Why EVERYONE Plays: Akali | League of Legends 

When she disappears into that smoky donut so does all traces of balance along with her

Akali, one of those champions whose counterplay is "pray they don't know how to play it".

“akali is by far the hardest assassin in the game” ok not like their ego is big enough already smh

Why EVERYONE plays X: because this champion does well on its own Why NOONE plays X: because this champion helps the team

Akali is the only champion in the game that you feel sorry for getting so many nerfs *But then you play against her*

video suggestion: why is fizz still in the game

You forgot to mention K/DA. Don't underestimate how much those music videos and skins inspired people to play her.

Is anyone gonna talk about that baffling urgot teleport at 1:45 ?

Old Akali will always have a special place in my heart since she’s the champ I got my first pentakill on

Because 200 years worth of d a s h i n g

akalis w is the fairest and most balanced ability ever made said no one ever

Akali was the second champ I picked up in League. I played about 15-20 levels on JInx, (enough to understand basic game loop for someone with no prior LoL/Moba knowledge), then picked up Akali because she seemed fun. I had no idea that she would be such a difficult player, and I basically learned the game with my first ~100k mastery on her. Certainly was a difficult task, especially because it led to a lot of negative KDAs and things of the like. But now, I have a 60% winrate on her in midlane (300 games.) Still unranked and likely bronze tho.

I'd be very interested in a "Why Everyone Plays: Twisted Fate" He doesn't seem to have the same features and mechanics and flashy combos and 1v5 potential of others in the series, so I'd love to see your take on why he's so popular.

I actually liked her old kit, one of the rare hybrid champs and that Shadow dash ability was really fun to use.

"they play champions because they wanna win" *hellbrute noises, the one who shall not be named, the one who was created in Belle Delphine's image, emerges from the the darket pits of hell*

I started playing akali when she was just sitting around like 44% wr or so because I got blood moon akali and then really liked her

OLD AKALI WAS MY FAVE CHAMP SAME AS ORIANNA, OLD AKALI WILL ALWAYS HAVE A SPECIAL PALCE IN ME HEART

I honestly liked the old Akali Not because the design or playstyle was better, but because it was so satisfying getting fed and throwing a Q at an ADC and then one-shotting them with Ult + Gunblade + Lich Bane + Q proc.

I started playing her about 3 months ago and right now she's the only reason why I play league of legends. She is so fun to play and so satisfying. Ironically, I prefer to play her when she's nerfed to the ground. She's currently considered one of the worst champion in the mid/top lane (patch 11.17) and being able to perform on her despite that makes it even more satisfying. She's also never picked or banned so I can always play her. Great video keep up the good work.

I’m so happy your channel has been doing so well! :)

I MISS TANK AKALI i thought i was the only one who remembers

I play Ahri so I never had an issue landing against Akali but the last 3 weeks I tried to play Akalia and tbh she's so fun to play and she has a lot of damage which why I started to learn her.

There was a time when I mained old Akali and was pretty good at using her. I haven't played League since late 2015 so it's one of the things I miss the most in the game.

"Giant smokey donut" I don't think I can call it anything else from now on, well done sir

As someone who mains akali, you're pretty accurate on why I play her

I miss old Akali...I liked the time she were played as Tank Top xD But yeah old Akali was easy to play. Spam buttons in most cases

Old akali was insane. her Mobility through her Ult in combination with a ward was out of this world. it was a very simple high dmg assassin, Point and click basically everything. once you bought her gun blade she was unstopebil. Q > R > E > R and most mid lane champions were dead, and from that point you could snow ball so hard that the game was over. if you know how to play old akali she was one of the most fun champions in all of lol.

6:30 that moment as an new akali player was amazing. had me hyped with the perfect execute ulti.

Vars and Rav upload on the same day, yay!

Damn. Every time I watch a why everyone plays you REALLY make me wanna go 0/8 in soloq with these champs as soon as the video ends. Great job!

Akali is one of the few assassins really enjoy playing. She just feels so fluent and her combos are super satisfying. Personally I've never had a problem with laning against her but I can understand why its annoying. I am glad you pointed out that she isnt the easiest champ like so many people claim X_X

Bro I love just cause of the Forest kingdom theme you got in the background Instant like

Nice one! And nice footage u got there :D Also, I'd like to make comparisons to her old, obsolete passive and Vladimir's passive, that is still there...

I'm excited to see thisss

Nice video!

