Since the beginning of the 2023 season, Zeri has been a frequently chosen champion in professional tournaments. There was even a time when fans continuously witnessed the matchup between Lucian and Zeri in the Bottom Lane. Most recently, this champion boasted a 94% pick rate during the LCK Spring 2023 qualifiers, the highest among marksmen.
Due to Zeri’s excessive presence, fans believe that Riot needs to directly nerf this character. Besides the game balance factor, nerfing the Spark Surge ability would make the upcoming MSI 2023 gameplay more fresh and exciting. However, Riot Games has rejected this notion, arguing that nerfing Zeri would lead to many negative consequences.
“Nerfing Zeri could lead to other marksmen having a 100% pick rate in tournaments. Varus is an example as this champion is also in a very strong state. Furthermore, we have indirectly nerfed Zeri through runes (Ultimate Hunter), items (Navori Quickblades, Bloodthirster). Therefore, even if Zeri is directly nerfed, players will still choose this character,” Riot Phreak shared.
Indeed, in patch 13.6, Riot Games has implemented significant nerfs to Zeri’s strongest runes and items. The reason fans haven’t seen these changes is that current tournaments are using version 13.5 or older. As a result, Zeri remains one of the prioritized choices in League of Legends (LoL) tournaments.
However, the possibility of Zeri dominating the upcoming MSI 2023 is quite unlikely. The first reason is that the indirect nerfs to Zeri have been applied. Moreover, many other marksmen like Aphelios, Xayah, and Jinx are also making a strong comeback to compete with this character. Therefore, LoL fans need not worry too much about Zeri being overly dominant in the upcoming MSI 2023.