Split pushing is typically done by one player who is attempting to distract the enemy team or get an advantage by pushing a lane alone while the rest of his and opposing team is grouped elsewhere. It’s a very effective strategy when used right but requires some thought put into it as well as extensive experience with the game not just by the player who split-pushes but also the rest of his team.
Why split push
- The enemy team is stronger than yours and you’re trying to avoid a full engage while getting an advantage (usually a turret) or disrupt an enemy push.
- The enemy team is taking Baron or Dragon while you’re way out of position so you want to get something out of it (again probably a turret).
- Your team is so much stronger than the opposing one that there’s virtually no risk if they fight 4v5.
- You want to bait your opponents to go stop you while your team is making a move for an important objective like Baron or inhibitor.
- Enemy team has strong wave-clear abilities or poke making tower pushes extremely hard or slow.
- You have Teleport or a global ultimate.
- You’re bad and don’t understand the game.
You may laugh at the reason #7 but unfortunately it’s the most important one. Bronze and Silver players often see streamers or pro players split-push and then try to replicate it in their own games, but instead of thinking about how and why it works it ends up with throwing insults back and forth from the split-pusher and the rest of his team, probably because the other 4 players ended up dying.
Split-pushing is a perfectly viable strategy but it requires everyone on your team to know how to take advantage of it. Just randomly deciding to go farm a lane because you don’t want to stay with your team, are tired of a standoff in mid or too greedy for a few minion kills is a perfect example of why you shouldn’t do it. Even if you do perfectly understand the intricacies of split pushing you need to be absolutely sure your team is on the same level as you are, otherwise they will end up engaging an unfavorable fight or making some other bad decision.
My advice for all Bronze and Silver players reading this is to never attempt to split-push. Not being grouped is by far the most common reason for losing games in low elo and it does not matter how well you understand the benefits of split-push if your team doesn’t. Even lower division Gold players will have a rough time taking full advantage of the split push which is why I’d advise for you to simply group up with your team and take the enemies head on.
Once you get to Gold you can probably start using more elaborate strategies. Just make sure to make your intentions clear to your team: if you’re going to split-push tell your team about it and warn them to try and avoid engaging enemies. And for all that is holy buy wards when you do it.
