What's The Master Yi Secret?

69469238DEL1·Jan 18, 2016·5 votes·1,324 views

In low elo he's godlike with a high winrate, in high elo he's practically trash and never sees the light of day. What do higher elo players know that the Bronze-Silver-Gold players don't? What's the counter play?

33 Comments

EndlessSorcererJan 18, 20167 votes

Don't put yourself in a position where he can force a 1v1.
Properly focus targets in teamfights to burst them down.
Prioritize and/or save CC for key targets.
Most junglers have better ganks than Master Yi early, so they should use that advantage to get their allied laners ahead.
Ward the map so that he can't backdoor without providing enough time for you to respond to it.

Sythriel DrakenJan 18, 20165 votes

most diamond/plat teams have more cc than the a bronze-gold team. he dies quickly to a malphite knock up, followed by a leona stun as he's coming down, followed by an amumu ult with the adc able to burst him down.

Potato DocJan 19, 20162 votes

Or you know you can malph ult, save the other ults and just have everyone use a regular ability on him and hes dead there...

But who am I to say whats smart or not

Sire HippingtonJan 19, 20165 votes

Master yi is trash in high elo? Thats new to me, atleast since his interaction with sated was ~~buffed~~ fixed. http://champion.gg/champion/MasterYi : 54%winrate at plat+

He's bad in coordinated 5vs5, but soloQ he is strong even in higher elos, as he mostly gets countered by teamplay.

He's mostly countered by strong earlygame junglers+sup that know how to shut him early, aswell as easy to land cc(like lisandra w or ult) and good focus in teamfights, and enouigh map controll to avoid 1v1 scenarios vs him.

jaymc1130Jan 19, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Don Pavoni,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ZkQYe4Ec,comment-id=000f,timestamp=2016-01-19T15:20:29.958+0000)

He's bad in coordinated 5vs5, but soloQ

This may be different in EU given some of the posts I'm seeing, but Solo Q no longer exists in NA.

Sire HippingtonJan 19, 20161 votes

sure it does, though 'solo' doesn't fit anymore. But in most of those games, you won't have 5premates, but rather 2-4premates and some soloplayers, and even 4premates+1solo is already a big difference to a coordinated 5man team.

jaymc1130Jan 19, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Don Pavoni,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ZkQYe4Ec,comment-id=000f00000000,timestamp=2016-01-19T15:38:31.877+0000)

sure it does, though 'solo' doesn't fit anymore. But in most of those games, you won't have 5premates, but rather 2-4premates and some soloplayers, and even 4premates+1solo is already a big difference to a coordinated 5man team.

I have played ranked so far exclusively as a 5 man. I will not even attempt to play it any more as anything but. My 100% ranked win rate as a 5 man is too significant, and this is in diamond level play. There is no point to playing the game as a solo in any mode at the moment. Eventually, Riot has said we will have a solo ranked q again. Until then I will play exclusively team 5s.

DunkinNoobsJan 19, 20164 votes

Ironically, that trend has actually reversed. His winrate now goes up with elo rather than down. Modern Yi with Sated Devourer, Rageblade, and tank items is a far different beast than the full damage Master Yi that created the "OP in low elo, garbage in high elo" trend.

69469238DEL1Jan 19, 20161 votes

so we're experiencing a new Yi phenomenon?

DunkinNoobsJan 19, 20163 votes

Old Yi used to just die instantly if you landed any hard CC on him because he was so squishy. Yi's today are much tankier and require ramp up time to really do their damage. The standard Yi build today is item 3931 item 3124 item 3748 item 3742 item 3156 item 3047 . That's way too tanky to simply burst through. However, it does take more time to ramp up in damage compared to how Yi used to build and is extremely ult reliant since this build has 0 CDR and no ghostblade active. The best strategy against Yi now is to force out his ult and then disengage until it expires, and then re-engage. Higher elo Yi's are less likely to be baited into wasting their ults and they're also more likely to receive the help they need from their team to get into the fight and get their rageblade stacks quickly. Higher elo Yi players are also much less likely to pick him in situations where he will be ineffective; most low elo players tend to pick whatever they want with little concern for the enemy team or their own.

