League of Legendsis planning to make significant changes to Yuumi, the champion whose unique ability allows them to “attach” to another player’s champion and become untargetable. Yuumi has become a significant target for criticism following a 100% win rate and 95% pick/ban rate during the 2022League of LegendsWorld Championship. Now Riot is taking its first major steps toward Yuumi’s planned changes, nerfing her significantly with plans to make more robust changes at a later date.
During the 2022 World Championships, Yuumi was either picked or banned by teams in a staggering 95% of matches across the entire tournament. The only character that was picked or banned more wasAatrox, who was picked or banned 100% of the time. The broader issue, however, is that when Yuumi managed not to be banned, she won every single time. High-level players are able to use Yuumi’s unique design in incredibly effective ways, making her difficult to balance across skill levels.
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It’s this difficulty balancing Yuumi both forhigh-skill and low-skillLeague of Legendsplayersthat’s driving her changes. Riot lead designer Matt Leung-Harrison detailed what’s going on with Yuumi in a recent Twitter said, confirming that her changes inLeague of Legendspatch 12.23 are intended to reduce her strength at professional levels of competition. They’re not the broader changes players have been asking for, but rather an immediate solution allowing the team to further investigate ways to address larger criticism.
Going forward, Leung-Harrison explains that Riot wants to balance Yuumi for “regular play and not Pro.” In other words,Riot Gameswants to minimize Yuumi’s viability in high-level play and instead make her a champion perfect for new players to “help them learn spell usage & nuances of positioning.” In other words, Riot likes that Yuumi stays attached to lane partners and wants to balance around that, but understands that it simply doesn’t balance well at higher-level play.
Yuumi’s eventual changes will instead focus on getting rid of “frustration.” That means that opponents will be given new ways to counterplay Yuumi while she’s attached to an ally, while also rewarding her more heavily for her personal accomplishments and not her teammates. Further, Riot wants Yuumi to stay with their lane partner more, rather than leaping to more powerful allies to help them snowball as soon as they can.
For fans of Yuumi that play at high levels of competition, this may not be the answer they were hoping for. For the health ofLeague of Legends, however, it’s probably the right choice. Riot’s correct thatYuumi’s design is great to help new playersget used to the game, which should be embraced. Encouraging pro players to select more dynamic champions also makes sense. Hopefully, Riot can deliver on those ideas going forward.