Good job on this video, would like to see Evelynn with your analysis also❤️❤️

I miss old times when Zed was the most op assassin in the game.

if akali went from why no one plays to why everyone plays maybe there should be a 3rd category called what happened to (champion) it just sounds a little more accurate

Great content

I started playing her when she still have her original state with spell vamp and such. Love her immediately

As person who got into the game on season 9, Akali was one of if not my most favorite champion before her rework. Although she was clunky and had problems with being an Assassin I loved the character. However when I noticed she got a rework those coming months after picking up the game I was very happy to see the champion I used very often to receive a rework. Ever since then, I have mained Akali and I have Mastery 7 at 256,000 Points roughly. I agree with lots of the reasons you made in this video, and I'm glad to see Akali being put into a good light of showing the amount of skill needed to pull off such a diverse character in terms of fighting. Akali in my opinion is one of the most exhilarating characters to play in league and I've never dropped her since. Anyways, I love your videos Vars! Happy to see that today was Akali's video as I practically binged your 'Why no one plays' and 'Why everyone plays' series. As for potential people looking to see my profile, My Riot ID is Filiabanki.

good vid bro

Skill FLOOR is more important than skill ceiling. I think people talk about champion difficulty a lot without really taking that into account. Riven has a very high skill FLOOR, to get the basics of playing at a level equivalent to your average elo on other champions takes a lot of time. Lots of popular champions have one thing in common, it’s not that hard to play them passably. Yone and Akali fit this pretty well. They have a fairly average skill floor but an uncapped skill ceiling. The thing that makes a champion insanely popular champs is that they’re EASY To pick up but HARD TO MASTER.

Great Video as always and I appreciate the Nier Automata music

With her buffs a few patches ago the title is accurate but before that I can remember that her playrate was pretty low

Urgot in the clip at 1:48: My goals are beyond your understanding

I don't really play assassins, but Akali is my favourite assassin to play. She's really fun and satisfying.

As a former akali main myself. Akali can be very frustrating to play against and it's not usually frustrating to play her, but because people doesn't know how to punish little mistakes and use them on your benefit. In early poke her hard af if you're ranged. If you're melee win lane in rotations. If she doesn't get rolling with rotations she can get very useless in the mid game. Because las rework makes her a late beast. Don't let her farm or get experience, if your damage is higher early on keep farming and keeping her out of xp range. Just a couple tips.

I’m glad to see a lot of positivity in this seeing as akali is very skill expressive and fun to play. Obviously the champ is annoying and frustrating to deal with but that is a very common issue with playmaking champs in general. Great video keep up the great content

I just love her and how she runs up on people and kills them with her 5 point strike or her blade and let’s not forget her talented speed and kill move

One of the most infuriating things about her was how she’d use Q and passive and literally never run out of energy while also having high burst with her e and ult, it felt like she had no weaknesses. Also who remembers off tank / ad top lane Akali? Very fun champ to play, so infuriating to fight. Edit: autocorrect is bish

I'd really like to see a video about Evelynn at some point on the channel, though I'm not sure if she'd go into no one plays as her pickrate has its up and downs.

8:17 Urf Akali is a nightmare for a reason

The way you say shuriken is like *chefs kiss*

i played akali mainly for her thematic ngl i mained her from s3 and i loved her thematics, even if it changed from female ninja who kept all balance to flashy skill expressive female rebel ninja

The best moments I ever had was using Ashe ult on her during her smoke, my team follow up, satisfying as hell

Do you plan on doing a "Why EVERYONE Plays: Katarina"?

watching this and realising her gameplay fits her story and personality so damn much :D

*me, being patient with the 2nd dash on her ult* Hold, HOLD, HOOOOOLD, GO!

12:50 that trundle hahaha

Love your videos man, you did say Zed is single target and not good in teamfights for some reason though? One of Zed's major strengths is that he has pseudo-control mage zone control later into a game, its a bad idea to underestimate a good Zed's potential for aoe dmg. Just a little constructive criticism, keep it up!

Giant raid bosses, thats a very good way to put it

The kda songs probably just hyped her up more-

I can’t wait for my main 😁

Ayyyy lfg thanks for video! Been looking forward to this one specifically since in also a cringe akali main.

As an Akali otp I do appreciate this video and love it

So no one gonna talk about that urgot 1:50

I played Akali on top a couple times and I pretty much just always feed my ass off and then ask myself: "how is she broken? How come when they play Akali she takes my health bar and throws it into the trash but when I play akali, I barely do more damage than a super minion?" Guess I was on auto-pilot that day. Great video, really makes me feel like I'm Akali. Also, shoutouts to the Urgot who teleported to tower at 1:47

this is completely besides the point but Vars' choice in music is always amazing. I always love to hear fire emblem tracks, but now Nier also? lets gooo

1:47 That teleport lol

There is a fighter who has a sorta lich bane proc on their passive. Riven.

Waiting for Why no one plays Quinn& Ornn, two champs i really like yet never see in my games except when im playing them

I remember akali was my first champ outside of bot lane months ago and I literally only played her for 3 months

I really wanna learn how to play Akali cause she has a really fun kit imo :)

Could we get a why no one plays for Draven?I think it would be an interesting topic to explore the death of early game adc's like draven.

