Explaining Chaos as a mechanic and why it makes new Irelia top tier.
Did you ever take look at a stale image of an ongoing teamfight? If not, take a look at the one directly at the end of this post. (i've put it there only to make that other picture appear as thread's miniature because im a clickbaity slt <3) While people who played this game for a time longer than let's say, a year, can quite easily tell/guess what more or less is going on in this picture, almost all new players will look at this and say something among the lines of "the sht's going on?" In live game, this closterf*ck effect is even stronger, especially for people with weaker PCs that tend to lower FPS during big fights like the one in the picture.
Now, let's cut to first statement.
THE MORE CHAOTIC (as in, more things are happening) A TEAMFIGHT IS, THE WORSE THE PLAYERS BECOME
This one is kinda self-explanatory but we need it for later points. More things on the screen = more things to pay attention to = more things a player can miss. One of the factors of being a good league player is keeping your cool in most chaotic situations. About 99% of players can't actually do that.
Second statement:
IRELIA IS ONE OF, IF NOT THE BEST CHAOS ABUSER IN THE GAME BOTH IN TERMS OF VISUALS AND MECHANICS
What do i mean by that?
Irelia's kit allows her to abuse, create, and perhaps even more importantly, survive the chaos of a teamfight. Her Q is a long range, spammable, almost instant dash which makes her easy to miss in a big fight. Her E is almost unnoticable, ending with enemies in teamfights feeling like they were suddenly stunned out of nowhere, at best noticing a quick blink of light (add it to about 20 different lights that happen at once). Even after the end of the chaos, she still blocks most of your damage with W. Now add a visuallu intense R that not only allows her to dash more, but also creates a funky barrier that's yet another thing to pay attention to, all meanwhile 4 other players also throw all they have at you. All of this combined creates chaos in which Irelia shines. We can sum it all up in a nice sentence.
Good Irelia dashes for a bit, maybe deals some damage and generally tries to be annoying. Great Irelia creates chaos, swims in it and manipulates it, like a true blade dancer.
If that was the gameplay fantasy for Irelia, Riot did an amazing job with this rework.
As long as this game stays so visually intensive, and unless Riot completely guts Irelia's numbers to the ground, she will always remain a top tier pick thanks to her ability to survive and create chaotic teamfights.
Creating and control chaos is an important part of many champs kits, but i wont dwell deeper into that. One thing i'd say however is that incoming Aatrox rework also looks like a great chaos abuser.
Have a nice Irelia to brighten up your day and because you deserve it after reading all of that garbage. https://i.imgur.com/McH9xo3.png Made by iorin on pixiv https://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=18468610
