Over the past year, League of Legends players have quickly gained an aversion for cats all thanks to one troublesome feline champion. Yuumi has become one of the most infamous supports in the game and is a menace to deal with in both professional play and solo queue. But luckily, Riot Games has a rework planned for the Curious Cat scheduled for next year.
“We think there’s a better place for Yuumi where we can deliver on her gameplay fantasy for her players while also making her less frustrating to play against,” Riot said in Patch 12.23’s notes. “We’re giving Yuumi a decently sized nerf to temporarily address some of her more frustrating features and curbing her power in both elite and pro play. However, we definitely don’t see this as the final, long-term solution for this champion.”
Yuumi’s effectiveness has been well-documented over 2022, whether it was her dominance over the global competitive scene or her consistent play time in ranked play. For example, at the 2022 World Championship, this killer kitty was banned in 85 percent of all games in the tournament’s group stage, with a 100 percent win rate in the eight games she snuck through the draft, according to Oracle’s Elixir.
On the solo queue front, Yuumi has maintained her place as a top-picked support through the last five patches, according to League stats aggregate U.GG. Unlike her pro play self, however, Yuumi’s win rate in ranked play has been relatively low, which is an indicator of how well professionals can optimize the champion’s full kit compared to solo queue players.
“Her untargetable state is key for new players, but pros hyper-optimize going in and out to reduce counterplay for opponents, while regular players can’t,” Riot’s lead designer Matt “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison said. “As a result, we don’t think having Yuumi spending more time unattached is going to give the desired outcome.”
Instead, Riot aims to increase counterplay against Yuumi while she’s attached to an ally but also make her more dependent on her lane’s success to curb a player’s tendency to leave their bottom lane duo during a match. Additionally, devs are looking to limit her massive crowd control output, damage, and scaling, while emphasizing her defensive capabilities.
There will be more details on this rework when Riot releases the next Quick Gameplay Thoughts.
