There are always champions in League of Legends that annoy players. For a long time people cursed the “magic cat Yuumi”. But since Riot Games pulled her claws, players have identified two new heroes as a problem: Aphelios and Netflix star Jinx (Arcane). You can now see them in every game played by the pros.
This is the situation:
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Fans cheer that Yuumi was banned from MSI
This was the most hated champ all along:
Yuumi has been criticized for years for hanging on to an ADC as a support and not being attacked. Originally, Yuumi was planned as a champion for beginners who, thanks to their parasitic playstyle, could focus on casting while the supports let their ADC do the walking and positioning.
But Yuumi has been used by top supports to dominate tournaments.
Many e-sports fans and e-sports professionals really hated Yuumi and had been demanding for years: the cat had to go, preferably deleted from LoL entirely.
After the big MSI 2023 tournament, there was a huge thread on reddit with 9,000 upvotes saying, “It was really great that Yuumi couldn’t be played at MSI 2023.” sports improved. Support players could now show what they’re made of.
Before, the game would just have been: “Put Yuumi on Zeri and then probably win.”
Only Jinx and Aphelios are now scheduled in the botlane
These are the new problems: But now that the cat is gone, there are more problems. Comments say: The current meta feels very rigid. There are very few variations, especially in the lower part of the map.
This would make many games similar and that would deceive the joy of e-sports and the MSI 2023.
The problem described is that almost only 2 heroes are played in the botlane: Jinx and Aphelios. Only when the two are banned would professionals resort to heroes like Xayah, Gwen or Zeri.
In fact, Jinx has a 75% presence rate with 43 picks and 14 bans – as does Aphelios with 46 picks and 11 bans (via gol.gg).
Xayah has a 42% presence rate with 24 picks and 8 bans.
Why is that? As Dotesports describes, Jinx and Aphelios are currently “hyper carries” in LoL. Because the current meta revolves around the ADC, the two heroes are so dominant. Because mathematically speaking, they do their job of dishing out physical damage best.
While other roles are about bringing crowd control or another useful ability to a team, the ADC role is purely about damage. Therefore, the two heroes are currently so essential.
The rigid meta can change again with the next patch:
4 new items to be released in LoL with patch 13.10