If you’ve spent any amount of time spamming League of Legends ranked solo queue, you know the frustration of relying on four random teammates to pull their weight. One game your ADC ints 10 deaths before 15 minutes, the next your jungler ignores your lane completely even when you’re getting camped. That’s exactly why I started testing the a lonely road league of legends strategy three months ago, and it took me from Gold 4 stuck in elo hell to Platinum 1 with a 62% win rate. I’m breaking down everything you need to know to run this playstyle successfully, no team coordination required.
What Exactly Is the A Lonely Road League of Legends Playstyle?
For anyone who hasn’t heard of it before, this is a top-lane focused split push strategy that prioritizes side lane pressure and objective control over team fight participation. The name comes from the fact that you’ll spend 90% of the game operating alone in the top lane, with almost no support from your jungler or other laners. Your only job is to push minion waves as fast as possible, take turret plates, destroy objectives, and draw as many enemy players to your lane as you can.
When done right, you’ll force the enemy team to send two or three players to stop you, leaving your four teammates free to take dragon, rift herald, or mid lane turrets with no resistance. This strategy works best in low to mid elo (Iron to Platinum) where teams struggle to coordinate against consistent split push pressure. It’s far less effective in high elo or professional play, where teams will quickly rotate and collapse on you before you can make meaningful progress.
The only real downside to this playstyle is that your team might flame you for not joining random team fights in the mid lane. But if you’re consistently taking objectives and creating map pressure, you’ll win far more games than you lose, even if your teammates complain the whole time.
Top 3 Champions to Use for the A Lonely Road Strategy
You can technically run this playstyle on almost any top laner, but these three champions have the highest win rates across all ranks for this specific strategy, thanks to their built-in wave clear, turret damage, and escape tools:
You don’t have to stick to these three, but avoid champions with weak wave clear, high mana costs, or no escape tools, they’ll burn through resources too fast to keep pushing nonstop. Always ban a champion that can shut down your split push early, like Teemo or Illaoi, if you’re planning to run this strategy in your next game.
Step-by-Step Game Plan for Running A Lonely Road Successfully
The key to making this playstyle work is sticking to a consistent game plan, no matter what’s happening in the rest of the map. Here’s exactly what you should do at every stage of the game:
Early game (levels 1 to 6): Your only priority is farming. Don’t fight the enemy top laner unless you’re 100% sure you can get a kill without dying. Pick up Tiamat or a similar wave clear item as your first back, and start pushing waves as fast as you can once you hit level 3. If your jungler comes to gank top, take the kill if you can, but don’t follow them to invade or gank mid. Just go straight back to your lane to keep pushing.
Mid game (levels 7 to 13): This is where the strategy really kicks into gear. Once you have your first two core items, you should be strong enough to push past the enemy’s first turret. Take all the turret plates, destroy the first tier turret, then keep pushing toward the second tier. If you see two or more enemies on the minimap heading your way, retreat into the jungle, wait for them to leave, then go right back to pushing. You should only join a team fight if your team is already winning, or if the enemy is about to take your nexus turrets.
Late game (levels 14+): You should be strong enough to 1v2 at this point, so you can push even more aggressively. Focus on taking the enemy’s inhibitor first, then keep pushing super minions toward the nexus. If your team is fighting for Baron or Dragon, you can teleport over to help if you’ve already pushed your wave to the enemy turret, but otherwise keep putting pressure on the side lane. I’ve won dozens of games where my team lost a team fight at Dragon, but I took the enemy inhibitor and nexus while they were distracted.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Playing A Lonely Road
It took me a few weeks to get the hang of this playstyle, and I made a ton of mistakes along the way. These are the most common errors that will tank your win rate if you’re not careful:
The first big mistake is overextending without vision. If you don’t have wards in the enemy jungle and river brush, you’re going to get ganked and die, which will set your push back by three or more minutes. Always carry at least two control wards with you, and place them in the jungle entrances near your lane so you can see ganks coming long before they arrive.
Another common mistake is joining every team fight your team starts. I see so many players run this strategy, then abandon their lane to join a random skirmish in mid, and lose all the progress they made pushing top. Your job is to create map pressure, not get kills. If you do decide to join a team fight, make sure you’ve already pushed your wave all the way to the enemy turret first, so you don’t lose plates or gold to enemy minions while you’re gone.
The last mistake is picking the wrong runes and summoner spells. A lot of players pick standard team fight runes for their champions when running this strategy, but you should pick runes that boost your split push power first. Take Demolish to take turret plates faster, and always take Teleport as your summoner spell so you can get back to your lane fast after backing. I used to run Ignite on Tryndamere for this strategy, but switching to Teleport upped my win rate by 12% almost immediately, since I didn’t lose entire waves every time I had to go back to buy items.
If you’re tired of losing games because your teammates can’t hold their lanes or team fight properly, the a lonely road league of legends strategy is one of the most consistent ways to climb ranks without having to master a dozen different champions. It takes a little practice to get the timing right, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be winning games even when your team is feeding their laners. Don’t get discouraged if you lose a few games at first, just adjust your playstyle, and remember that your priority is always pushing lanes and taking objectives, not getting kills.