Braum has been underwhelming.

He's been so good for so long that people are finding champion counters (Morg) and play counters. His Level 1 is so amazing that people don't really pay attention to his meh rest of the game. It could also be that people playing him aren't very comfortable on him, like how the Flash Wolves mid played GP because he was good, but played like an idiot until about the first teamfight.

Because the teams that happened to pick Braum were BAD. Look at the teams he was on and lost (eg PAIN, BKT).. Doesnt matter WHO the support was... it was gonna be a LOSS.

I agree. Yet somehow he's the most contested support. He sounds really good on paper but I think he only excels at laning/roaming. He's picked for his wall but he only has 4 seconds and the CD is far too long. He's not the tankiest person with the E down and the W is rarely used in meaningful ways. He's just not a good pick imo, especially compared to Thresh/Bard/Morgana.

I think he was usually just picked by the weaker team.

More noticable was the lack of janna, thresh and the return of q as wide as the lane morgana

Anyway, i don't think Braum is necessarily a good enough choice if you know your team is inferior to your adversary. Braum has one of the least carry potential around for top tier picks. He can make HUGE plays for his mates, but at the end it is still them that have to carry hard and output damage, so if they are clearly inferior the enemy can still work around Braum plays Inferior teams should go with riskier picks on their support, imho

Because he is being picked early to hide other picks. He is a defensive pick, and he is being picked before seeing if he is the best choice for protecting his carries from the threats the other team brings.

Cant look at a single champ over a small sample size... It's still a team game.

The analysts pointed out that he seems to do better against strong-laning ADCs like Sivir or Corki. Many of the ADCs so far have been siege-oriented or jugger-maw. Also, he syncronizes well with Yasuo, and he has yet to be played in Worlds even though he was played frequently during the Split.

It is also justified to claim that he might have been picked by teams who were less likely to win anyway, which would skew the win-rate.