MrBuffingtonJan 18, 20162 votes

Hard CC and just focusing him down; also preventing him from getting strong to begin with.

69469238DEL1Jan 18, 20161 votes

This makes sense to me, low elo had all of the teamwork of two left feet, and team comps don't exist

Sire HippingtonJan 19, 20163 votes

sadly, that hardly changes in plat...and teamcomps are a myth even in diamond. thats less a low elo issue but more a soloQ issue.

PennsJan 18, 20162 votes

https://i.gyazo.com/0133b336b21c7c0d909dacfea39abb97.png And this site uses only Plat+ stats kek

69469238DEL1Jan 18, 20161 votes

Now that is interesting, link?

MegaManYYZJan 18, 20161 votes

champion.gg

TehNACHOJan 18, 20162 votes

http://champion.gg/champion/MasterYi

69469238DEL1Jan 18, 20161 votes

Thanks, this gives a lot of insight

ACENOXJan 18, 20162 votes

don't 1v1 no matter what, get cc, cc him if he is out of 600 range, else wait until he uses his Q, if he keeps his Q then damage him until he reaches you. A lot of master yi don't use their Q to dodge spells even in high elo, so just wait.

Clutch ThompsonJan 18, 20161 votes

Communication

TroiannJan 18, 20161 votes

Coordination.

AyRe CoNteMpTJan 18, 20161 votes

skill

BluePolarizerJan 18, 20161 votes

the easiest solution is to not pick 4 glass cannon ADs and a "support" Brand with a Doran's Ring.

GroveroJan 19, 20161 votes

For lower elo I think that it is easier for yi to get fed then be unkillable

GigahappytownJan 19, 20161 votes

Yi is extremely hard to play at higher elo's thats hwy

you need god tier reaction times and LCS decision making

MunchCrunchLunchJan 19, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Yi is extremely hard to play at higher elo's thats hwy

you need god tier reaction times and LCS decision making

people think yi is a no skill champ. however to master him you must be a god. knowing when to Q and when to use your meditate is really important. most of us just mash the right mouse button and get a pentakill lol. but seriously if the enemy team has a lot of cc master yi is trash in any elo

MunchCrunchLunchJan 19, 20161 votes

his winrate is still high in high elo.

69469238DEL1Jan 19, 20161 votes

But his pick rate is substantially lower, it's the few really good Yi players in high elo who keep that win rate there

SleepyLionCubJan 19, 20161 votes

how to hit cc skillshots

GentzerJan 19, 20161 votes

High ELO players are much more aware of their allies, and thus are more coordinated, which means they are much more likely to be able to coordinate the right CCs onto Yi to prevent him facerolling the game.

jaymc1130Jan 19, 20161 votes

Two things.

Devourer is a bad item in high elo play, particularly on a set of patches dominated by early game pressure junglers that can gank a ton before 2nd set of buff spawns. The item itself promotes poor fundamental game play and thus, is not used very often in high elo games because, quite simply, its a losing strategy.
Hard CC destroys the yi and he has no utility. This limits his already limited playstyle even further and in games where coordination amongst the team members can actually be found is bad news for the Yi player.

The Sword SaintJan 19, 20161 votes

They live in yi's jungle as an early game champ like leesin and prevent him from getting any gold or devourer stacks.
They have the knowledge and discipline to save cc for dealing with yi in teamfight, and the reaction times to do so and kill him before he can do any real damage.
They understand how to splitpush to avoid dealing with a fed yi and to counter splitpushing by a fed yi so yi getting super strong and splitting isn't an auto win in high elo the way it is in low elo.
picking a carry jungler makes your team formation noticeably squishier than normal and high elo players know how to abuse a light front line in teamfight to rek enemy carries.
higher elo players can execute strategies that make yi worthless like seiging plus rotating.

etc.

69469238DEL1Jan 19, 20161 votes

Okay so this is really interesting, multiple high elo are saying that Yi is winning in their ranked games, that the way Yi is built had changed, is this an actual phenomenon that can be confirmed?