Hey everyone.
This is going to be a follow up on our previous split pushing video that focused on what you
can do to put yourself further ahead over the course of a game.
In this video, we'll be covering how you can have map impact by using your split push to
help out your team instead.
Before heading into our missions, let's familiarize ourselves with some terms we'll be referencing
constantly throughout this video.
When split pushing, there's going to be 3 different zones in the side lane that you
need to be aware of.
Minion waves can be in the "Collection", "Neutral", or "Pressure" zones.
You and your opponent's game plan will usually revolve around which zone the minion wave
is in.
If the wave is in the Collection Zone, you more than likely want to go clear it, since
it's so close to your tower and you don't want to miss any farm.
If the wave is in the Pressure Zone, your opponent is likely going to be compelled to
clear it.
And the Neutral Zone is kind of just the in between of both of those.
The inverse of this will be true for your opponent.
If the wave is in your Pressure Zone, it just means it's in their Collection Zone.
Likewise, if it's in your Collection Zone, it's in their Pressure Zone.
And lastly, these zones locations will change based on the towers up in that lane.
The Collection Zone is always near your tower, and the Pressure Zone is always near the enemy
tower.
With the Neutral obviously being around the middle, like in this example.
With that out of the way, let's get into our missions.
Your first mission is simply to shove the wave as far into the Pressure Zone as possible.
By doing so, you're forcing your opponent to respond and go clear it, otherwise they'll
fall behind in farm or take tower damage.
Mission 2 is to roam anywhere afterwards and look to do something on the map with a numbers
advantage.
Remember, you have forced your opponent to go collect the wave.
This is your time to look to force a beneficial 5v4 position on the map.
You can do anything with this number advantage.
You can look to force Baron, Dragon, Rift Herald, a team fight, fight for vision control,
or just contest a raptor camp.
Regardless of what you're doing, you will be there before your opponent giving your
team the upper hand.
So, why is this good or important to do?
For starters, this is a good way to make sure you maintain high farm.
You'll constantly be shoving waves before you group, which will naturally keep you at
a high CS score
Secondly, regular split pushing is often times impossible unless you're really ahead.
If you try to shove the wave and pressure your opponent, they can usually just clear
the wave from the safety of their tower.
And finally, this promotes predictability in your games.
By doing this, you are reliably obtaining a map numbers advantage, which can only be
beneficial for your team.
We notice that a lot of players tend to just run mid when they recall or respawn in base.
The problem with this, is that you are usually handshaking a team fight with the enemy team.
This is horrendous for improving or climbing elo.
If both teams are just fighting mid 5v5, you're literally just playing Yahtzee.
There's no strategy, and it's going to be a 50/50 as to who actually wins the fight.
So, let's look at a prime example of this tactic being used.
Here we see Kennen take the first tower, and immediately shove the following wave forcing
his wave into Gangplank's Collection Zone.
He then proceeds to recall, buy items, and then teleports bottom to help out his team.
As Kennen proceeds to win every lane on the map with this roam, we can see Gangplank was
predictably stuck in top lane having to catch the wave, and was helpless in preventing this.
After all that, Kennen is still able to walk back top to catch the wave in his Collection
Zone, since he pushed it so far into the Pressure Zone.
Gangplank had no time to even get it into Kennen's tower.
Obviously, it won't look like this most of the time.
While you can go on solo adventures to win the game, you'll typically be grouping with
your team to get something done together.
Let's watch Splyce's Vizicsacsi apply this strategy on Aatrox.
We see him push a wave into the pressure zone, which allows him to take the Krug camp uncontested,
because Sylas is forced to farm the top wave.
But, he soon notices that no one is collecting in bot lane, so he recalls to go collect that
farm himself.
Making sure to push the next wave as well to pressure the bot lane tower.
With the knowledge that someone is likely going to go bottom, he moves up in the river
to assist with the Qiyana kill.
Then, once his team gets confirmation that Sylas is indeed bot lane, they continue to
brute force a fight with their numbers advantage and pick up another kill.
If you paid attention, you'll have noticed that for the past 2 minutes or so, Sylas has
been unable to impact the map at all.
Vizicsacsi's continued shoving has forced him to spend most of his time reacting and
clearing waves.
This is why this strategy is so consistent and powerful.
There's likely an immediate question you may be asking yourself.
What if your opponent just disregards the wave and groups instead?
In that case, your opponent is just missing farm.
If they're continually grouped, you could start pressuring towers by split pushing normally,
or honestly do whatever you want.
As long as you're shoving waves into their tower and they aren't picking them up, they'll
fall incredibly far behind.
Another consideration to keep in mind, is to not be results oriented about this strategy.
For that, let's watch a replay from GenG's Cuvee.
We see him apply the strategy and shove the wave, then start moving towards his team in
mid lane.
Unfortunately, when he collapses to the fight, both Gangplank and Lissandra teleport.
Meaning that this was just a straight up 5v5.
Despite the fight being lost, it doesn't mean that his play was incorrect.
Coin flip fights are always going to happen in Solo Queue.
It's better to have shoved in the wave denying farm before the fight happens than to immediately
go and fight.
Before this play though, Cuvee made another important decision.
We can clearly see Kai'sa pushing the wave into Cuvee's collection zone, yet he opts
to walk to dragon.
Pushing and then collapsing takes time, and if a fight is imminent around an important
objective, you should likely just start heading there immediately.
Especially if your teleport is down.
You may miss the wave, but it's obviously way more important to be there in case a critical
team fight breaks out.
As you can probably figure out, the Push and Collapse strategy is highly dependent on side
wave control.
You can't really shove in your opponent, if you can't beat them in a 1v1.
This is the tragedy of top lane.
Champion Select is probably the most critical point in the game for you.
If you draft an unwinnable match up, not only do you lose lane, but then you have no side
wave control.
That just lets your opponent do this to you, and mercilessly collapse on your team, since
they can do whatever they want in the side lane.
Having side lane pressure and collapsing is probably the most prominent strategy for good
top laners.
There's a reason that versatile champions such as Kennen, Aatrox, Akali are so popular
in competitive play.
They win lane versus a lot of champions, but they also don't really have any terrible counter
picks.
Meaning that if they're good players, they can always have some level of side lane control.
Match up knowledge and learning to draft as a top laner is crucial to implement this strategy.
Or, you can become so good at a specific champion that you can just blind pick it into whatever.
Champions like Yasuo, Riven, Renekton, Fiora are sort of like that.
They take some skill to be good at, but if you play them well, you can typically pick
them into anything and win.
If you are in 1 of this unwinnable match ups though, for example something like Sion vs
Fiora, you'll have to settle for just clearing your Collection Zone.
Otherwise, you'll likely die in the Neutral Zone to the superior 1v1 champion.
Clearing the collection zone will give you a bit of time to group, so use that bit of
time with your superior team fighting champion to try and win the game.
That's it for this video.
We highly recommend that you consistently apply this strategy whenever possible, since
it is the staple of top lane play.
You will for sure have higher game impact, and win more games if done correctly.
Thanks for watching.