, we now need to know what can beat a split push composition. Split push compositions are weak into heavy wave clear and enemies that can force fights. Wave clear makes it easier to move from lane to lane without needing to worry about lots of minions crashing at once. Forced fights can throw the enemy off and stagger their deaths to create a numbers advantage on the map.

We will now be looking at an example team composition that counters a split push composition, these champions will either fall under the wave clear category or the forcing fights category.

Top: Gangplank, the Saltwater Scourge

Gangplank has lots of wave clear from his E and can match the scaling of duelists due to how his kit scales with items. He can also be difficult to engage in a 1v1 because of his ability to hide under tower and use W to peel away from fights. Gangplank can also assist his team in fights with his R, while still clearing waves in the side lane. This can create an advantage for his team since while it is not a complete numbers advantage, Gangplank is still able to provide damage support from afar.

Jungle: Zac, the Secret Weapon

Zac is someone who can force a fight from a very far distance due to his E. He can create a lot of chaos in fights also with his Q and R making it harder for the enemy to disengage at times. The max rank E on Zac is surprisingly far, he can clear multiple walls and is great at engaging onto the enemies that would be sieging mid.

Mid: Ryze, the Rune Mage

Ryze can do a lot into a split push composition. He has the wave clear to make sieging difficult, he has high damage that helps him win 1v1s, and he can move from lane to lane with his R. Ryze can almost instantly one-shot massive minion waves through a simple E and Q combo. Ryze R can be used either to meet his team while they are fighting, or it can be used as an engage tool to bring someone into the enemy and either force them to run away or fight. Ryze would even serve well as a split pusher himself, however he lacks tower taking power.

Bot: Sivir, the Battle Mistress

Sivir is very similar to Ryze and serves nearly all the same purposes as him. Sivir has great wave clear from her Q and W and can engage fights with her R. Something that was noted earlier of split push compositions is that they sometimes want to look for an early lead to propel to the later stages of the game. Sivir can be tricky to catch out due to her E and R. She also scales very well as the game progresses, but her ability to force fights is not as strong as the other champions listed.

Support: Soraka, the Starchild

Soraka may seem like a strange choice since she does not fulfil the needs of high wave clear or ability to force a fight. However, she can allow her team to stay healthy to clear out waves from her W and R. Her R is also very helpful since split push compositions like to 1v1 and Soraka’s R can easily turn the tide off a fight. There are plenty of other engage set ups in this example team composition, so Soraka’s niche fulfillment can work well here.

Recap

Split push compositions can be difficult to pull off due to being focused around two members. However, they focus on a key concept of the game and this composition can help you understand not only how the composition works but give some insight of what split pushers are trying to do. I hope this guide helped improve your understanding of split push compositions and gets you closer to becoming the best player you can be!