How to draft & execute a split push composition
Ever wondered how Jax always seems to 1v5 your solo queue games? Or how Tryndamere gets away with permanently pushing your bottom lane? Well wonder no more, here’s a breakdown of how to draft and execute split push compositions.
Ascending through the ranks of solo queue can be a menacing task with griefers, toxic players, and Riot’s matchmaking all constantly out to derail your attempts at climbing. Therefore, it’s essential that you maximise your chances of winning games through intelligent drafting and execution.
Whether you realise it or not, your team has a clear win condition heading into every League of Legends game. It could be to win teamfights, or win through heavy poke, or just getting an AD Carry to the late game. In this case we’ll be looking at one of the most popular and prevalent win conditions in both solo queue and competitive play: split pushing.
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Split pushing is the act of sending a single member of the team to a side lane (top or bottom) to apply pressure, forcing the opponent to respond. During this time, the split pusher can attempt to take towers or win a 1v1 fight, as long as they maintain pressure in the lane and the other four members of their team are ready to capitalise on any enemy movement.
In most cases, the split pushing member will be a top laner with Teleport. The top lane champion pool includes a number of options capable of winning 1v1s against most opponents which makes them ideal for split push compositions. On top of that, teleport is a key summoner spell for split pushing as it allows the delegated player to mindlessly shove waves on one side of the map, while also having the ability to instantly teleport to a fight on the other.
But, in order to create a split push composition, you need five champions, not one. While one member of the team is pushing the bottom lane, the other four will be playing standard for the most part, looking to gain mid lane priority and maintain vision control around key objectives. Their main job is to react to what the enemy team do. For example, if the enemy sends 2 players to deal with the split pusher, your team needs to either start a fight or start Baron with their numbers advantage.
Before you queue up, you must recognise that there are two stages to every League of Legends game, and they’re both essential to successfully accomplishing your win condition. First comes the Draft phase, otherwise known as champion select. Whether in solo queue or Clash, it’s here when you and your team should mould your champions together to achieve a certain goal, like split pushing. Obviously this is difficult when queueing up alone but picking your champion around your teammates’ choices will go a long way in creating a strong team composition.
Secondly, we have the in-game phase where your team should look to Execute the win condition set during picks and bans. From minions spawning to the Nexus exploding, you should always have what your team is looking to achieve in mind and play around this objective. Piecing together the draft and the execution is key to coming out on top on the Rift, particularly in a competitive environment, like Clash.
Here’s the breakdown of how to maximise your chances of success with a split push composition through both the draft and in-game phase of a game.