Lesson 1 of 6 · 6 min
Tempo and Priority
Priority is the right to be somewhere else. Tempo is what you spend it on. Almost every macro mistake below Diamond is having one and not converting it into the other.
// What you will be able to do
- Say who has priority in a lane at any moment, and why
- Convert priority into a second action instead of standing in lane with it
- Recognise the two moments where giving up priority is correct
Macro sounds like a subject you study. It is not. It is one question asked over and over: I am here, and something is happening somewhere else, do I get to go? Everything with a name in this track is machinery for answering that faster than the enemy laner answers it.
| The lane looks like | Who has priority | What it is worth |
|---|---|---|
Your wave is crashing into their  | You | Ten to fifteen seconds anywhere on the map |
| The wave is frozen outside your | Them | You are stuck; the freeze is doing that on purpose |
| Both waves even in the middle | Whoever shoves first | A race: and shoving costs you a wave if they answer |
| You are behind and under | Them, badly | Do not leave; farm and wait for the wave to reset |
The reason this matters more than raw CS is that priority is the only currency that buys objectives. A 
is not taken by five people deciding to take it. It is taken by two lanes having shoved thirty seconds earlier, which meant four players could arrive and the enemy could only send two. The was decided in the lanes, before anyone walked.
You shove the wave into their at 8:30, then walk back to the middle of your lane and wait for the next one. You had ten seconds of the map and you spent it standing still.
The fix
Shoving is only half a move. Before the wave crashes, decide what the second half is: the river 
, the crab, the roam to mid, or the recall you were about to need anyway. If you cannot name the second half, do not spend the wave shoving in the first place, hold it instead.
9:20. You are mid with even CS and full health. spawns at 10:00. Your wave is even in the middle of the lane and your jungler has just started the enemy blue side camp on your half of the map.
- Drake at 10:00, currently 9:20
- Wave even in the middle
- Full health, even CS
- Your jungler is on the drake side of the map
There are exactly two moments where giving up priority is right. The first is when you are behind and the wave sitting near your is protecting you, leaving is what turns a bad lane into a lost one. The second is when you want a freeze, which is priority spent deliberately to make the enemy laner stand in a place where nothing happens. Both are choices. Neither is what most players are doing when they lose priority, which is nothing.
- Before you shove: name the thing you will do with the ten seconds
- If the answer is 'nothing happening on the map', hold the wave instead, a held wave keeps its value
- If an objective is under a minute away, the answer is always 'shove and go'
- After you spend it, check the minimap before walking back in, priority you spent is priority they now have
Your opponent has frozen the wave outside your and you cannot break it. Nothing is up on the map for ninety seconds. What has actually happened to you?