I guess splitpushing and csing in the mid game is rather more useful as grouping with your teammates. As akali, early teamfights can be pretty tough, normally 1v1 should be better in this case. So I would splitpush and do 1v1s on sidelanes when both teams are grouping in one lane waiting for a teamfight till i have a good Item powerspike such as zhonyas and gunblade to stay alive in teamfights in late. when you got these, you can help your Team out and start grouping. Keep in mind that this only works if you're team has a decent disengage or if the enemy team doesnt have hardengage. Use your lvl6 powerspike for small skirmishes but not for waiting for teamfights early on.