Wave management and CS: the silent lead that decides your lane

How much CS is "normal"

An honest reference for solo lanes: 7-8 CS per minute is excellent, 6 is solid, below 5 there's gold sitting on the ground. But the absolute number matters less than the RELATIVE one: what decides your lane is the gap against your direct opponent, because every creep you miss and they take is a double swing.

The classic checkpoint is minute 10: compare your CS to your opponent's. If you lose that duel game after game, your lane problem isn't trading — it's the wave.

The three wave states

All wave management reduces to consciously choosing one of three states at any moment:

• Freeze: hold the wave near your tower without it entering. Your opponent has to overextend to farm — perfect when behind or when your jungler wants to gank.
• Slow push: build a big wave by killing only the casters. The wave crashes into their tower while you've already rotated — perfect before objectives.
• Fast push: clear the wave as fast as possible to win priority and rotate first, reset with tempo, or deny CS under tower.

The invisible mistake: the planless reset

Basing "because it's time" in the middle of a wave pushing toward you can cost a wave and a half of CS and experience — the equivalent of dying, without dying. Every reset should answer one question: which wave am I giving up, and what am I buying with it?

The correct reset happens right after crashing YOUR wave into their tower: what you lose while walking back is what their tower eats, not what you fail to collect.