Can we talk about Ahri? (Would love to hear from Phreak on this!)

<- Ahri was the first champion I ever bought. On Christmas day shortly after she was released I decided to pick her up and I fell in love with the playstyle. I was determined to master Ahri and put a ton of time into this desire.

After nerfs and buffs and fotm picks Ahri now stands as not only a competitive pick, but one that is doing quite well. As someone who loves seeing more Ahri's being played especially at a competitive level I am finding myself more frightened that she will be hit with the nerf bat once more as her win percentages start to rise.

However, as near and dear as Ahri is to me and this game there is an aspect of the current gamestate that I would like to have a discussion with you about (be it Phreak or any other rioter and no offense to fellow summoners). Now on the league subreddit a couple days ago we saw a Korean Ahri montage (link for unfamiliar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqXWjBCmNqM). In this montage we see Ahri being played in what I believe is Riot's desired "style." A mobile, high skillcap, fluid and position based assassin champion. In other words, Ahri is darting around the battlefield as elusive as a fox while dealing damage by landing skillshots. Pretty fun to watch right? Interestingly, pay particular attention to the item build in this montage. Notice the lack of DFG???

Now let's look at Ahri as how she is typically now played, particularly when DFG is the item of choice. DGF is in my own opinion a toxic choice for Ahri and most other damage dealers. This is mainly what I would like to have a discussion about because I would like to see a different perspective of what I believe is a problematic style of gameplay. With DFG, Ahri gains the ability to delete someone off the face of the map in a matter of seconds with little to no counterplay.

The scenario usually goes as follows, land charm, DFG blow everything and they're dead. As the person who got killed, what could you have done? The alternative scenario which I see more often is, charm misses but because of DFG landing Ahri can throw away positioning to jump towards the person with her ult, getting the necessary damage she needs to finish the kill. This is a toxic gameplay cycle because DFG no longer makes Ahri a mobile, skillshot reliant, elusive assassin, but rather a reckless 1-shot terror capable of abandoning positioning and fleeing with two dashes to get out of a fight.

If Riot is looking at Ahri and believing she is too powerful and worthy of nerfs please look at DFG as the culprit. As the korean player showed, playing Ahri can be a beautiful experience, not bumrushing a champ, popping DFG and unloading everything before they can react. if Riot is intent on making champs have some weakness or counterplay, maintain the reliance Ahri has on hitting skillshots and using her ult to reposition in a fight.

Thoughts? I'd like to have a discussion about this, especially if someone can change my view on the matter.

Apologies in advance for any formatting, I think this may be my first post. If it matters to some, I am a plat level player.