Since her release, Yuumi has been regarded as the most controversial champion in League of Legends due to her extremely unique and annoying playstyle. The “attach” mechanic allows Yuumi to merge with an ally, making it impossible for enemies to target this cat, which leaves opponents with virtually no counters. How can you defeat an enemy when you can’t auto-attack or hit them with skills?
Moreover, Yuumi’s background as simply a cat raises questions about whether a character like this deserves to be in League of Legends. While other champions in the game are not ancient demons, monsters, deities, or angels, they are at least humans with physical capabilities, willpower, or some extraordinary talent.
Due to numerous questions and requests to remove, rework, or buff/nerf Yuumi, in the latest Ask Riot, Riot Games addressed all player inquiries. They admitted that Yuumi is indeed unbalanced, but removing this cat is not an option.
Player asks: “Why does Yuumi exist?”
Riot responds: “Let’s get straight to the point, we believe that Yuumi has a unique place in the game’s roster, both in terms of gameplay and lore. We have plenty of data showing that many players enjoy playing Yuumi.
We believe that Yuumi players bring interesting dynamics to League of Legends – teamwork, coordination among members, or the relationship between you and other players. We are confident that Yuumi provides these with a unique playstyle.”
Player asks: “Do you think Yuumi is balanced?”
Riot responds: “With the recent changes, I think the safest answer is no, we do not believe that Yuumi is in a balanced state or that this cat is in a good position or beneficial for the game’s development.
We agree that Yuumi is not fair to face. But this does not mean that Yuumi should not exist; it means that we should have more creative ways to allow opponents to counter her. We are looking for ways to take Yuumi out of the balanced state and engage more with opponents.”
Throughout its history, Riot Games has never removed any official champions (not counting experimental projects), so the request to “delete Yuumi” as players have called for will not happen. However, as Riot mentioned above, Yuumi is indeed too annoying to face due to the “attach” mechanic that prevents this cat from being targeted.
Riot Games has sought to change this by making it so that Yuumi will automatically detach from allies when they teleport or when they are controlled, and the “attach” skill will have a cooldown. This may not be the final change, and it won’t be surprising if Yuumi continues to be mercilessly nerfed in the coming patches.