Deathfire Grasp a.k.a Half a Second to Vaporize
Crowd control effects are essential in League of Legends; sometimes people even say that death is the strongest “CC” in the game because when you are taken down, your opponents can do nothing. This might sound like a joke, but in the history of League of Legends, this has actually existed, and champions like LeBlanc or Veigar were the ones with the strongest crowd control because they could “vaporize” their opponents the fastest.
The reason is that in the earlier stages of League of Legends, there was an item called Deathfire Grasp. This item would give you a significant amount of ability power, add a damage hit based on a percentage of the target’s health, and most importantly, amplify magic damage. The overpowered aspect of this item was that its activation was aimed directly at the target, meaning it couldn’t be dodged, and when combined with other abilities, it was like a guaranteed death without any chance of resistance.
This somewhat “toxic” playstyle led to Deathfire Grasp being removed from League of Legends in patch 5.2. The overwhelming nature of this item was even referenced in a musical product from Riot when the song Deathfire Grasp had lyrics – “If you dare challenge my power, death will come to you very quickly.”
Banner of Command – When Champions Were Less Important than Cannon Minions
The Banner of Command has actually been around for a long time in League of Legends, since the beta version, however, it gradually became a “meme item” as people prioritized champion strength over using an item to buff a cannon minion. Nevertheless, Riot Games always wanted everything to be “balanced” and overbuffed this item to the point that they couldn’t balance it anymore.
Specifically, at the beginning of Season 8, the Banner of Command allowed the buffed minion to be immune to magic damage, and this single update nearly destroyed the tournament meta. At that time, quickly taking Baron and having a Support or Jungle player build the Banner of Command became almost mandatory. There was no need to consider things like splitting to push or macro movement; just take Baron, buff the Banner of Command, and boom… one lane of the opponent got demolished.
Riot Games later realized their “overbuffing” of this item and sought to nerf it, but it was ineffective, and ultimately, they had to remove the Banner of Command in patch 8.12, ending this nightmare.
Shojin’s Spear – URF in Regular Matches
URF is a game mode that allows players to “spam abilities” without worrying about cooldowns or energy since you have a 80% cooldown reduction. When everyone is in that state, everything feels quite normal. However, some employees at Riot came up with the idea of bringing URF into regular matches, and thus, Shojin’s Spear was born to fulfill this vision.
And when it was added to League of Legends in patch 9.4 with effects that most players were familiar with, Shojin’s Spear immediately turned Fighters like Renekton and Jax into unstoppable monsters throughout Season 9. They practically became the URF version of themselves, with extremely short cooldowns on abilities, while their capabilities like engaging, dealing damage, and crowd control were significantly amplified. Meanwhile, others couldn’t compete with them in terms of power.
After a dominating Season 9, Riot Games finally realized that turning an ordinary champion into URF mode in regular matches was not a good idea, so they removed it not just once but twice during the pre-season of 2020.