[2021] Wanted to drop my thoughts on why the Azir Irelia's winrate isn't the main problem with the deck

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, u/swimstrim.

It's important to note that the metrics I talked about over the weekend are not the only metrics we use and we don't only use metrics to make decisions. I focused on win rate, because the community has been focused on it and my intention was to keep the conversation focused on what I had been seeing a lot from the community.

You are right to call out that decks crowding out other decks is an important factor that we consider when discussing live updates. We also strongly consider how fun a deck is to play against or lose against. However, it takes more time to learn if and how new cards are impacting the meta on some of the axis. I think it's important to gather as much information as we can before making decisions that could significantly impact new mechanics. We only have two weeks of data so far and in my opinion there is no clear signal that indicates Irelia + Azir are "oppressive."

Quick side note - I think our community dramatically over uses the word oppressive to describe something they don't personally like. When I think of actually oppressive I think about examples in MTG like Caw Blade or Eldrazi Winter. Those metagames where 70% of players were playing the decks and top 8s and top 16s were regularly 80-90% populated by those decks.

To me, those examples are actually oppressing their respective metagames and right now Irelia and Azir Blade Dance is no where close to that level. I know that 20% metashare is high relative to LOR's healthy metagame history and if we see this trend continue for a long period, then we will act. But it has only been two weeks.

One final note, I want to make it clear that the data I shared for win rates of decks/champs on Sunday was only constructed and platinum plus rankings.

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. As always, I enjoyed it. <3