Azir in 6.13 - Where does he stand?
Winrates across Ranks - http://www.leagueofgraphs.com/champions/stats/azir Bronze+: 48% Silver+: 47.8% Gold+: 47.5% Plat+: 47.4% Diamond: 47.2% The LCS games (arguably the most skilled players): 50.9% Globally (across all ranks): 48.1%
Winrates over game length (Plat+) - http://champion.gg/champion/Azir 0-25 minutes: 41.56 % 25-30 minutes: 46.77% 30-35 minutes: 47.45% 35-40 minutes: 47.91% 40+ minutes: 49.26%
Winrates over games played (Plat+) - http://champion.gg/champion/Azir 1-5 games: 43.73% 5-15 games: 44.07% 15-50 games: 48.03% 50-125 games: 49.97% 125+ games: 50.49%
Experience levels on Ranked players (Plat+) - http://champion.gg/champion/Azir 15-50 games (28.9% chance) -> 48.03% WR 5-15 games (18.45% chance) -> 44.07% WR 1-5 games (17.01% chance) -> 43.73% WR 50-125 games (16.69% chance) -> 49.97% WR 125+ games (9.52% chance) -> 50.49% WR
WR versus matchups (Plat+) - http://champion.gg/champion/Azir 44 listed total matchups. Over 50% WR: 6/44 50% exactly: 1/44 Under 50%: 37/44
Data of winning matchups (Plat+) - http://champion.gg/champion/Azir Ryze - 60.04% winrate for Azir, Ryze has 1.47% playrate, and is a terrible mid for those without extensive experience on him Yasuo - 51.29% winrate for Azir, Yasuo has a 10.01% playrate, but is a bad mid until one gains extensive experience on him Orianna - 51.02% winrate for Azir, Orianna has a 4.99% playrate, but is a bad mid until one gains extensive experience on her Jayce - 50.97% winrate for Azir, Jayce has a 0.77% playrate, and is a terrible mid with an extremely unusual experience-winrate curve (more like a sine graph) Akali - 50.24% winrate for Azir, Akali has a 1.86% playrate, and is a terrible mid for those without extensive experience on her Fizz - 50.13% winrate for Azir, Fizz has a 6.44% playrate and is a meh mid without a good bit of experience on him
The one 50% matchup (Plat+) - http://champion.gg/champion/Azir Vladimir - 50% winrate for Azir, Vladimir has a 2.52% playrate, but is an absolutely terrible mid at the moment
Losing matchups (summarized because fitting all 37 would be ridiculous, feel free to check for yourself) (Plat+) - http://champion.gg/champion/Azir Lowest winrate: 42.17%, against Heimerdinger Number of sub-45% winrate matchups: 14/37 Number of 45-46% winrate matchups: 5/37 Number of 46-47% winrate matchups: 4/37 Number of 47-48% winrate matchups: 7/37 Number of 48-49% winrate matchups: 5/37 Number of 49%-50% winrate matchups: 2/37 Highest winrate: 49.29%, against Galio
Winrate on his most common and highest winrate skillpath (Plat+) - http://champion.gg/champion/Azir W->Q->E->Max Q->Max W->Max E Maxing R whenever possible ... Which leads to 47.8% winrate
Winrate on his most common and highest winrate buildpath (Plat+) - http://champion.gg/champion/Azir Nashor's -> Berserker's Greaves -> Rylai's -> Void Staff -> Rabadon's -> Rylai's ... Which leads to 47.62% winrate
Most common runes (Plat+) - http://champion.gg/champion/Azir 9x Magic Pen 9x Magic Resist 9x Armor 9x AP ... Which leads to 45.68% winrate
Other statistics (Plat+) - http://champion.gg/champion/Azir Winrate: 45th of 47 midlaners listed - almost rock bottom Playrate: 2nd of 47 midlaners listed - high, but considering he's overhyped and a LCS poster-champ, it's not unreasonable Banrate: 7th of 47 midlaners listed - high, but considering he's overhyped and a LCS poster-champ, it's not unreasonable Gold earned: 27th of 47 midlaners listed - on the low side Kills: 37th of 47 midlaners listed - very low Deaths: 30th of 47 midlaners listed - low, but considering his dashes/ult, it's not too farfetched Assists: 32nd of 47 midlaners listed - very low Damage dealt: 16th of 47 midlaners listed - just above average Killing spree: 40th of 47 midlaners listed - near rock bottom Minions killed: 6th of 47 midlaners listed - high, but considering he's basically an AP Attack Speed Carry, it makes sense
What people say about Azir (in general) "He's too safe" - Not too farfetched, given the data and his kit "He's too OP" - Call me an idiot, but all the data suggests the complete opposite "He's [censored] annoying to play against" - True, the soldier harass is a pain to deal with if you get hit, but obviously people are dealing with it quite well, given the data "Seeing him everywhere is annoying" - True, he's fairly common, with 12.08% playrate, making him the 3rd most common midlaner "His range (tether/dashes/etc) is too long" - Sure, it might feel that way, but it's obviously not helping him win that much, even if that is true "He doesn't need to pay attention to mana as much as other mages" - Sure, it might feel that way, but it's obviously not helping him win that much, even if that is true "He has no weaknesses/punishable weaknesses/whatever" - Sure, it might feel that way, but the hard data says everything about the complete opposite being true "You can't ever escape from him once he gets Rylai's" - Sure, it might feel that way, but Rylai's does that for a lot of mages/AP users, not just Azir. Also, it's obviously not helping him win any more, with the given data as hard proof. "He has no counters" - All the data points to the complete opposite.
Conclusions? Azir might be a pain in the royal buttocks to lane and play against, his soldier damage might feel unfair if you don't know how to play around it and get hit by them, it might feel like he has too much mobility, so on and so forth.
HOWEVER.
Even with all of that, Azir is an absolutely mediocre pick to play, with just about every single good statistic being almost rock bottom or otherwise terrible. Literally the only statistics he is okay at are lower deaths (with his mobility) and a good farm score (with his soldiers + ranged AAs which he builds attack speed into).
The other two high scores are playrate and banrate, but those have nothing to do with how good or bad he is. Azir is overhyped and misrepresented as OP by tons of people, which leads to people trying to jump on the non-existent bandwagon to play him, and doing similarly as bad as everyone else who tried the same.
Why is he overhyped?
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He's commonly played in the LCS by various pro players, which makes him enticing, because then every other player thinks they can achieve the same results.
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He's flashy and looks cool to play and watch
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The aforementioned "OMG HERPDERP HE'S OP EVERYONE JUMP ON THE FREELO TRAIN" flawed idea.
TL;DR - Azir's not OP, even if he might be incredibly annoying to play against, and all the world of hard data exists to prove that. However, LCS hype plus the incorrect mindset he is OP leads to overhype + high play/banrates, even if he's a mediocre pick with terrible statistics and winrates otherwise.
Thank you all for reading!
