As I discussed before split pushing can be an effective strategy but only when you and your team understand how to take full advantage of it. You may experience Master Yi’s split pushing even in Bronze rating and it can be extremely frustrating dealing with it, but just because the enemy team doesn’t know how to properly counter it does not mean it’s the right thing to do.
There are several factors that make a split push successful and while not all of them are necessarily required understanding everything that comes into play can increase your chances of gaining a lead from it. Below are just a few key points explaining how to effectively split push.
1. Understanding how and why split push can give you an advantage
If you read my previous article about the basics of split-pushing you should have an idea of what kind of advantages you can get from it. Splitting the enemy team, disrupting their push, preventing them from taking an objective or distracting them long enough for your team to take an objective is what its all about.
2. Make sure your team knows what to do
When your teammate is split-pushing you want to be careful not to engage the enemies 4v5 unless you are significantly stronger. If you aren’t make sure to stay under your turret for additional protection: even in late game turrets can deal significant damage especially if the enemy team is poorly managing its focus.
If a member of your team is split pushing and two or more opponents go to stop him always make sure to take an important objective (Dragon, Baron, towers or inhibitors) and try to force a 4v3 engage. It’s not just about the objectives the split-pusher can give you but also the ones he enables you to get.
When you’re the one split pushing you need to be clear about your intentions and communicate them to your team clearly. It will help your team understand you’re not just trolling them and know what to expect. It’s also smart to remind them to go for Baron (or another valuable objective) in case two or more enemies go after you.
3. Champions
Some champions are better at split-pushes than others. You don’t send a support Sona to split-push! In a majority of cases you’ll want your top or jungler to split push, as AP and AD carries have far too important role to be absent in teamfights, and supports are naturally slow pushers. Shen, Twisted Fate, Nocturne are some of the most popular split-pushers due to their global or semi-global ultimates, while for example Singed, Shaco and Nidalee often split push due to them being hard to catch.
Mid laners like Zed or Kha’Zix can also be great split pushers due to their strong 1v1 potential, high attack damage and good escape tools. You don’t want to split push as a Malphite, Amumu or similar champions with fairly low damage but more importantly incredibly potent ultimates (unless you have Teleport).
4. Teleport and global ultimates
As mentioned global ults are usually a good indicator that someone will attempt to split push in a match. Taking Teleport as summoner spell is a good way to counter a split push but also make champions viable in doing it: Malphite is a good example of a champion that can be a very effective split pusher and also have a team fight presence.
5. Team comps
Even though it’s not crucial split pushing works much better when the whole team is built around it. Having an Anivia that can clear enemy minions fast and prevent engages enables your team to defend 4v5 for much longer, or having a Janna support with her amazing ultimate makes sure that any unfavorable team fight can be disengaged.
Poke comps work incredibly well paired with a split pushing strategy but I wouldn’t recommend running it in solo queue even if you’re Diamond rated. It may work for professional teams but coordinating a team of five random players in solo queue is often impossible even if they are skilled.
6. Wards
Possibly the most important thing when split pushing is making sure you have vision, otherwise you’ll just end up feeding kills and not getting anything out of it. Not only will wards tell you when enemies are coming to stop you so you can back off, but your team will also be able to react sooner and counter it by pushing or taking an objective. Wards are the bread and butter of split push and without them you might as well just run into the enemy Nexus turrets and suicide.
In a majority of matches you won’t and shouldn’t pick a champion with the intention of solely split pushing. It’s a strategy which is most effective when you have a good opportunity, so picking Teemo with the intention of never joining a team fight is a sure-fire way to significantly decrease your chances of winning right from the get go.
Five versus five team fights are a much more efficient tactic in Bronze and Silver rating, which is why you should avoid split pushes regardless of whether you think you understand it after reading my guide. When split pushing comes to you naturally as an answer to a situation in the match rather than your lack of imagination or hurt ego then you’ll be able to make the most out of it. Assuming you heed my advice on buying wards and warning your team.