You got any plans on going over Why NO ONE plays Twisted Fate? My first and only love needs a vid soon

bruh that urgot tp gave me fever

Can you make why no one plays ornn cuz i dont really see a reason why he isnt hard and has a cool theme with satisfying gameplay

I'm so happy ur getting successful. I hope u remember me from rotmg

What was the music you had in the background? It sounds really nice :o

Can you possibly do Why everyone plays: Ahri next?

I actually like WEP more than WNOP, excited to see more of them.

video suggestion: why there is so many abilities to counter ADCs?

no joke since realase she was hard to play and she is still hard to play, despire now you dont get punished by not using your passive, i find no other way to explain akali like this video, covers everything that I did not even thought of i find akali not hard because of ive been maining her since the realase of the rework, and i forgot how hard it was to start having success on her also, yes, to play akali you cant play wrong, because if she messes up with one Q at early game, or not hit your E in a teamfight, its extra punishing, all of your cd's are important for an all-in, and master to play her withour ANY of her abilities are super hard (Without E or/and W is super tricky), good video as always

Oh To Be Able To Play old Akali Again... I Miss Olden League...

lol the forest kingdom theme fits PERFECT for this video

You sound so tired,good job being on schedule

Ok I hope that you're ok with feedback bc there's been something off with the some of the videos. First off I want to say I really like the concept of these videos and I think that they have the potential to be really really good. That being said, I've noticed with this video, the Taliyah video, and the overpowered abilities video and its just that a lot of the information seems weighted stranglely. For example in the Taliyah video, the removal of the aoe affect on her Q was hardly noted and shortly after that patch she dropped to an all time low play rate because her core playerbase that was running her midlane was forced to either abandon the champion or abandon their lane. But instead the video was focused on her playstyle and how its different from any other jungler and while thats true she also just boils down to a feast or famine spam-ganking jungler like lee sin. I think it would've way more interesting to take a look at how Riot went out their way to change a champions entire identity in the meta-game, and this isolating her players, rather than just numbers and unique playstyle. With the OP abilities I felt like it was just an excuse to talk about some annoying abilities, which I just don't feel like needed a video. Like everyone knows Yone E is busted and that Pyke ult is really strong, but it just felt like we were saying those abilities are good and have no counterplay which isn't really true. I will say I did really like in the beginning of the video that you talked about some well designed abilities that make up a characters identity without being overpowered. Also, the latter half of this video (op abilities) was very redundant and kept just restating "Hey pyke R is really op btw" and it just didn't add anything to the conversation. I think that talking about abilities that were insanely overtuned on their release and how they were fixed and then using that same logic on the OP abilities you did talk about could've been a really interesting talking point. For example Ekko's ult on release used to deal way more damage and heal way more and when they tuned it down it offered ekko a choice between being a tank with tank ekko or going full ap and assassin, but with more risk. Finally with this video it just felt way off from your other why everyone plays. I'd say that Akali and Yasuo are similar in infamy but with the Yasuo video there was so much more talk about his lore and how that intertwined with his playstyle and why players are drawn to him, whereas with this video it felt just like "Numbers are good, Mobility good, stealth". I find it kind of crazy that you didnt talk about how since her rework she hasn't held above a 50 winrate, at all. Her entire character is about perfection and that is shown with her players. All Akali mains and even just top level midlaners are DEDICATED to this character and they are will to take on almost any nerfs to try and make her work. Which is something that is rare because characters that are all numbers are typically cast aside if their damage or tankiness can't compete. This video felt to me that it was just that akali had really good everything and the only downside was a time investment and that once you master her you can't lose, but obviously from her winrate we know that to be not true. She struggles against tanks and cc just like almost every other assassin and if she literally misuses 1 ability it will seal her fate. Also without all of that practice and even with it she can get bullied out of lane super easily and have a really difficult time getting back into the game. Like I said I think these videos have a lot of potential, if it wasn't obvious I play and like akali but I also play/have played Yasuo, Azir, and Lee Sin. And I think you knocked it out of the park with all three, and I just wish that you'd done just as much justice to the 47% WR queen.

I would say the only other assassin that does epic damage and is just insane is Blue Kayn. That man's one shot potential is insane (and super fun to play). On that note, you could do a Why EVERYONE Plays: Kayn

Can I just say, that Shen also doesn't feel like a ninja, but w/e lol

I mean people said akali in tft wasnt realistic of what she does with a blue buff but thats exactly what its like now the spam

still dont get why if im using darius or mordekaiser i can: A. use dar Q to stand in the middle and hit the entire donut B. just use morde Q or W on the donut

I used to feel bad for her nerfs....but then i play against her in games and im like.....nvm u can rot

But evelynn also does guarillia warfare you can go in load your damage get stealth again and go in again

can u make a video on why everyone plays zed sometime in the future?

There was also this teeny, tiny little thing that happened to her in 2018...

Vars please make video on why no one plays fizz

Should we make "Why Everyone Plays: Pyke"? It would be interesting to see.

That Urgot TP tho 1:47

I used to main old Akali in jungle, god I miss her