As you probably should know, the main income for the roles of Top, Mid, and AD carry come from the minions. Killing them in haste (pushing) or letting your minions do the damage (freezing) is one of your many choices as any laner. In this article, I will discuss some of the pros and cons of pushing and being pushed, as well as situations you should push the lane and situations where you freeze or let the enemies push your lane.

Advantages and disadvantages of pushing

Pushing has great advantages. The most important advantage it gives you is that the enemy is forced to farm under their turret. Farming under the turret is an extremely difficult task even if you are a seasoned player, this will make them miss a few last hits here and there, allowing you to get a gold advantage.

Also, if the enemy is farming at turret, this means he is obligated to stay at the turret, you can take advantage of this situation by ganking a lane, helping your team do an objective, or counterjungling. If your opponent comes out to face you, they will be set behind unless they can counter your roaming with a succesful duel or teamfight. I'll explain below what pushing the lane personally means to each laner.

-Top: If you've pushed the lane to their turret, that means your opponent will be stuck at the turret for some time and you are free to counterjungle, help your team push a turret, gank a lane, or do dragon.

-Mid: Pushing is essential for mid laners, the basics of mid is that you should shove your lane andgank if you have enough power to guarantee a kill or chunk a lane hard enough so they are at adisadvantage allowing your team to do dragon. A safer way to take advantage of pushing is stealingthe enemie's wraiths. An exception to this rule is Karthus, because requiem can apply damage fromanywhere on the map to assist a gank. (That does not mean he can't gank at all!)

-AD Carry (Bot): Most commonly, you push a lane to make farming harder for your opponent, takedragon, try a turret dive gank, or a lane gank.

Lane gank 101: Where the jungler/mid lane sneaks through the brushes discreetly because the lane is pushed so the minions have no vision of the place of entrance.

Side note: You can blow all your mana and push the lane before you recall so the minions won't be pushed to your turret when you come back to lane.

Now let's discuss the disadvantages of pushing. The most important disadvantage of pushing your lane is you are very susceptible to ganks. The second disadvantage is that it is harder to harass your opponent, especially if you are melee because the turret will attack you automatically the second you damage an enemy champion. I do not think there are personalized disadvantages for pushing each lane so I will not discuss them.

Advantages and Disadvantages of being pushed

Like pushing, being pushed has its advantages as well. First, you can only be ganked by turret dives, which requrie more health, cooldowns, and risks than regular ganks. Second, you can call for ganks yourself. This allows you to get a quick lead by depriving your opponent of cs as well as getting a gold advantage associated with a kill. However, to not fall behind, you either have to be good at farming under the turret, position your minion wave so that it's just out of the turret range, or call for a gank and get a kill. Like the advantages of pushing, the advantages of being pushed are personalized by lane. I will explain it below.

-Top: Arguably the easiest lane to gank because it is 2v1 and requires a long trek back to turret. Ifyou are pushed at top lane chances are they probably have a ward somewhere. For most top laners,it is usually at the top tribush if you are blue, and at the ramp of the blue buff for purple. It's best tofollow your lane opponent when he is warding to see the exact position of the ward and to get atimer on it. Reserve a gank when the ward's timer ends or notify your team of the ward's positionand coordinate a lane gank or a through another way that won't give away vision.

-Mid: It's usually not good to be pushed at mid, it means either the other mid is en route to a dragon, a gank, stealing your jungle, or simply recalling. If you think or plan that you will be pushed, it's good to drop a ward right on mid lane (a little towards their turret) to provide vision when your minions won't be able to. If you warn your teammates about the possible danger coming, you can use that advantage to push the minions to their turret and deny your opponent cs.

-Ad Carry (Bot): Bot is the place where most wards go down, it's neccesary that you know what typeof support the other team has. You need to know how many wards he/she has bought after recalling,the most important information you would need to know to coordinate a gank, is if the supportwards both the tribush and the river. If you know if the other team's support neglected to ward oneof those spots, notify your jungler that you are pushed and there is an opening. Early Oracle's (onsupport) can be immensely positive to lane dominance if your jungler decides to take advantage ofit, however it is also risky because if it dies off your lane is now set back by 400 gold.

The disadvantages of being pushed are simple, your lane opponents are allowed to roam because you are obligated to farming the piled-up minion wave. You can also be at a disadvantage if you are forced to farm under your turret.

Situations when you should or shouldn't push the lane

Pushing your lane should be a logical choice and not just an impulse. This is what I feel a lot of players have trouble with, resisting the urge to instantly demolish a held up minion wave with abilities.

Resist the Urge!

While pushing your piled up wave might sometimes be a good idea, most of the times people just do it mindlessly. If you were zoned and desperately need farm, it might not be a good idea to push the lane to a point where you are vulnerable to a gank. You should freeze the lane to maximize your uninterrupted farming time. (Freezing is a tactic where one does little damage to the minions as possible to keep the minion wave in place.)

Situations where you should push: Weak ganking jungler, great ward coverage on your team, recalling, your lane opponents are dead or recalling, your jungler is more of a farming/counterjungler, your lane opponents are trying to get a distant objective, and/or opposing champion is not suited for farming under turret (Example: Warwick)

Situations where you should NOT push: Either they or you have a strong ganking jungler on the team (most notably, Alistar/Nautilus jungle), there are no objectives to take, champions with global skills are on the other team (most notably, Twisted fate/Pantheon), you have little to no ward coverage, and/or opposing champion is well suited for farming under turret (Example: Irelia)

Recap

Always have a reason to push or freeze your lane, look at the pros and cons and decide whether if it's more advantageous or more detrimental to your influence in the game.

-Dotrobot