There are so many different strategies in League of Legends that you can push and win the game on Summoner's Rift. There are games where a team can win based on a couple of teamfights, objective control or pushing constantly. One effective push method is called the 1-3-1 strategy. The reason it's called the 1-3-1 is because a team assigns one person to go into the top lane and another in the bot lane while having three push altogether in the mid lane. The reason this is so good is because it can apply so much pressure on the map and the enemy team has to respond to two of the pushes but it can be made really hard to stop one of the pushes, resulting in at least a tower or an inhib gone ore just a lot of pressure in a lane. it is harder to plan and execute however since there does have to be set roles and champs for this method.

Formatting The 1-3-1

The simple format for a 1-3-1 is to just have the top laner and mid laner push bot and top, it does not really matter where one of them goes unless the enemy team responds in a way that forces the push to stop. Ideally, both of the solo laners should have the summoner spell Teleport so when a fight ensues, because the enemy team wants to or found a really good opportunity to, the top laners can either continue the push or choose to use the TP and join the fight. In terms of team compositions for a 1-3-1, it does help to have two marksman on the team for faster push, whether it's the jungler or top laner. Champions like Kindred, Graves or Corki can be really good for pushing as a three man. The top laner is able to play a tank, even though they don't do an extreme amount of tower damage, so then if a fight were to occur, the TP pressure is immense because the tank can just join the fight with full health and soak up damage and the team hopefully can do damage and win the fight. Mid laners can pick any mages that are able to take TP or are really mobile assassins. For TP midlaners, picks like Lissandra, Ryze, Lux, Orianna or maybe even Gangplank would work very well in split-pushing and putting pressure with TP flanks. Assassins, like Leblanc or Zed, who can move around the map a little faster and destroy a carry can put a huge impact on the way the map has to be played.

Planning a 1-3-1 implies that the Marksman on the team can siege and destroy a turret fast. The reason for this is so the team can take a turret as fast as possible to lower the risks of unwanted fights or time for the enemy to get to the Marksman. The optimal choices are Lucian, Kog'Maw, Caitlyn, or Tristana. Jinx is not a great option, even though she does increased damage with her rockets and has increased attack speed with her machine gun, she takes too long to hit any powerspikes and winning lane becomes difficult. Other marksman like Jhin, Ezreal and Miss Fortune can work as well. Jhin offers pressure with his E - Captive Audience and has potential to combo the turret or enemy champions with his 4th auto attack and his W - Deadly Flourish. Miss Fortune can offer pressure against enemy champions and turrets with her passive Love Tap so she can continuously switch targets while doing massive damage. Ezreal is very good at poking with his Q - Mystic Shot and being able to escape with his E - Arcane Shift. He can also give attack speed to his teammates by casting his W - Essence Flux, which allows for faster pushing with his teammates.

Mapping 1-3-1

So the 1-3-1 push does not exclusively have to be in this order. There can be the 1-3-1, 1-1-3, or 3-1-1. It really depends on the team to decide which turrets need to go down, what side of the map needs to get pressured the most and if the team wants to pressure and get Rift Herald, Baron Nashor or Dragon. Due to the changes to the Dragons, it's become really important to gain priority and get as many as possible. With the new buff that Rift Herald gives, it's really important to get it for a solo laner so they can do increased amounts of damage when they split push.

So the first format we'll learn to map is the 1-3-1. The team puts a solo laner into the top lane and the bottom lane to split push and put pressure. The rest of the team will go to the middle lane and put pressure there. The benefits of this push are that the team can rotate to any objective of their choice, take the enemy jungle and siege the middle lane. The enemy has to respond to both of the solo lane pushes forcing them to be in a similar format but this can open up for an advantageous team fight for your team. If they manage to deal with the team pushing, then the team can just rotate to one of the lanes a solo laner is in to apply even more pressure and the enemy cannot respond fast enough because the solo laner has already pushed the lane and once the team makes it there, the enemy will be behind in the rotation and the team can more damage and add more pressure to that lane while the other solo laner can continue to push or TP to be with the rest of the team. This gives the team the potential to roam to Dragon or Baron Nashor but it becomes really important to decide carefully because a bad fight or call can throw the game easily.

Mapping 1-1-3

The way the 1-1-3 works is almost entirely the same as the 1-3-1 except a solo laner goes to the middle lane while the team goes to the bottom lane. The team push will be delayed and the enemies can respond to the solo laner in the middle lane the fastest but the way they will try to respond is by putting their carry, lane clear or two members of the team to stop them. That's when the team in the bottom lane can push and siege more freely because the solo laners can get to the turrets faster and the enemy has to respond to that. Due to the delayed push of the team because they are in a longer lane, it allows for better sieging potential and Dragon priority. The solo laner in the middle lane can TP or just roam down to be with the team and push with them at any time and it offers a lot of pressure to the bottom side of the map.

The new Dragons allow for better sieging and fighting potential. However, it is good to note that the Dragons that spawn are random so it may be harder to utilize this push.

Mapping the 3-1-1

The 3-1-1 push is essentially the 1-1-3 push but just flipped. The reason you would want to map like this is because your team wants to put priority on Baron Nashor. Due to the fact that Baron Nashor is on this side of the map, if the team manages to get it then the push becomes catastrophic for the enemy because it becomes to hard to stop the top siege against 3 people. The solo laners also empower their minions which tells the enemy that they definitely need more than one member to respond and stop their push. But this means that at least 2 members from the enemy team needs to be in both the lanes that the solo laners are in to stop the push, but this easily exposes the top lane for the rest of the team to push. So mapping the 3-1-1 offers most of its pressure around Baron Nashor and can be incredibly dangerous but easily neutralized if the solo laners do not have the buff.

There are so many ways to set up this simple split push strategy but it is incredibly potent in pressure. Any form of the 1-3-1 essentially locks the map and forces the enemy to respond in a certain way and continuously do it like that. If anything is changed to that response, the pressure increases immensely. So use the push wisely, because as good as it is, it can easily be broken if there is a bad teamfight that proves to be more than detrimental. It does not work as well if the enemy has more dragons than your team or if they have the baron buff. Poor warding and vision on the map can also change the momentum of the push because a lack of vision makes it hard for anyone on your team to push up too far alone or with numbers less than 4.

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