Lesson 2 of 6 · 7 min
Denial: The Sweeper and the Control Ward
Placing 
is half the job. Taking theirs away is the half that wins objectives, and it costs 75 gold and a button most players never press.
// What you will be able to do
- Sweep a route you are about to walk instead of a bush you are standing in
- Buy a control ward on every back you can afford one, and know the two places it goes
- Say why a fight started before the enemy could see it is already half won
There is a number in your post-game screen almost nobody looks at: destroyed. In a thirty-minute game a support who is doing this properly clears eight to fifteen of them. Most players clear one or two, by accident, while walking. That gap is not about mechanics, it is about a button and a 75 gold item that never got bought.
| Tool | Costs | The job |
|---|---|---|
| () | A charge, 4 seconds | Answer a question about a place you are about to be |
 | 75 gold, lasts until killed | Hold a piece of the map, and make theirs die there |
 () | A cooldown | Clear the route before you walk it |
The is the most undervalued purchase in the game and the maths is not close. Seventy-five gold is roughly four minions. It stays alive until somebody walks over and kills it, which in a normal game means several minutes of a bush being permanently yours, plus it disables their in the same area. Nothing else you can buy for 75 gold does anything for four minutes.
and then keeping itIt sits in your inventory through three fights and a 
, because there was never an obviously perfect moment. At the end of the game it is worth exactly nothing, and you paid for it.
The fix
A in your inventory is a that is not working. Place it on the way back to lane, every time. If it dies in ninety seconds, buy another one, you have already had 75 gold of value out of the ninety seconds where they could not walk into that bush safely.
Control ward
Stands still and works forever. It denies one place permanently, which is why it belongs somewhere the enemy has to keep coming back to rather than somewhere you happen to be.
Sweeper
Walks with you and works for a few seconds. It denies a route, not a place, which is why it is used on the way to an objective and is worth nothing standing in your own lane.
// The rest of this lesson is Pro
Denial: The Sweeper and the Control Ward: the practical half
Everything above is the concept. Behind the gate: the situations where it applies, the mistake that costs the most, the interactive drills, and a field assignment measured against your own ranked games.