T1’s Faker showed the world how incredible Azir can be during the 2023 League of Legends World Championship semifinals, where they were pitted against JDG, causing the Emperor’s pick rate to spike—but players are finding he’s challenging to play and are losing badly.
Unsurprisingly, when a League champion is piloted well in any Worlds game, their pick rate in ranked and normal games soar. After Faker’s impressive Azir outplays against JDG during their semifinal match on Nov. 12, the Emperor of Shurima is being played now more than ever; he rose from 2.7 percent picked to 3.9 in Patch 13.22, and that’s just in the U.S. alone, according to League stat tracking website U.GG.
While it’s nice to see League players broaden their champ pool, many are struggling to play Azir, causing his win rates to plummet not just in NA but worldwide.
Azir is one of those champions classified as ‘hard to play’ because his mechanics are challenging to master, and they can be a double-edged sword. His ultimate can be an incredible tool to shove enemies toward your teammates to kill, but it can also cause major problems if you don’t know how to use it or position yourself effectively.
Hilariously, many eager League players are finding this out the hard way.
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t try Azir because you should give him a go. But you must remember Faker is the ‘Unkillable Demon King’ who has played professional League for 10 years and has 150 professional games on this champ already. He wins 68 percent of games he plays on him too, way more than usual.
You can definitely use Faker’s knowledge to your advantage to help you get better at playing Azir. You can look at Faker’s Azir build, specifically his runes, items, and summoner spells and how they differ in various matchups, and apply similar strategies.
The same can be done for applying T1 Keria’s Bard strategy. Both are difficult to master, which means you won’t succeed at first. But if you keep trying, you may win more games.
So, if you took a leap with Azir and failed miserably—keep going. One day, you will get better.
