[0:00] hey guys roku here and we're back with
[0:02] top lane 101. in this video we're going
[0:05] to cover the most important aspect when
[0:06] it comes to top lane wave control as a
[0:09] top laner you must understand that the
[0:10] wave and the minions aren't just gold
[0:12] and experience they are also your most
[0:15] important tools when it comes to playing
[0:17] the lane and if used properly your most
[0:20] deadly weapon i've seen it happen
[0:21] countless times where a top laner with
[0:23] wave control knowledge absolutely
[0:25] demolishes one without regardless of the
[0:28] matchup or the state of the game that's
[0:29] happening around them wave control is
[0:32] important and it determines the
[0:33] difference between a bad top laner and a
[0:35] good top laner so what exactly is wave
[0:38] management wave control or wave
[0:40] manipulation is simply controlling the
[0:42] amount of damage that you do to the wave
[0:44] in order to change how fast it pushes
[0:47] how many minions there are in the wave
[0:48] and where exactly on the lane the minion
[0:50] wave is supposed to stand a lot of the
[0:52] time when it comes to developing top
[0:54] laners they watch these youtube videos
[0:56] and understand what the different wave
[0:58] control techniques are but they don't
[0:59] understand the thinking process behind
[1:02] deciding what to use when this leads to
[1:04] some very seriously just tragic moments
[1:07] where a player chooses the wrong
[1:09] technique at the wrong time and
[1:11] completely screws themselves over let's
[1:13] say you have ignite the enemy has
[1:15] teleport you get a kill and then you
[1:17] make the mistake of shoving lane they
[1:19] teleport back they freeze the lane you
[1:21] lose waves upon waves upon waves of cs
[1:24] and if you come back to lane boom the
[1:26] jungle is there to kill you because
[1:28] guess what the enemy top laner frozen in
[1:30] the best position for a jungle gank we
[1:32] like to blame the junglers and whatnot
[1:33] but this death would be your fault so
[1:36] let's just get right into it when two
[1:38] opposing minion waves crash in the
[1:40] middle of the lane they are in a neutral
[1:43] position where the minion wave is not
[1:45] going to push in either direction this
[1:46] is also called a freeze when you land
[1:49] that first auto attack onto any of the
[1:51] enemy minions you have started the push
[1:54] your minions will eventually push to the
[1:56] enemy turret the more you damage the
[1:58] minions the faster the push is going to
[2:00] be in order to slow down a push the
[2:03] enemy top laner has to attack your
[2:05] minions so if someone's trying to break
[2:07] a freeze and you want to keep the freeze
[2:09] in the position that you wanted you
[2:10] might want to start hitting his minions
[2:12] back and trying to copy the damage he's
[2:14] doing to your minions so you get this
[2:15] tug of war between top laners to decide
[2:17] who gets to control where the wave is
[2:19] going to be let's say that you killed an
[2:21] enemy minion and your wave is now at an
[2:24] advantage it doesn't take a genius to
[2:25] tell that this mini wave is gonna push
[2:27] towards the enemy turret but there's one
[2:29] more factor to consider how close are
[2:31] the minions to reinforcements if the
[2:33] minion advantage is zero meaning both
[2:36] waves are the same size but they've
[2:37] crashed closer to your own turret that
[2:39] means that they will eventually push
[2:41] towards the enemy turret why because
[2:43] your allied minion reinforcements are
[2:46] closer to the crash than the enemy
[2:48] minion reinforcements your
[2:49] reinforcements get there sooner they hit
[2:51] the minions more and you have a push
[2:53] going this is why in order for a minion
[2:55] wave to freeze closer to a turret it
[2:58] needs to have a certain number of
[2:59] minions advantage if you want the minion
[3:01] wave to freeze just outside your turret
[3:03] then you want the enemy minion wave to
[3:04] have three more minions than your minion
[3:06] wave the specific amount of meaning is
[3:08] required is shown in this diagram right
[3:11] here it is a universal rule that
[3:14] whenever a minion wave has a minion
[3:16] advantage of 4 or higher and that wave
[3:18] is going to push until it gets cleared
[3:20] by an enemy champion or a turret first
[3:22] thing you want to do when you look at a
[3:23] minion wave is count the minions
[3:25] determine which side has more minions
[3:28] how big the minion advantage is and then
[3:30] check back with this diagram to see
[3:32] which way the minion wave is going to
[3:33] push or whether it's not going to push
[3:35] anywhere ends just frozen eventually
[3:37] you'll memorize the diagram and you
[3:38] won't need to refer to it when you crash
[3:40] your wave into the enemy turret you are
[3:43] resetting the wave and causing it to
[3:45] push into you this is because while the
[3:48] turret is killing your minions the enemy
[3:51] minion wave is going to be stuck under
[3:53] the enemy turret which is much closer to
[3:56] the enemy minion reinforcements than
[3:58] your minion wave is so eventually the
[4:00] enemy minion wave will accumulate to
[4:02] such an advantage that it will
[4:04] inevitably just push towards you if
[4:06] you're really really fed you can create
[4:07] scenarios where you slow push a big wave
[4:09] on the enemy turret have a crash and
[4:11] then have it push into you and then you
[4:13] can either kill the enemy while they're
[4:14] trying to slow push this wave or even
[4:16] set up a freeze by killing the enemy
[4:19] minions until there is only an advantage
[4:20] of three left it is possible to freeze a
[4:23] wave with a minion advantage of four or
[4:25] more but this basically means that you
[4:28] have to tank the enemy minion wave and
[4:30] drag it and although this works for dire
