A disengage style is effectively when an individual or team strategically positions defensively in order to negate or capitalize on an enemy playing aggressive. This in turn allows the ones playing this style to apply pressure to objectives without having to commit many resources, resulting in an efficient approach to taking down an enemy nexus. From a defensive position, players are either able to retreat from a fight altogether, or capitalize on an enemy trying to commit to a fight. This same concept can also be applied to one-on-one situations in lane, where the player hangs back and waits for their opponent to try to make an aggressive move before capitalizing on it. In this piece we are going to take a look at champions and summoner spells that help this playstyle, how to disengage, and how to re-engage.

Champions and Summoner Spells

A general rule of thumb when it comes to champions and their utility is that moves that are useful for following up on a hard engage are also good on the re-engage, with a good portion of these champions also being effective on the disengage altogether. Below are some examples of champions that fall under this category;

It is worth remembering that when we talk about "disengage style" champions, they are simply champions that can fulfil the disengage style role better than others. In some way or another, any champion can be played in any type of style, but certain champions will always be objectively better than others at it or will have a harder time playing it unless they are surrounded by other champions that play that role. As some examples, champions such as Wukong or Kennen can re-engage really well if their team decides to do a classic 'turn 'n' burn', but would require more help from speed-ups or crowd control to help them get out of a situation in a pinch. Due to the nature of this role, you will notice that it is mostly the utility mages that are capable of leading in this type of playstyle. Supports can run Exhaust while Marksmen run Heal, while it is viable for mid laners to run Exhaust, Heal, Barrier, Cleanse or Ghost on top of their Flash depending on the context.

Heal - A good all-around ability, helps kiting in a pinch but also can bait an enemy into committing to you when you have more available health than they think you do.
Barrier - Good in certain matchups where you will find yourself facing a lot of high burst.
Exhaust - Especially good against assassins in lane, but also a solid pick if they have more than one diver trying to get into your backline. (Think Irelia, Jax, Udyr, etc)
Cleanse - Relatively straightforward, Cleanse is good in certain matchups with hard crowd control, more notably when both the enemy laner and jungler have some form of it (Such as Elise+Syndra, Maokai+Lissandra). Marksmen can take this too depending on their lane matchups and enemy compositions as well, though you will most likely see teams opting to have the marksmen take heal and build a quicksilver sash while relying on their team to help peel for them.
Ghost - While sacrificing a more traditional combat summoner spell for lane, Ghost becomes especially useful come mid-late game in teamfights. Syndra, Anivia, Cassiopeia, Viktor, Varus and Twisted Fate are examples of mid laners that can use ghost to take full advantage of their kiting nature.

Splitpushing

If we evaluate when it it is applicable to run a defensive playstyle, there are a couple of core compositions that come to mind. The first one is a composition tailored for splitpushing, while the other one is composed for grouping as 5 and trying to contest towers without much emphasis on teamfighting. If you are running a splitpush composition, then traditionally you will have your mid laner, marksman and support on a disengage-styled champion and grouping up against the enemy team while either the top laner or jungler splitpushes. The idea here is to just simply hold off and negate your opponent's attempts to take an objective (namely a tower), with light poke and waveclear while your splitpusher tries to take objectives and pressure from their team. This type of team composition should be able to disengage a 4v5 under tower. Below are a couple examples of teams that can run this strategy (Top - Jungle - Mid - AD - Support);

- Splitpush Comp 1

With our first splitpush composition, Jax would be the designated splitpusher while the other 4 stay together to either protect a tower or pressure one themselves. If a teamfight were to break out, the ultimates of everyone minus Jax would be enough to keep most enemies at bay, or even grab some kills depending on the execution and the game's context. A Jax Teleport or flank can also turn a fight around, however the main goal is simply to use any sort of combination of disengage to ensure that your opponents can't take objectives while your own splitpush pressure is being exerted.

- Splitpush Comp 2

In this composition, Irelia would be the splitpusher while the backline of Karma-Caitlyn-Morgana would utilize their shields and waveclear, with Zac being a beefy front liner that can disrupt potential enemy dives. Zac's main purpose in this composition is to just be the tanky frontline, and as such can be swapped out for most tanks, as long as they can serve as a wall to help out their squishy backline. Morgana can be swapped out for Alistar if more tankiness or sustain is required.

Re-Engaging

Now touching on re-engaging, the idea is typically to play defensive until the enemy steps forward enough to the point where they can be caught out and turn the fight back in your favour. You will have to play a little less defensive and play up a little bit further, otherwise your enemy won't want to bite. The trick here in utilizing this, whether you're in a 5v5 or 1v1 scenario, is that most enemies can move in a fairly predictable manner if they want to play aggressive. It comes to recognizing that an enemy has to stand in a certain position while in range of you so that they can deal damage. This is the part where you catch them out and return fire. However when it is a teamfight, you will notice that most teams group up without realizing it when they are going to follow up on an engage, since they're focusing a lot of attention on the core of the fight. This makes it fairly easy to line up multiple hard crowd controls in your favour to catch the enemy out and re-engage.

- Re-engage Comp 1

This team composition is a great composition to theorycraft with. While they can also utilize a Hecarim splitpush and rely on Poppy and Janna ultimates to disengage, this composition can really pull out the ol' bait-and-switch. In a scenario where someone tries to disengage on this team, Lux/Janna/Jhin should be able to buy some time and slow people down while Hecarim and Poppy jump in themselves. Once the front line has jumped in, Jhin's ultimate can follow up from a safe distance with Janna protecting him, while Lux does what she can to provide help for anyone whom needs it, whether it's the front line for more shields and damage, or Jhin and Janna for shields and crowd control.

- Re-engage Comp 2

This team composition, while not able to splitpush as effectively, can certainly catch out any team naive enough to pick a 5v5 with them. A Zyra E is capable of catching multiple people out while Orianna, Wukong and Malphite can all punish any team for overstepping. Wukong especially surprises a lot of enemies with his clone into knocking up multiple people when coming out of stealth, while professional teams have utilized both Orianna (LMQ) and Malphite (Cloud 9) to wait for the enemy group while trying to follow up, just to catch them out in a 3-man ultimate. Since this type of teamcomp is higher in damage, squishier and has less shields, it helps that that Ezreal is a self-sufficient champion that can peel and land Iceborn Gauntlet-inducing slows to make up for the lack of hard peel this team has.

Reference Videos;

LMQ Orianna vs. XDG (Season 4 NA LCS Promotion Tournament) - https://youtu.be/PLx1utd7YpI?t=23m4s
C9 Malphite vs. TL (Season 6 NA LCS Spring Regular Season) - https://youtu.be/pmchppIRUv4?t=29m56s

Like any other playstyle in the game, the disengage playstyle requires its own areas of calculations and composure, much like a goaltender in a hockey or soccer game. It can be done by any champion or team composition but always remember that some will work better than others. The name of the game when it comes to this passive playstyle is to emphasize your focus on objectives, backing out once an enemy goes towards you, and re-engaging depending on the context. Don't be afraid to give it a whirl and show your enemies to not overstep their boundaries with you.

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