In 2023, four new champions were introduced to the community of League of Legends, spanning from the beginning to the end of the year, and among these, some names have become hot picks, such as Milio and Briar. Notably, Milio has even appeared in the professional arena, while Hwei, this champion also shows great promise to be featured in high-end matches next year. Moreover, there are two assassin-type champions that were introduced in the past year, but Naafiri has sparked the most controversy regarding both mechanics and champion design.
However, despite being released for more than half a year, Naafiri has almost faded into obscurity. In a recent thread on social media Reddit, this champion was considered the most disappointing name. Accordingly, some players admitted that a champion design with simple, pure abilities for a specific role has been rare in League of Legends for a long time. But it is Riot that has made Naafiri the least popular among the four champions so far.
The reason given is that, first, Riot introduced a strange design and storyline for Naafiri when this champion appeared, causing controversy. But more importantly, after noticing that Naafiri had a good damage output, Riot drastically nerfed this Darkin champion. Now, from an unattractive appearance to a weak skill set, Naafiri’s disappearance seems inevitable. In fact, according to some players, this Darkin champion may never appear in the professional arena due to being too weak.
This is a paradox because Naafiri is very easy to play. Yet this champion has no appeal to players, resulting in poor win rates. According to some arguments, if the team is strong or dominating, Naafiri essentially has little to do except charge at opponents. On the other hand, if the team is losing, Naafiri cannot do anything to improve the situation.
It remains unclear whether Naafiri will truly disappear from professional League of Legends, but currently, its pick rate is only 0.87% (in Diamond rank and above), which is unimpressive. Riot may need to do something before this champion fades into oblivion.