Zoning

Within the context of PvP game modes, zoning generally refers to the act of one or more players on the same team positioning their champion in a way that enables them to utilize their offensive capabilities in order to contest or gain control of an area, for any amount of time. Zoning is an interaction that takes place at the brink of combat or inter-combat.

General

Each team has turrets and minions that statically contribute to the team's controlled area through the presence and absence of them and their vision; turrets are bigger threats, while minions are lesser threats. Champions dynamically contribute to the team's controlled area by generally standing on any position near or outside of it, granting vision and/or clearing enemy vision, as well as threatening to attack.

Zoning is performed with the intention of allowing the zoning team to secure objectives and/or restrict the enemy's movement and vision in a contested area, inhibit them from being able to secure their objectives, or force them to give up their current objectives altogether.

• Objective: A position or a map resource that may be the goal at some point of the game or fight. Zoning can be performed both for small objectives, such as granting vision, securing last-hits and clearing wards, and for larger ones such as Baron and Dragon or turrets and takedowns.
• Position: Maps have features, namely open space, terrain, brushes, plants, base gates, and possibly hextech gates, which all prevent or allow movement and vision within a certain area for each team. There are always a select number of directions that champions can move toward through normal means of movement or using mobility spells in open space, in order to safely grant vision of enemies and Fog of War, and avoid enemy threats—such as champions and their summons, turrets, minions, as well as locations without ally vision. The more area controlled, the fewer options enemies have when moving around.
• Resource: Maps provide many hotspots for champions to interact in close areas and contest map resources ( takedowns, minions, epic monsters, structures, etc) while possibly trading them for champion resources (health, ability cooldowns, and ability costs).

A positional advantage arises in a section of the map (e.g. a lane), when one party holds more ground than the opponent next to the objective. The party at a disadvantage may either try to contest the objective by moving toward it and potentially trading their own resources, or is otherwise forced to move toward a certain direction away from the objective and forgo it until a new opportunity appears to regain the position. The party at a disadvantage is being zoned away from the objective.

Champion interaction

Attacks and spells are not necessarily used during zoning; the mere threat of using them also qualifies.

It is important to distinguish that different champions have different combat capabilities. What is relevant for zoning is the range of their offensive outputs:

• Basic attacks
• Damaging abilities
• Slowing and immobilizing abilities
• Mobility abilities (also referred to as 'gap-closers').

Note that a champion can have any combination of the three types of abilities, but all champions have a basic attack.

The highest-range currently available offensive output of a champion, is referred to here as their threat zone or zone of influence.

A range advantage arises from the mere fact of how different champions interact. Having a range advantage allows a champion to begin attacking first, potentially without the enemy being allowed to trade blows effectively or at all in time. Mobility spells and movement speed artificially increase a champion's threat zone as well as determine the possible rate and extent of zoning at any given moment.

Finally, a placed ward that is known to the enemy may also perform zoning. If the enemy prefers to go by undetected, they will potentially have to choose a different route — ward timers may help a player or the team achieve this goal as well.

Strong zoners

Crowd control, nukes or burst combos (high-damage potential offensive outputs), and summons and traps are the main advantageous traits of strong zoners. For a melee champion, gap closers are beneficial, especially against a ranged champion who is generally more vulnerable but has easier access to melee. Sustain may also force the enemy to poke back and become vulnerable to a bad trade. Some potentially strong zoners are listed below as examples, but they do not apply in absolute: the quality and extent of zoning always depends on the match-up and game circumstances.

• Akali gains an enormous gap-closer when Perfect Execution is unlocked, which can be very intimidating to a squishy target and may even scare them out of the lane due to the threat of her chasing them down.
• Annie is an excellent zoner due to her  Pyromania uptime and her potentially infinite sustain with  Disintegrate. Coupled with her burst damage, she can prevent enemy champions from interacting with her or retaliating easily.
• Anivia's Glacial Storm is zoning incarnate with some of the widest and most powerful area of effect spells in the game. Her Crystallize ability can effectively wall off enemies' movement and engages. Glacial Storm can control and even block a specific area for a long amount of time, due to the threat of its powerful slow and synergy with her kit, and it allows her and her team to catch an enemy off-position and quickly kill them.
• Blitzcrank's zoning relies on bush control and the threat of hitting a perfect Rocket Grab or using Overdrive to reach enemies and follow up with a Power Fist. However, Blitzcrank's hook can be blocked by minions or certain summons.
• Caitlyn is an excellent zoner in any lane, owing to her excellent range. Her main zoning technique is nuking, either through Piltover Peacemaker or Headshot. Laying Yordle Snap Traps also discourages the enemy from utilizing brush or running into her to attack/retaliate, and great trap placement heavily limits the enemy's movement and options during an encounter.
• Cassiopeia's Noxious Blast is one of the most powerful zoning tools, as it is very quick and enables chasing and casting a spammable burst of Twin Fang.
• Gwen has one of the most powerful zones a champion can summon: her Hallowed Mist renders her untargetable to hostile outsiders. This allows her to initiate fights safely while ignoring many attacks thrown at her.
• Heimerdinger's H-28G Evolution Turret is the apex of zoning - well-placed turrets can potentially hold an area for a very long time, especially against enemies that cannot take them down easily (such as melee champions) due to his massive burst potential from Upgraded abilities used in combination with his turrets.
• Irelia's Bladesurge is not only a good ability with which to last hit minions, but it can also be used as a very long, repeatable gap closer or escape, and allows her to trade very quickly with unaware enemies. Fully committing to an enemy with Flawless Duet and Vanguard's Edge also provides her with high burst and kill threat, also thanks to her repeatable Bladesurge.
• Karthus' zoning capability lies in his repeatable poke with Lay Waste for enemies within his range. The strong slow from Wall of Pain also allows him to force the enemy to trade into him in order to avoid the repeating attacks if they do not have an available escape.
• Lux has very high burst potential and strong, long-range CC. Lucent Singularity is one of the easiest spells to hit and catch up to enemies with, especially early in the game where champions do not have enough movement speed to dodge it, thus forcing them to predict it. Enemies attempting to dodge Lucent Singularity may force enemies to move toward a direction that renders them vulnerable to Light Binding or the high uptime of her Illumination.
• Neeko can zone with her mere presence in the game, as unsuspecting enemies may not know when she uses Inherent Glamour to hide herself and engage. Other than that, Blooming Burst is also a great zoning tool as it is very easy to hit early in the game for the same reasons as Lux's Lucent Singularity mentioned above.
• Renekton's Slice and Dice allows him to cover a long distance in a short amount of time. Following dashing into an enemy with Cull the Meek and Ruthless Predator can deal a significant amount of burst damage, while his Empowered Ruthless Predator is one of the highest threat points among melee champions.
• Ryze's Overload is on a very short cooldown, meaning it can be used to .
• Tristana's range allows her to poke champions. Her Explosive Shot passive makes her a strong pusher, while the active can shut down champs like Warwick or Dr. Mundo and thanks to her Rocket Jump and Buster Shot it is hard to gank her.
• Xin Zhao's Wind Becomes Lightning allows him to gap-close with Audacious Charge — which outranges a lot of attacks and spells in general — from a very high range and follow up with his CC from Three Talon Strike. Crescent Guard can also be used to safely push (either alone or with the team) into a contested area while ignoring most enemy threats from afar for a moderate amount of time.
• Yasuo's Steel Tempest and Yone's Mortal Steel tornadoes can force enemies to temporarily completely give up their position in lane, because their combination with their multiple gap-closers and CC provides them with high burst damage in a short amount of time.

References

• Shurelia's Tutorial on Zone Control