There are many different ways to play League of Legends. You can be a big beefy Tank main, soaking damage for your team through intense teamfights. You could be a bloodthirsty Assassin, out to ruin the lives of every ADC on your screen. Or you could take the Mage and lockdown your opponents with massive CC. All are viable routes. But today, we’re focusing on a route that many players bemoan as ‘uninteractive’. That’s right, we’re talking about split pushing! And naturally, we’ll be unpacking which Champions do it best!

What is Split Pushing?

Split Pushing is a macro-focused strategy where you focus on taking turrets and keeping constant pressure on the enemy side lanes. Ideally, you pressure the opposite side of the map where everyone else is located. So, if the enemy team is Bot, you’re hard pushing Top Lane, or vice versa. The goal is to force a response from your opponents, or ideally, simply take their turrets and base for free since they’ve chosen to leave you ignored. Either way, it’s a strategy that forces your opponents to make a decision which can cost them one way or the other, and it’s one that takes quite a bit of finesse and awareness to pull off. So, let’s unpack what it takes to make Split Pushing work.

How To Split Push Effectively

Split Pushing is inherently dangerous for the Split Pusher since you’re often playing deep on the enemy’s side of the map. But the Champions that do it best come with skills that make either clearing waves or taking turrets easy, which makes this strategy easier. And in the worst case, most Split-Pushers are quite effective in the 1v1 department, able to skillfully defeat most opponents that respond to them, and maybe even outplay multiple opponents (within reason) since most split pushers have really impactful defensive cooldowns.

But overall, we Split Push effectively by being aware of what’s happening on the map. As mentioned before, the strategy involves pressuring the opposite side of the map where the action is. So, when you notice your opponents committing to a teamfight, pick, or objective that’s far away from you, you’re hard pushing waves and hammering damage onto their turrets on the opposite side. Naturally, you gain this information by keeping your eyes pinned on the mini-map and having good ward coverage between yourself and the rest of the map. This is a key set-up goal for you before you begin hard-pushing because you want to be able to safely pressure the lane, or 1v1 whoever comes to respond to you directly. If you receive more than one or two opponents coming your way, you should back off if you’re not strong enough to outplay, and ideally, this will create an opportunity for your team to make a play elsewhere.

If you’ve dominated your lane phase and can outplay whoever responds to you or even draw pressure from multiple people, you can communicate with your team to take certain objectives while you make yourself ‘vulnerable’ away from them. Your existence as a Split Pusher becomes a pivot-point in the game as you’re, essentially, a game-long Rift Herald constantly marching down lanes. So, through Map Awareness and Communication with your team, you can choke out any opportunity that your opponents might have to make plays through your unrelenting pressure.

Which Champions Do It Best

There’s a host of Champions that Split Push quite effectively, and a lot of them come from the Top Lane, League’s premiere 1v1 destination. Split Pushers value sidelines like Top since they are designed to fit within the longer lane since they love fighting in extended situations. Some of the best Split Pushing Champions come from the Duelist Class because of this. But, there are also a few Juggernauts and Mages that shine in the Split Pushing game as well. So, without further ado, let’s get into the Champion picks.

Yorick, Shepherd of Souls

There are two Champions we’ll mention on our list that are considered “One Trick” picks and Yorick is one of them. Yorick’s entire design focuses on Split Pushing, and he brings very little to his team in any other regard which is why he’s often considered weaker than most Champions within the Split Pushing category. I mean, even Fiora has the ability to provide a team impacting heal after all and she’s a terrible teamfighter.

Yorick's ability to split like a god comes from his Q and Ultimate. Yorick’s Q is a powerful auto-attack buff that also resets his autos. This allows for auto-Q damage against turrets, and when paired with a rune like Demolish, can make taking turrets a breeze. But, the kicker to Yorick is his Ultimate, Eulogy of the Isles.

Yorick’s ult spawns the Maiden of the Mists, which basically acts as a 6th man on your team. This creates some fun situations where you can have Maiden pressuring one lane and Yorick pressuring the other. Or, Yorick can have Maiden pressure the furthest lane from a fight while he joins a teamfight. Combine the auto-reset with a perma-splitting 6th man of the team, and this is why Yorick cements his way into the top tier split pushing Champions.

