How to Use a Split Push Strategy Like CLG

Intro

All throughout the regular season, Counter Logic Gaming was using split push compositions to pick up wins. CLG's split push compositions usually involved putting a carry style champion top, a champion with good early pressure in the jungle, a champion with good mobility mid, and for the bot lane, any ADC with some sort of waveclear paired with a peeling support.

Drafting a Push Composition

The best way to play a composition like this is to have your top laner stay top for the most part and pick a carry that can waveclear effectively or that can itemize to waveclear effectively. Gangplank is a good example of a split push champion, because he can waveclear with his E, Powder Keg, and he can help in fights with his R, Cannon Barrage. Even though Gangplank is a good pick in general, you still need to know your matchup. For example, you shouldn't pick Gangplank into champions with high early damage because of how item dependant Gangplank is. Another good example of a champion that has a strong split push is Jax. Jax is a very strong duelist with items, so he should be able to bully the enemy top laner out of lane once he gets his first item. The first item a Jax should usually get is Guinsoo's Rageblade, because it gives good stats for Jax and it gives Jax much needed wave clear with the passive.

Now for the mid lane, you want to pick something like LeBlanc or Corki. These champs are very strong because they have good escapes and high waveclear. LeBlanc can have very strong roams that can give your team that much needed early pressure. LeBlanc can also push out a side lane safely because she can use her W, Distortion, to get away. Corki is also a good pick because he has his Passive, The Package, which is up every eight minutes and is a very powerful ganking tool. Using the Package to gank a sidelane early is a very strong way to gain a lead in that lane. He can also push very fast since he is an ADC who builds Trinity Force.

When picking a jungler, I think the best champion to split push with is Udyr. Udyr has high mobility, good early ganking tools, good waveclear, and he can build almost anyway he wants. He can max his R, Phoenix Stance, and waveclear and shove lanes. He can also build Runic Echoes so he can gank more and do more damage with his R. Since Runic Echoes gives 7% movespeed, he can shove lanes up very far and get away with the extra movespeed. Another good jungler for split pushing is Rek'Sai because she has her R, Void Rush, which gives her global pressure. She also has a good gap closer and a knockup which means she can effectively gank lanes early. She can also clear waves fast with her Q, Queen's Wrath, and she can build Titanic Hydra so she can shove faster. For the ADC, any ADC with waveclear like Ezreal, Corki, Lucian, or Caitlyn paired with a peel support like Bard, Morgana, or Braum should fit the composition. Now that we have looked at good champions for split pushing compositions, let's take a look at a composition CLG used during the regular season.

How CLG Did It

We see here that Darshan "Darshan" Upadhyaya went Jax and build Titanic Hydra. As Jax, he was able to bully the Lulu and he was able to shove lanes faster since he built Titanic Hydra. Jake "Xmithie" Puchero went Udyr in this game and built Runic Echoes for the early ganking pressure, and he built Zz'Rot Portal so he could pressure sidelanes during fights. Choi "Huhi" Jae-hyun went Corki for the early pressure he gives and so he could help Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes waveclear when Darshan and Xmithie were pushing sidelanes.

In this composition, it was the Jax and Udyr split pushing, while Corki, Ezreal, and Bard held off the enemy team from pushing. You can see from the picture that even with extremely fed carries and being up in Barons and Dragons, Cloud 9 were still unable to siege against CLG. They were unable to siege because Corki and Ezreal both have enough waveclear to be able to stall out the push and Cloud 9 didn't have the pressure to stop Jax and Udyr from pushing the side lanes. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, CLG ran very standard yet strong split pushing compositions that are very hard to deal with. These compositions work very well against uncoordinated teams. The team playing against a split push composition needs a lot of communication to be able to stop the split push. Emulating a CLG split push style can result in solo queue being both fun and very effective.

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