Wave management represents one of League's most sophisticated strategic elements, allowing skilled players to manipulate minion positioning for tactical advantages. Expert analysis shows that proper wave management can create 15-20% CS advantages and significantly reduce gank vulnerability.
Freezing: Defensive Positioning Control
Freezing involves maintaining the minion wave in a static position, typically just outside your turret range. This technique requires precise minion manipulation—you must maintain exactly 3-4 enemy minions more than your own to create a slow push toward your position.
Execution Technique: Last-hit enemy minions normally while tanking 3-4 enemy minions without killing them. When your minion wave arrives, these extra enemy minions will slowly push the wave toward your turret. Reset the freeze by maintaining this 3-4 minion differential.
Strategic Applications: Freezing denies enemy CS and experience while keeping them vulnerable to jungle ganks. Use freezing when ahead to extend your advantage or when behind to farm safely. Professional players often freeze for 2-3 waves to create significant CS leads.
Slow Pushing: Building Pressure Gradually
Slow pushing creates gradually building minion waves that eventually crash into enemy turrets with overwhelming force. This technique involves killing slightly more enemy minions than they kill of yours, creating incremental wave advantages.
Execution Technique: Kill 1-2 more enemy minions per wave than normal last-hitting. Avoid using abilities that clear entire waves—instead, focus on creating small minion advantages that compound over time.
Strategic Applications: Slow pushes create recall timing opportunities and objective setup potential. When your slow push crashes (typically after 3-4 waves), you can recall safely or rotate to objectives while enemies are forced to clear the large wave.
Fast Pushing: Immediate Pressure Creation
Fast pushing involves quickly clearing minion waves using abilities to create immediate map pressure or roaming opportunities.
Execution Technique: Use area-of-effect abilities to clear entire minion waves rapidly. Coordinate with your abilities' cooldowns to maximize clearing efficiency while conserving mana.
Strategic Applications: Fast push before recalling to prevent minion loss, before roaming to assist teammates, or when you need to match enemy roams. This technique sacrifices lane control for immediate map presence.