Singed, the Mad Chemist

Singed comes in after Yorick as our other ‘One-Trick’ pick, and that’s because it’s been proven the more you play Singed, the worse you get at every other Champion in the game because he handles the game so differently than everyone else. To play Singed, you literally have to forget how to play League of Legends normally because Singed’s Split Pushing strategy is about a concept called ‘Proxy Farming’.

Proxy Farming is where you farm behind an enemy’s turret preventing the enemy minions from protecting their turret. This brings your minions to constantly crash against the opposing turret to damage it unless your lane opponent tanks your minions to prevent the pressure. Singed is particularly good at this strategy since he can wave clear without having to be in or on the way, his poison trail allows him to kite out the minion waves to constantly maintain his health, and when he reaches 6, he’s offered move speed and regen to help this strategy even more.

Should your opponent choose to tank the waves to prevent the turret damage, if they’re a Champion that lacks sustain, then they’ve made themselves a vulnerable dive target for Singed and his Jungler. Or if they’ve chosen to disobey League’s number one rule of “Don’t Chase Singed” then they’re giving up pressure on the turret but also gold and experience which will perpetually keep Singed ahead. Proxy Farming takes time and skill to master, but if you can get it down, Singed is one of the best Split Pushers in the game due to his ability to constantly apply tower pressure through the strategy.

Trundle, the Troll King

Trundle is a great split pushing Champion since he packs three things that Split Pushers desire most. First, his Q allows him to quickly take turrets by being quite like Yorick Q. When paired with Demolish, Trundle obliterates turret health.

Second, he comes with his own attack-speed and move-speed steroid in his W. This not only makes turret taking faster for Trundle, but he can also drop this to escape enemy ganks. And when paired with his signature E, Pillar of Ice, then he’s quite capable of avoiding most attempts.

The piece de resistance though is Trundle’s ultimate, Subjugate. Whenever Trundle is genuinely getting ganked, he can ult the tankiest target against him and steal away their stats for himself. He gains his targets Hp, Armor, and MR during the duration of his 4 second ult and DOUBLES the values, making him a sponge for enemy damage. This basically makes Trundle the epitome of the, “Call an ambulance, but not for me!” meme as he can easily win 1v2s with a well targeted ultimate.

Tryndamere, the Barbarian King

We end our list with the quintessential Split Push King of League of Legends, Tryndamere. Tryndamere is a notorious Mid to Low ELO stomp pick, but when one has his greatest strategy of Split Pushing down, you can ascend to High ELO heights with this pick.

Tryndamere pre-6 levels are mildly lackluster. While being notorious for having the ability to level 1 cheese with the best like Garen and Darius, Tryndamere’s cheese relies on some decent RNG coming off his passive, Battle Fury, which increases his Crit Strike Chance. If Tryndamere can land one or multiple crits on a target through a cheese or good duel, then we’re singing a different tune.

If Tryndamere holds a health advantage over you, you’re constantly under pressure of being 1v1’d since he can close the distance between you and him easily with his Spinning Slash. Even more so if you’re foolish enough to turn your back to him where his Mocking Shout can slow you down. Once Tryndamere is on top of you, he just whacks away at your HP until you're dead and then proceeds to do the same to your Minions and Turret until they’re both gone.

At level 6, all of this is amplified since Tryndamere’s ultimate, Undying Rage, makes him unable to die for 5 seconds. This means if you’re not managing your HP and keeping your waves in a pristine position, he’s just going to run you down and even chase you under turret to cash in on you. Equally so, this makes ganking Tryndamere risky business if you or your Jungler aren’t able to disrupt and kite Tryndamere out. Undying Rage combined with his passive crit makes Tryndamere a high risk low reward gank target that can really take over the game with one or two items in his pocket. If he gets off the ground and going, say goodbye to your side-lanes.

Closing Out

There you have it folks! The best split pushers in the League and why they do it best! Give these picks a try and I’m sure not only will your understanding of the strategy improve, but you’ll also find a new favorite Champion from them! And be sure to check out our Split Pushing 101 Guide here on the site if you’re wanting a more in-depth look at the strategy. We even package some extra picks in there if you didn’t have fun with what we listed above!