Teemo. Kalista. Fizz. All of these are League of Legends champions that I hate playing against not because they’re overpowered, but because they’re so chronically irritating. Top of that list, however, is Yasuo, and it would seem I’m not alone – the Unforgiven has consistently been one of the game’s most-banned champions every patch for nearly two years.
According to Infografik (via Dot Esports), the samurai champion hasn’t dropped out of the top five of that infamous list since patch 6.15 dropped in July 2016. Even more (or less) impressively, he’s actually topped the list in just under one in every two patches since November 2015 – there have been 82 updates since then, and Yasuo was the most-banned champion in a full 40 of them.
Those bans are likely the result of the champion’s overall popularity. Since the end of Season 5, he’s made it into the list of the top five most-played champions 52 times. Amusingly, he’s also picked by players most likely to go AFK, with a rate of a little over 1%.
As I mentioned earlier, Yasuo isn’t that strong, but he is irritating as sin. I can’t think of a champion whose fans are so quick to confuse flashy plays with genuine skill – I’ve watched far too many players spam mastery emotes while dashing aimlessly between minions to ever be impressed.
Related: Check out the League of Legends patch 9.8 notes
Of course, it’s also worth noting that as a Jinx main, Wind Wall is some hot bull***t – I’ve lost far too many Super Mega Death Rockets into the void to ever forgive Riot for that particular ability.