A Cry for Mercy: Stop Abusing Azir! (Riot please look!)

This thread is going to get at least three down votes in the first five minutes of its posting, but I'm willing to take that risk in order to get my message across. And please, before you down vote this post, PLEASE read through its entirety before doing so. I have legitimate things to say and I feel like even those opposed to Azir's existence might agree with me.

Today I was reading through Surrender @ 20's newest post, as of the writing of this article, and I was struck by something. As I scrolled down, I saw a banner of the majestic sand Emperor himself, standing proudly. Below it was an section of writing that our amazing Moobeat (thank you for all of your efforts good sir) quoted from Mr. Meddler himself. Riot was going to work on Azir. "This is great!" I thought, thinking that Riot finally saw the fact that the changes they made to him really hurt him. "But he was OP in professional play, you noob!" will be the response of some, but I will get to this. As I read this excerpt from Meddler, there was something within what he said that really hit me and stuck to me. > "Learning curve and skill ceiling are great of course, in this case Azir's skill floor's too punishing though. Current intent is to look at ways to make him somewhat more accessible, with if needs be, some nerfs to his top end if those changes buff him there too." - Meddler

I want to say this now. I love Riot Games. They probably know. I've spent over $800 on league over the course of the year and a half that I've been playing League of Legends. I've defended Riot so many times whenever my friends were complaining about things, even going as far as making up explanations for certain things. Chroma packs? Oh, those are just cheap things that riot is using to raise some revenue for the server move from Oregon to Chicago. Report system not working like we want it to? Don't worry, they working on it and have proven to us that it's coming out soon. What's that? AFK detection and better ranked experience? Yeah, that's coming. I do this because I believe in Riot. There have been some minor upsets for me, but nothing so big as for me to actually be upset with Riot. And I don't want to be. Riot Games have given me something in which I actually feel like I'm good at. So I don't want to be mad at Riot. And I haven't been . I've defended everything Riot Games have done so far. But that's just it. Everything so far. This I cannot defend.

Azir is a champion who's release was not a good one in the eyes of the players. Filled with bugs and a stupid high learning curve, people hated him. And they hated people who tried to play him. But I saw potential. I saw a champ that looked like a lot of fun to play, and once mastered would be a very strong champion. He would be a secret weapon, something people would underestimate and only realize the scope of his power too late. And people did see how powerful he was. This only increased the hate of the community, only being balanced out by the love of those who saw how fun he was to play. I finally had found my champion, the one that I could call my own. Then he was picked up in professional play. Riot pulled out their scissors and clipped his wings. Granted, the changes on Azir were not that big. His e didn't knock up anymore, and they moved his extra attack speed to his w from his passive. Yeah, not that big of a deal. Unless you actually played him. This was a big change. Outplays that were made before could no longer be made. But no matter. We adapted. And so was the story of Azir.

I know this is a long article, but please, if you've gotten this far please finish. Azir's power has led to two different opinions to be had by a majority of people (emphasis on majority. Not everyone holds these opinions). Either people loved the nerf and wanted Riot to get rid of more power from him or remove him from the game, or people wanted him to reverted to what he was before. And I understand why both of these opinions surfaced and want others to also see why. People who wanted him to be nerfed to the ground only wanted this because they didn't want to deal with him. Reasons people also want champs like Zed, Lee Sin, and Riven to be removed, to name a couple. Because when played well, these champions can be a bit overwhelming. People wanting him to be reverted only want this because they enjoyed feeling almighty and powerful. They wanted to be that broken champion that they used to be, stomping people into the ground with the power of an Emperor commanding an army. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, as am I. Which is why I'm finally getting to the point of this article.

Riot, don't do this. Don't make Azir more accessible. Because you'll only make him worse. Let me explain. Azir is known as one of the most technically challenging champions to learn. His mechanics are complicated and take a while to get used to. Making him more accessible would ruin the entire experience of learning a hard champ. What's the point of playing the hardest champ if he's not even the hardest champ, seeing as most people can pick him up in a shorter amount of time if these changes roll out? "But we want to please everyone." Wrong. Riot doesn't want to please everyone. Because they know they can't. There was another very important article posted on Surrender @ 20 in which a rioter explicitly stated that Riot is rolling out certain changes the way they were to help please the majority of people, knowing that everyone can't be pleased. It's just not possible. Now, keeping that in mind, they should adopt the same mindset for Azir. Don't make him easier just to please more people. The whole idea of Azir is to be a complex champion that only a select few are actually good at. Making him easier will only downgrade the experience. And for those that can't play him even though they want to; if you really want to play a champion well, you will keep practicing until you are good at them. "He's too hard, I've played like ten games and still can't do it." Honey, ten games is not enough. And ten games should never be enough. Playing a complicated champion should involve time and dedication. Azir should NOT be a champion that should be open to everyone. He should NOT be a champion that everyone can play. This sounds unfair, but realize, again, that if someone really wants to play Azir, they will persist and learn to play him. Also remember that there are, as of the writing of this article, 126 other champions available for play. Just because you can't play one champion doesn't mean you should stop playing a game.

As a wrap up, I'm going to summarize the main points as a TL:DR. Riot is planning to change Azir again. They are planning to make him easier in order to open him up to more players. Although I've been on Riot's side for as long as I've been playing, I am against this. Azir is a champion that should be hard to play and learn. This difficulty level leads to the awesome experience playing him. It also rewards those who chose to spend the time to learn and play him. So please Riot, don't do this.