No problem, and nice profile picture. I have Leonardo as mine on twitter :)

Me too, but he plays a lot differently than he used to especially with his max E mandate build he had for a while. With him building full tank rather than splashing AP he's more front line than he is sappling nuker. But this is the highest winrate/pick rate he's had in years, even when he was a mandate abuser so I think the title makes sense. He was also playable after the mandate change but his pickrate was extremely low compared to now so I think it was a good time for a guide.

I'd ban Morgana, it's the best counter for him but he has lower cooldowns than her so it's still a winning lane especially in extended fights. Mage match ups you usually have to wait for your adc to push the wave for you to get levels. It's really not worth you losing your HP for level 2/3 if you're trying to out push them. It's just how melee into ranged plays out. All mages are really easy to kill so it's basically just dodge skillshots until you find a good angle to go in. And if your ADC is bad unfortunately there's not much you can do. There's a lot to laning that I can't explain over just a comment but basically Maokai counters every single mage in the game right now bot lane so you should have an easy enough time. Level 6 is especially easy because your ult covers the lane or you can walk into river and ult down to cut them off. It's impossible to dodge so it tends to lead to a free kill.

It's all my fault, don't worry. To be honest I was originally going to make a full complete guide but it would have been an hour long. I had to rewrite my script 3 times to just keep the bare essentials in. I don't think people want to watch an hour long guide for one champ when there's plenty of guides out there, so there is a lot of missing info. Learning to play Maokai support isn't easy to first. I originally picked him up a few years ago as a pocket pick and I struggled at first. He plays very different than regular supports despite having an easy kit. Every champ has a learning curve, even Yuumi. So I'm confident if you stick it out you'll climb. :)

Unfortunately that's just how I talk but I do try my best for it to sound more natural. A lot of my friends have said I sound like the KZfaqr "Chills" when I talk. The burger king foot lettuce guy. So I usually do a number of takes and use the most normal sounding lines.

At least you’re aware, haha. Other than that it was fantastic.