The 2023 LCK Summer Split began on June 7, and after its first week of play, there have been important indicators about the meta, including which champions are on the teams’ priority lists.
Even though there are three League of Legends champions with a 100 percent presence rate, according to stats site Games of Legends, one of them has been banned in all but one of the 28 games played so far. And that champion is Neeko.
The Ixtal chameleon has been gaining popularity over the past few weeks following the introduction of her mid-scope update on May 3. Her ability to transform into minions, wards, and other elements of the map is perfect to set up surprising plays. It also adds one more layer of strategy to the pro meta.
Players still haven’t gotten used to playing against her, and they are probably not willing to take the risk during official games where each play can heavily swing the momentum in one team’s favor.
On top of that, the champion also has good burst damage and a crowd control chain with her root and ultimate. Just like other control mages, Neeko can single-handedly win teamfights if she’s able to hit multiple enemies with her Pop Blossom.
All of these reasons have pushed her to the top of the priority list, causing her to sit on a 96.4 percent ban rate, according to Games of Legends. Chovy, Gen.G’s mid laner, remains the only player who got the chance to play her so far, as he did so in the first game of his team’s series against T1.
Even though he didn’t have a stellar KDA, Chovy still managed to have a major impact, hitting great ultimates on multiple occasions and recording the highest damage share for his own team at 25.3 percent.
The other two champions with a 100 percent presence rate are K’Sante and Yuumi. K’Sante achieved the same stat in the LPL as well, having been picked or banned in more than 100 games already, according to Games of Legends. In the Chinese region, Neeko is also registering a presence rate close to 100, currently sitting at 97 percent.
With K’Sante already receiving a minor nerf in Patch 13.12 on June 14, Neeko might be on Riot Games’ watchlist for the upcoming patches. If the devs don’t nerf her soon, however, we might see Neeko getting banned for the rest of the LCK regular summer split.
