For a lot of players, Yuumi is only a braindead champion that "even a real cat could play" with a completely overpowered kit, and overloaded stats. For others — although they're few — the Magical Cat was the champion League of Legends needed or at least deserved.
Riot like the cat just like players do
According to Riot Games, she's bringing a refreshing touch to the Rift, as she's indeed not like the other champions. Instead of focusing on positioning and dodging, Summoners who play Yuumi have to learn different things, such as knowing when to hop and to whom, while literally being the weakest champion in the League.
As shown below, Yuumi's master curvy — i.e the curve showing if there is any improvement in the win rate — shows that most players keep improving even after 20 games.
The Summoner's Rift team feels that Yuumi is filing "a unique role in the champion roster — both in playstyle and thematic — and there is clear data showing that a lot of people enjoy playing Yuumi.
"Depth is a measure of the average number of games a player puts into a champion. Breadth is a measure of how many different players play a champion. Breadth and depth can be used as two axes of a graph to give us a more complete understanding of how popular a champion is."
Although it looks complex at first, this log graph allows to understand quite easily that Yuumi is actually quite popular...
Is the cat balanced?
Riot Games gladly recognize that Yuumi hasn't been "in a state that’s balanced or that she’s been in a good place in regards to game health." or even that she "hasn't been fair to play against" — and that's why they decided to heavily nerf her healing mana costs with Patch 10.13. With this huge mana cost, Yuumi players have no choice but to juggle properly with their passive, forcing them to take risks and opening a window for counterplays.
Riot believes that Yuumi "is a successful champion because she offers a unique and resonant playstyle" but they promise to keep an eye on her to ensure she has sufficient counterplay.
Even after reading all these numbers, do you feel Yuumi should still be removed from the game? Why? Feel free to drop your opinion in the comment section below!
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