Talk:Malzahar/@comment-24309189-20140922041323/@comment-8506165-20141018114143

"I do not understand why that would reduce his standings in a good duelist ranking.  He gets to build as tanky as he wants and will machine gun you to death if you get in range.  His bizarre mana scaling lets him get damage from items normal mages don't build, and his passive let him spam his primary direct cast damage and CC spells.  His ulti lets him book it to your position, and recover any hp he loses.  He is exetremely popular at worlds for these reasons."

Again: Good duelist? Yes. Undisputably the best? I would argue not. Ryze vs. Syndra? Can he eat a DFG'd 5-sphere ult after a Q-E-stun and still be alive and healthy enough to take her from 100-0 without her killing him first, particularly as all her spells outrange his? Ryze vs. Malz? Well, unless he's opted for QSS... that's only ever going to go one way. And so on. There's a lot of ifs and buts in duels and a certain element of rock-paper-scissors, but I think to just uncritically label Ryze as "the best" because "he's a top-tier champion at Worlds at the moment and dueling is something he's good at" isn't entirely sound logic, even if the initial premises are correct.