---
title: 'An ACTUALLY Good Wave Control Guide - Toplane 101'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=OiS7bAlPuDs'
video_id: 'OiS7bAlPuDs'
date: 2026-07-28
duration_sec: 544
---

# An ACTUALLY Good Wave Control Guide - Toplane 101

> Source: [An ACTUALLY Good Wave Control Guide - Toplane 101](https://youtube.com/watch?v=OiS7bAlPuDs)

## Summary

This video covers the fundamentals of wave control in League of Legends' top lane, explaining how minion waves can be used as tools for gaining advantages. It emphasizes that wave management is about decision-making, not just knowing techniques like freezing or shoving.

### Key Points

- **Wave Control as a Weapon** [00:00] — Wave control is the most important aspect for top laners; minions are tools for gaining advantages, not just gold and XP.
- **Definition of Wave Management** [00:38] — Wave management is controlling damage to minions to change push speed, wave size, and position on the lane.
- **Common Mistake: Wrong Technique at Wrong Time** [01:02] — Players often know techniques but fail to choose the right one, leading to disastrous outcomes like losing waves after a kill.
- **Neutral Wave and Freeze** [01:36] — When waves crash in the middle, they are neutral. First auto attack starts a push; to slow push, enemy must attack your minions.
- **Minion Advantage and Push Direction** [02:21] — If you kill an enemy minion, your wave pushes. Reinforcements closer to your turret cause a push toward enemy turret.
- **Freeze Conditions** [02:58] — To freeze near your turret, enemy wave must have 3 more minions. A 4+ minion advantage pushes until cleared by champion or turret.
- **Counting Minions** [03:22] — First step: count minions, determine advantage, and check diagram to predict wave movement.
- **Crashing Wave into Turret** [03:40] — Crashing resets the wave and causes it to push back to you because enemy reinforcements arrive sooner.
- **Slow Push and Freeze Setup** [04:06] — If fed, slow push a big wave, crash, then let it push back. Trim enemy minions to 3 advantage for a freeze.
- **Three-Step Process: Planning, Analysis, Execution** [04:52] — Planning: set a goal (e.g., freeze if camped, slow push for dive). Analysis: determine wave state. Execution: apply technique.
- **Example: Freezing Against Weak Early Champion** [06:13] — Against a weak early champion, freeze near your turret to starve them. Trim a large wave to 3-4 minion advantage.
- **Example: After Kill Without Teleport** [07:07] — Push wave to enemy turret to make it bounce back, doubling lead via kill and minion advantage.
- **Example: Slow Push for Dive** [07:43] — After a good trade, slow push a big wave under turret to force enemy to back or risk being dove.

### Conclusion

Wave control is about decision-making: analyze the game state and manipulate the wave to your advantage. With practice, these decisions become second nature.

## Transcript

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