The Pro play in League of Legends sometimes follows different rules than the live servers. Some champions are only banned for pro matches. The midlaner Azir was also banned for a while, but is now back and incredibly popular.
Why was Azir banned in the first place? As Dot Esports explains, Azir was banned for the pro scene with patch 14.4. This was due to a bug with his passive ability. When Azir destroys a tower, you can build a weaker tower at that spot.
However, it seems that activating this caused the sound and visual effects to loop continuously. Sometimes it was said that the game even crashed. Since patch 14.6, though, everything is supposed to be functioning properly again.
Now Azir is back and incredibly popular in pro play, but this poses a problem for the community. Rell has also been a true monster in the jungle in pro play for a long time, but that is changing now: LoL bans champion from the jungle: Players react disappointed
Azir seems to be present in every pro game
Azir is currently incredibly dominant in the pro scene. Looking at the statistics on gol.gg, you can see that Azir is played in 83 % of pro matches in patch 14.6. Before his ban, he was already at a good 68 %. He wins 51.7 % of his matches. The Korean player Aria even has a 78.6 % win rate with him in Japan. (As of: 03.04.2024)
On Reddit, the community is not thrilled about the presence of the midlaner. User Jozoz summarizes that Azir can actually do everything:
- He is good in the laning phase
- He scales for the late game
- Has a safe kit and is mobile with his Q and E combo
- Has strong engage and disengage
The criticism here is that Azir can simply do everything and that’s awkward for the game. Ideally, every champion should have their own strengths and weaknesses. However, Azir currently has many strengths and hardly any weaknesses. Jozoz thinks Azir’s engage strength is good, but not when he is a carry in the late game.
However, the post does not only receive agreement in the comments. The spectacle of watching Azir players is a point for many.
- ahritina:
Watching elite pros choose Azir is not unsatisfying. It’s not like watching Karma/Orianna/Neeko/Taliyah would be much better in every game.
- mhoward013:
From my perspective, Azir is a pretty hard champion, and you should be rewarded for playing him at his best times and not just missplayed and still cause a lot of damage.
- DarkMagicianBr:
Riot refuses to change Azir because… he is the face of pro play.
In pro play, champions sometimes turn out to be true favorites. Azir has always been a champion more commonly seen in the pro scene. Nerfs due to the pro scene always cause changes in normal play as well. An unpopular champion in both normal and pro play finally receives an update: The currently least popular champion is finally being improved: “Like a damn horror movie monster”
