In ranked games of League of Legends, Yuumi currently has a particularly high ban rate in Europe. In Korea, however, the champion is rarely banned and played. This is because Koreans act differently than players in the West.
What is wrong with Yuumi? Yuumi appeared in May 2019 as a new champion and has since enjoyed great popularity in the bot lane. As a supporter, she can effectively heal her AD carry and make herself invulnerable by jumping onto a teammate and using her skills from there.
This strength has led to Yuumi being banned in 73.4% of matches in Europe starting from Platinum rank and above (via u.gg). That’s a really high rate. In North America, she still has a ban rate of 59.3% (via u.gg).
In Korea, however, Yuumi is only banned in 1 out of every 10 games. This is notable and has a reason: Koreans, like the superstar Faker, play differently than the West.
More overview of the map makes life difficult for Yuumi
What is Yuumi weak against? Yuumi’s weakness is ganks, meaning attacks from other players on the bot lane.
While she ensures a good position for her AD carry with healing and damage in a direct 2v2 on the bot lane, she has trouble when suddenly receiving a lot of damage at once.
For if the ADC, on whom she is currently sitting invulnerable, dies, she is usually defeated very quickly as well.
And this is exactly where Korean and Western players differ.
What do the regions do differently? Korean players are more aggressive in SoloQ and utilize the map better. Therefore, ganks occur more frequently. Yuumi players correspondingly have problems. In Korea, LoL is supposed to feel more like a team game, even when not in voice chat.
In Europe and North America, however, many players focus on themselves. There are long laning phases, so players remain static in their positions. Therefore, they have to ban Yuumi more often.
This is also described by Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau, the top laner of Fnatic, in a livestream:
Movement on the map is something that most players in EU and NA, who play in Solo-Q, find unfamiliar. In Korea, [at] level five, there are five people on the mid lane, right?
Sometimes people make mistakes and take a fight they shouldn’t take. But being there is often the right move, regardless of whether the outcome of that maneuver is right or wrong.
There are also differences in LoL between the regions regarding key bindings. While in North America many players assign the spell “Flash” to the key “D”, it looks quite different in Korea and Europe.
