So you've made it this far? Wow, you are truly a Champion!

First, I would like to justify myself for playing Master Yi and making this guide.
As you probably noticed, this beautiful Creature has quite a bad reputation - and that is completely justified!
But as stupid as he seems, playing Master Yi will give you a completely different approach and perspective to the game if you do it right.
And I want to clear up some misconceptions.

> If you want to know more about me, check out the bottom of this text. <

Most of the Yi's I see in my games make my stomach turn upside down. That is why i decided to make this Build/Guide - and also the reason why you really need to read this part.

I'm sorry if you just want to play some Yi right now but trust me, I have some really fantastic Tips and Tricks up my Sleeves and I want to share them with you!

The best advice I can give is to check out a Challenger Youtuber called "Cowsep"
There is an old Video Montage of him, where you can clearly see how he predicts the enemies spells, perfectly times his Q to dodge hard CC or Damage and he also uses a few neat little tricks to gain an edge over his opponents.
The video is called "Cowsep's Montage #2 - Hello Season 5!" and

EVERYONE PLAYING MASTER YI SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT!

I know Season 5 was quite a while ago, but it is still just as relevant today and also the reason I started having a lot of fun with Yi.

Here is the Link:

Play Video

Having gotten that out of the way..

Here are some of the most important Tricks to mastering Master Yi:

What differentiates a good Yi from a bad Yi is his timing

What differentiates a good Yi from a GREAT Yi is his Macro-play.

If you are unfamiliar with that term: someone by the name of RubySpackle once phrased it very simple:
"Micro is how to play your champ and against enemy champs
(skillshots, laning, combos, teamfighting)
Macro is how to play the game
(wards, positioning, rotations, objectives, teamfight set-up)"

That means that no matter how good your mechanics are, you will lose the game if you have bad decision-making.

With yi you always have high Attack Speed and Damage. This makes it easy to go for risky calls such as a pre-6-Drake. You always need to keep an Eye on the Minimap though. If the enemy Jungler shows top or your Botlane pushed theirs, you are good to go! Yi is even pretty reliable at stealing Drake or Nash (because you can smite while in Alpha Strike (Q) and neglect all the hard CC and Damage at that moment in time).

This brings us to the next point, the most important:

Timing your Alpha Strike is your bread and butter. As seen in the video above, it is used to dodge the most threatening abilities and situations.
Depending on when or where you use it, you can not only dodge Skillshots or CC, but also Towershots (yes, even Fountain); and by choosing the right target will zap you to your desired location. Even if you are not in range, you might be able to Q a nearby minion to either gap-close on - or finish - an enemy!

Utilizing your R right.

First get into a good position to pop R. Don't just use it like a Rengar ult and waste its Cooldown sprinting across the map. The recent changes to R extend the duration upon killing an enemy champion or assisting to a kill. So if you wait with your R until you are close enough for a SAFE KILL or to cancel a slow while running up on someone, you will see exponential use coming from it.

Advanced Trick: AA-Meditate-Doublestrike-Reset, or just "Meditate-Reset"

As explained in a Video by Challenger Player Cowsep, this will only benefit you if you do it right. It´s like flicking a bottlecap off a beer bottle with a lighter - at first it seems really hard, but once you have done it once, you will know how it feels when done right and you will get it right 99% of the time after.
It´s only a small change in your already extremely fast auto-attack move, but especially at lower levels it will give you a big advantage compared to Yi-Players not using it and has won me countless fights.
The Trick is to use your W for JUST A SPLIT SECOND RIGHT BEFORE your double-strike. Double-strike is your passive, which lets you autoattack twice in a very short duration after stacking up to it. I can count it by heart and know instinctively when it occurs, but you can just watch your hotbar for the buff, too.
As mentioned - your W is used for only a split-second - as short as possible, which has been made even easier by recent changes. This will cancel the Autoattack-animation of the autoattack leading up to the double-strike.
I know it sounds extremely hard but just watch a video or try it out in training-mode. It's very simple to master and will only take a few minutes max.

The best for last:

You're an assassin. But most importantly, you are a hardcarry Teamplayer.

Trying your hardest to go for ganks and get kills is very intriguing when playing Yi, but you ALWAYS need to set up, before you can go ham or get fed. Getting an early Kill or Objective (even if it's just tower plating) will greatly benefit your Early- to Midgame transition. But that Mid- to Lategame is where you shine. When you are halfway through your Core Build you will feel more and more confident to go for opportunities.

But don't do anything stupid.

This is a game of seconds and a game of very small margins. Even the passive-XP you get from walking by your midlane or pushing it will make a huge difference Midgame. So play safe into the Midgame, get some Drakes and take some SAFE OPPORTUNITIES. This will make you extremely consistent.

And consistency is key!

Once you have your Core Build you can do really stupid things, especially if you have the brain and the team to back you up. Now you can go full mental and tilt the enemy team into oblivion. Get 20 kills. Maybe 30. But most importantly - spam your Mastery 7 Icon when lasthitting the enemy Nexus. There is no better feeling then when you know you did everything as good as you could to set up yourself and your team and the enemy team feels cheated by Rito for allowing this to happen. Consistency is key and you will consistently obliviate any toxic enemy into despair if you follow this guide.
Further Tips could be: 1) using your W to decrease Towershot-Damage, 2) the Ability to solo Baron after 30-35 minutes and 3) saving your e on Jungle Mobs for a fight against an actual Champion.

Last but not least:

Never Tilt. There is simply no reason to get into a negative mindset when playing an unimportant Video Game that resets every round. With Yi you can LITERALLY hardcarry most teams (not all obviously, and depending on how lucky you get with your opportunities and decision making the outcome will vary). Dont surrender your Solo Queue games, you will exceed most Teams with your Mobility and Damage alone in the late game or at least enable your Team to get some desperately needed Objectives and Gold. You are the key element to your success and Winrate. Even the best players can´t win consistently. But doing bad in a silver game might give you some reason to overthink what you could have done better and improve. That is what League is all about. Now go have some fun!

About myself:

I (23, german) am currently sitting in Gold because I lack the time and (more importantly) the nerves to grind Solo Queue any further. I see no reason in that, so excuse my low rank. I have no problem outclassing most low Diamonds in both Micro- and Macro-play and when it comes to mechanical Skill: I've mastered my Zed far before I have started playing Master Yi as a Main Champion. I've been playing both hardcore since season 2.
So no - sadly for the Yi-despising majority of this toxic community - I do not consider myself to be a lost soul, wanting to watch the world burn.
I am simply another guy who just likes playing something a little different once in a while and I hope I could help you with this Guide!
Good luck and have fun!

PS: feel free to comment and correct me on any mistakes. This is a new guide and I would greatly appreciate the few seconds it takes for you to give it a Thumbs up :)