In League of Legends, there has been criticism for years among viewers of the eSports professionals that the magical cat Yuumi rubs them the wrong way. Many found the heroine Zeri too dominant in the pro play of LoL. With the new patch 13.12, Riot Games has apparently succeeded in getting both heroes under control.
What do viewers have against the two heroes?
- The supporter Yuumi was intended as a “beginner hero” for newcomers to latch onto an experienced player who would take care of the movement for them. However, the cat became overpowered in the hands of professionals.
- Zeri has been a popular meta pick on the botlane since release.
- Both characters were considered “too dominant”: They were played too often in the pro leagues, especially since they were buffed with patches 13.10 and 13.11. Viewers desired more alternatives and variety from the pros. Especially Yuumi is simply hated for her playstyle.
The new champ is supposed to bring variety to LoL:
Riot targets Yuumi and Zeri specifically with Patch 13.12
What has Riot done? With the new patch, Riot explicitly announced 3 weeks ago that they wanted to strongly nerf both heroes, in order to bring them below the 50% win rate. Especially in duo, the two are too strong, which is not what they want.
Thus, they specifically nerfed the two champs:
- Zeri’s passive was weakened, which gave her a shield when she dealt damage to shields. Additionally, an item combo involving the weapon “Sheen” and thus Trinity Force was worsened.
- For the cat Yuumi, her abilities were significantly worsened at low levels.
Yuumi and Zeri barely seen in the top leagues
Did it work now? Yes, apparently Riot Games has finally managed to make the two heroes unappealing to the professionals.
On Reddit, people celebrate that Yuumi appears much less frequently in the Chinese LPL league than before. This is considered a great improvement when watching games.
Dotesports also reports a significant decrease in how often Zeri and Yuumi appear in the top leagues LPL and LCK: In the LCK, both were picked only once in 26 games, resulting in a presence rate of 3.8%.
In the LPL, Yuumi appeared only 4 times in 65 games after the patch (6.2%), while Zeri didn’t appear at all.
Also in the solo queue, the win rate of both has dropped significantly. With Yuumi at 45.75%, and Zeri at 46.68%. So as desired below 50%.
It seems Riot has achieved its goal with this patch. They had already announced: If this nerf is not enough, they will act again.
Apparently, even at Riot Games, they had enough of the two.
A player even called for more drastic measures:
One of the best players in the world demands Riot to completely remove a champ from LoL
