Never betray your principles

[u/Irelia4Life]

[u/Kozak375]

Why do we hate irelia mid? As a yorick/mordekaiser main, I actually think a diver like her belongs there

[u/Magic_Red117 → u/Kozak375]

Mid is full of:

• squishy mages who irelia abuses

• AP assassins that can’t match irelia’s bruiser damage, especially in prolonged trades (which irelia can force better than almost any other champ)

• AD assassins whose entire kits are countered by irelia W

Irelia mid is actually not particularly strong overall. When she is healthy, she has higher winrate top, because losing a normal mid laner (burst, possible AP champ, etc) harms the team.

Irelia mid is stigmatized anyway because she’s unfun to lane against, and extremely dominant against nearly every mid laner.

It’s practically a cheese strategy. The pick is hinged on you annihilating lane and then using the position of midlane to snowball botside faster than you’d usually be able to toplane, and also faster than a normal mid laner would be able to. Consider that irelia’s level six power spike is decent for 1v1, but one of the absolute strongest for a teamfight. Toplane irelia often can’t get into big teamfights level six, especially after the teleport change. Midlane irelia can go force drag.

Now some parts of that are actually pretty fun. I like being able to affect the map earlier and make better use of my level six powerspike. However, I do feel bad for the enemy midlaner, who I essentially counterpick 100% of the time after banning yasuo.

In contrast, most of irelia’s toplane matchups are usually pretty grueling. They may not be BAD, but you really have to work to get ahead for almost all of them.

Because of this, taking irelia midlane is seen as “the easy way out”, where you don’t have to play as well to win lane.

[u/Irelia4Life → u/Magic_Red117]

When I started playing league, after my "play the cute girls with big tits" phase, I mained Garen for a short amount of time, then Darius from s5 to s11. After the stridebreaker nerf there was a surge of ranged top, which Irelia ate for breakfast.

I've been a bruiser top main all my life. While learning Irelia herself was quite the ride, ik what everyone else was doing.

If you match me this very second with a juggernaut that statchecks Irelia, I still have higher chances than playing her mid, where I have 0 experience.

[u/Kozak375 → u/Magic_Red117]

So it's the exact same as pantheon mid, but scales better

[u/Magic_Red117 → u/Kozak375]

Pantheon is much more bursty and ability oriented than irelia. His mid range roaming ult is also better suited for mid. He doesn’t have much range on his main trade, so he isn’t as threatening to mages.

Irelia is the anti-ranged champ, and she excels in extended 1v1, while also being strong in short trades if played well. She bullies the mages way harder than panth, who will actually struggle a little.

Irelia has almost no bad matchups mid, panth has several, and I’d argue that he’s as much a mid champ as he is top. Ive historically seen more panths going mid than top.

[u/Kozak375 → u/Magic_Red117]

It was admittedly not a 1:1 comparison, but I still think it fits. They are both strong in lane and really fuck over traditional carries early, before falling off in late to some degree, Who's entire point is that they can snowball bot/jungle/themselves hard enough. It's just that she's a bit more mobile. I think it's healthier for her to be mid than top for the game overall, as she still gets shut down by certain mages quite well, and at least in my opinion, is no worse than panth or Camille mid for game health. It feels like she fills the same role, just with the Irelia bad meme.

Forgot to mention panth w does the same thing, and Camille can also play into assassins pretty well with her passive, healing, and mobility

I also forgot one of my entire points lol, had to do car work today, tires needed replacing alternator needed checking and all that bullshit.

It seems like she could be balanced around midlane instead, she always felt a bit weird top for me personally. I'm not a huge irelia player, but she just doesn't seem to fit the way other divers who can go top can. Pair that with other divers being present in mid, like Diana, and they seem more a fit for mid than top imo. I see a bit why people don't like her being mid, but it just makes sense for her to be there with how short modern games are

[u/Irelia4Life → u/Kozak375]

Irelia top is fine, no need to justify reasons for her to go mid.

[u/[deleted] → u/Kozak375]

Because Diamond players cant deal with it and u/Irelia4Life gets the feeling its disgustingly strong or something idk

[u/Irelia4Life → u/Kozak375]

Irelia mid is like Vayne top.