League Tactic: Push Freeze Push Freeze

This image is a heating curve from chemistry. Don’t read to much into it; I just think it serves as an excellent mental picture of the push-freeze tactic. You push to a level, then freeze the lane. Then push to another level, then freeze the lane.

Hello readers! I haven’t posted in a while, sorry about that! I’ll fill in those of you who are interested in that stuff in another post. On the bright side, I’ve been playing the game a LOT more! League of Legends is so fun!

This is a post about a specific tactic. I don’t usually make posts like this, but this specific tactic is really, really important. And I only just got a handle on it.

There are two main lane-control tactics. Pushing and freezing. One of the biggest frustrations of the average summoner is knowing when to push, and when to freeze. It all seems so arbitrary, and complex, and enigmatic.

So I’ll break it down for you. Why do you push? Pushing is really good because it lets you get ahead in experience of your opponent. You’re killing more minions than they are, so you stay ahead of them in experience.

But pushing is also bad, because when you push you are more vulnerable to ganks, and your opponent is safer since they are next to their tower.

And vice versa, whats so good about freezing lane? Freezing lane lets you lane-control your opponent, and keeps you safe from ganks. However, it also makes you vulnerable to taking a terrible trade when your opponent gains a level and you haven’t. To maintain the focus of this article I’ll mostly ignore the impact of minions, but do keep them in mind.

So what tactic do I propose to balance pushing and freezing? It’s pretty simple: Push, then freeze. Then push, then freeze.

Story time! I watch a lot of SKT T1 Faker’s replays. For those of you who’ve been living under a rock the past couple months, he’s the world champion mid-laner, and it goes without saying that he’s really, REALLY good. Anyhow, it always impressed me that he gets level 2 and 3 before his midlane opponent almost every single time. Yet, he rarely dies to ganks, because somehow, despite always pushing hard for a level advantage, he is able to stay a safe distance from his enemy’s tower.

How does he do it? It only occurred to me just recently, and given this article’s title, you probably have a general idea of it.

What really good lane-controllers like Faker do is push to hit a threshold. In lane phase, that threshold is usually a level-up, which gives you a massive advantage over your opponent.

Side note–the benefit you get from experience comes only in big jumps (a level up). Getting the experience in between doesn’t help you fight your opponent. So pushing right after a level-up? It doesn’t do you much good.

And, freezing lane is, by default, the best situation for fighting your opponent. If you’re in the middle of the lane its an even battleground (and if you’re a level up, you have the advantage), and if he ends up pushing at you, then you have the advantage since your jungler can come and gank. This model of laning is obviously a bit simplified, but it’s generally true.

So after hitting a level-up advantage on your opponent, you should try to milk it as much as possible. Freeze the lane, and use your better stats and abilities to suppress him. The main level-thresholds to hit are level 2, level 3, and level 6. It’s OK to freeze through levels 4-5 usually if you’re being threatened by a gank.

And if your opponent is the one pushing you in, push back! He doesn’t have an advantage over you until he levels up, but once you think he’s close, make sure to back off, since he’s going to try to assert his level-up advantage on you. If he doesn’t get to do that, and you get even levels with him, you can start trying to use the push-freeze cycle again.

Thanks for reading this article! As always, stay strong and kick ass on and off the Rift!

–divisionclimber