[4:32] circumstances in cases where health is
[4:34] vital you might just be shooting
[4:35] yourself on the foot here so it's better
[4:36] to just freeze with three to four
[4:37] minions than anything greater so now we
[4:40] know how to push a wave how to determine
[4:42] which way a wave is going to push what
[4:45] happens when you crash your wave into
[4:46] the enemy turret and how to freeze a
[4:48] wave now let's get into the more mental
[4:50] thought process parts of wave control
[4:52] i've split up the process of wave
[4:54] management into three different steps
[4:56] planning
[4:57] analysis and execution during the
[5:01] planning stage we must first have a goal
[5:03] for the lane what do we want to do and
[5:05] this goal changes from game to game if
[5:07] you're getting camped you want the wave
[5:08] to be closer to your turret so that
[5:10] you're under the safety of your own
[5:11] turret and you can't be easily murdered
[5:13] if you want to just dive the enemy and
[5:15] kill them with your own jungler then you
[5:17] want to accumulate a massive slow push
[5:19] and just set up this disgusting dive
[5:21] where the enemy top laner can't fight
[5:22] back if you want to starve your enemy of
[5:24] cs then you might want to set up a nasty
[5:27] freeze which is also going to set them
[5:28] in the perfect position to gank and
[5:30] they're going to set you up in a
[5:30] position where you can't be ganked but
[5:32] to decide all this you have to
[5:34] understand what you want to do with lane
[5:36] first so before going to a lane just
[5:38] have a game plan i have a good matchup
[5:40] here i'm going to try to get kills i'm
[5:42] going to go for slow pushes i'm going to
[5:43] go for roams whatever just have a plan
[5:45] for the lane our next step is analysis
[5:48] in this stage we must use the techniques
[5:50] and the knowledge discussed previously
[5:52] in order to tell where the wave is going
[5:55] or what it's doing is it pushing is it
[5:56] freezing just determine it first after
[5:59] this is done you must plan what you have
[6:01] to do to the wave in order to make it
[6:04] behave in a way that supports your plans
[6:06] our last step is execution we have our
[6:09] plan we've analyzed the situation we
[6:11] know what to do and then we go and do it
[6:13] let me lay out an example say we are
[6:15] fighting a weak early game champion who
[6:17] wants to sit back and farm the ideal
[6:19] course of action is to keep the wave
[6:22] closer to our turret and to starve them
[6:23] of gold and xp this can be done by
[6:26] freezing the wave the enemy top laner is
[6:28] slow pushing a massive wave into us the
[6:31] minion wave advantage is eight we know
[6:34] that we want the advantage to be three
[6:35] or four so that we can more comfortably
[6:38] freeze it so we go into the wave we trim
[6:39] it a bit and then we have it freeze just
[6:42] outside of our turret this is basically
[6:45] the entire thought process behind wave
[6:47] management and keep in mind that this is
[6:49] cyclical meaning that you have to go
[6:52] through this process over and over and
[6:55] over again some games you might have a
[6:57] good match up but you're getting camped
[6:58] by the junglers you have to change your
[7:00] plans dynamically flexibility is one of
[7:03] the key strengths of a league of legends
[7:05] player how about another example
[7:07] say we just kill our lane opponent and
[7:09] they don't have teleport we want the
[7:12] minion wave to push into us so that we
[7:14] can eventually kill them again in order
[7:17] to do this we have to push the minion
[7:19] wave to the enemy turret we can do so by
[7:22] killing the enemy minions as fast as
[7:24] possible and making sure that they auto
[7:27] attack the enemy turret and as another
[7:29] bonus because the enemy turret is
[7:31] killing our minions then the enemy
[7:32] champion isn't killing our minions this
[7:34] way we basically double our lead as not
[7:36] only do we get a kill but we also have a
[7:38] massive minion golden xp advantage how
[7:41] about another example let's say that we
[7:43] took a great trade against the enemy
[7:45] champion but now they're just under
[7:46] their turret just cssing even though
[7:48] they're low hp our goal here is to kill
[7:50] the enemy layer or force them to go back
[7:52] to base we do this by slow pushing a
[7:55] minion wave slow pushing is basically
[7:57] just hitting the minion wave slowly
[7:59] because when you kill the minions slowly
[8:00] you give more time for your allied
[8:02] minion reinforcements to arrive this
[8:04] builds a bigger minion wave that helps
[8:07] you more in dives so we slow push a big
[8:10] minion wave crashed under the enemy
[8:11] turret and the enemy top laner has two
[8:13] choices stand on a turret and risk
[8:15] getting dove and killed or go back to
[8:17] voice and lose all that cs it sounds
[8:20] intimidating i know but once you get
[8:22] into the groove of things you'll be
[8:23] making these decisions in seconds it
[8:26] will take you no time to just think
[8:27] through these it's just intimidating to
[8:29] just get started with it but it's
[8:31] similar to learning how to ride a bike
[8:33] it seems frightening but once you get
[8:34] the hang of it you can do it with no
[8:36] difficulty wave control isn't about just
[8:39] these big terms like freezing or shoving
[8:41] or chi recall it's more so about
[8:44] decision making you look at the game
[8:45] state you look at the minion wave and
[8:47] then you manipulate the minion wave so
[8:49] that it's in a position that's more
[8:50] beneficial to you and so this is wave
[8:53] control if you need an even more
[8:56] comprehensive guide on wave control
[8:58] click the video on the left
[9:00] if you need to improve your champion
[9:01] pool click the video on the right