This blog post explores how split pushing can be a more effective strategy for winning in League of Legends than engaging in team fights.
Currently, various types of games are loved by many people. Among them, League of Legends, or LoL, stands out as one of the best games, maintaining its popularity over a long period and still capturing the attention of many. League of Legends first launched its servers in Korea in 2011, making it a fairly old game now in its 12th year. Due to its immense popularity, the scale of professional tournaments continues to grow; last year’s World Championship featured a total prize pool exceeding $5 million. Thus, LoL has established itself not merely as entertainment, but as a sport that people professionally research and practice. Consequently, like other sports, diverse strategies have emerged, and the strategy I’ll explain now is one of them: the split push strategy.
First, I’ll explain the basic information and rules of the game LoL. LoL is a 5v5 game played on a map called the Summoner’s Rift. Within this map, ten players are divided into two opposing teams. Each team’s objective is to destroy the opposing team’s Nexus, a structure located at the top-right corner (1 o’clock) and bottom-left corner (7 o’clock) of the map. To destroy these Nexus, players select and play as characters called ‘Champions’. Each player decides which position to play their Champion in. Typically, one player is positioned at Top (11 o’clock), one at Mid (center), and two at Bottom (5 o’clock). The remaining player roams the central lane, providing support to allies on each lane.
In the game, players can earn gold to purchase items that enhance their character. Gold is primarily granted at the start or earned by defeating opponents. Neutral units called ‘minions’ also pass through each lane; defeating them also yields gold. Additionally, neutral monsters exist in the narrow alleys between the main lanes, and defeating them also yields gold. In this game, players can respawn after a certain period even if they die. However, while a player is dead, the enemy can destroy their team’s structures, and the enemy grows stronger in the process, creating a disadvantage. Besides the Nexus, the map features structures called turrets positioned at intervals along each lane. These turrets attack enemy characters, so destroying them is generally necessary before attacking the Nexus. While destroying every turret isn’t required to attack the Nexus, destroying a sufficient number clears a safer path to the enemy Nexus, making turret destruction crucial.
Each character is generally given four skills. Each skill has a designated key; pressing that key activates the skill. A character’s role is determined by these skills and their basic information. For example, roles include damage dealers who inflict damage on opponents, tanks who block enemy attacks, and supports who heal or protect their teammates. Based on this, teams can devise various strategies. Skills don’t always guarantee hits on opponents or benefits for your team. If skills miss or are misused, they can actually put your team at a disadvantage. Therefore, players must develop the ability to quickly decide whether to use a skill in a split second, and master the skill of landing skills accurately to win the game. This allows them to gain an advantage in large-scale battles involving multiple players.
Initially, victory often came from continuously defeating opponents in combat to gain advantages. However, Korean players eventually developed diverse strategies, discovering ways to win even when losing battles. In League of Legends, defeating opponents isn’t the sole condition for victory. The fundamental principle is to destroy the enemy’s structures first and ultimately destroy their Nexus. By strategically deploying our team, we played the game by having our team destroy structures and advance on other lanes while the enemy committed multiple players to a fight. This strategy is called the split strategy.
Fundamentally, in direct player confrontations, if both sides are skilled at landing abilities, dodging, and possess similar decision-making abilities, eliminating an opponent in a 1v1 situation doesn’t happen often. Therefore, fights often involve multiple players or require deploying more forces. This is where the split strategy becomes essential. The split strategy is about avoiding direct combat. The game map is larger than you might think. Moving from one lane to another takes significant time. While the enemy team is shuttling between lanes to defend, our team can attack their turrets and deal substantial damage. In some cases, it’s even possible to destroy the turret. Therefore, when the enemy tries to eliminate our team, the targeted player must do their utmost to escape the fight and survive. Simultaneously, other teammates gain an advantage by destroying the enemy turret on their own lane.
Early in the game, as mentioned above, we split our forces, but as the game progresses, we increasingly group up for combat. Even then, our team groups only four members, while one remains separated to continuously destroy the enemy’s turrets. Therefore, it’s crucial for these four to either tie up the enemy’s five members or continuously provoke standoff situations. The role of the one not participating in combat is also vital. Typically, the player assigned to destroy turrets separately uses a character advantageous for escaping. The reason is that the enemy will send multiple players to defend, so the solo player must be able to use jump skills or similar abilities at the right moment to escape far away. In short, it’s a method to disrupt the enemy. Furthermore, the character used here must be fundamentally very powerful. Even in situations where escape is difficult, using a character strong enough to win a 1v2 fight can help avert danger.
Ultimately, the split strategy can be seen as one that deeply understands the essence of League of Legends. It never forgot that the objective of LoL isn’t to eliminate the enemy team, but to destroy their Nexus first. While it might seem underhanded or boring to some, it’s a strategy worth trying if it means winning a match for a $5 million prize pool.
