The top four competitive League of Legends regions often have a bunch of things in common since they all play the same game, on the same patches in the end. Recently though, the LCK and LCS teams have been hating one particular champion.
In both the 2023 LCS Summer Split and the 2023 LCK Summer Split at the time of publishing, Neeko is the most-banned champion, according to Oracle’s Elixir. In the North American competition, she’s been banned in almost every game so far with a 93.3 percent ban rate. The case is similar in South Korea, where she boasts an 86.5 percent ban rate so far.
On top of that, in both cases, Neeko has quite a lot more bans than the second-placed Vi, who has a 77.1 percent ban rate in the LCK, and 71.1 percent in the LCS.
The Curious Chameleon is also often targeted with bans in China and Europe. In the 2023 LPL Summer Split, she’s the second-most-banned champion with a 68.5 percent ban rate, while being excluded from “only” 57.8 percent of games in the 2023 LEC Summer Season, according to Oracle’s Elixir.
Those who have played against Neeko shouldn’t be surprised. The champion received a mid-scope update in Patch 13.9, which reworked all five of her abilities. Since then, the champion has been incredibly strong in the mid lane, while sometimes also being picked for the jungle.
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Neeko currently excels in wave clearing and easy roaming to other lanes, especially since she can take the form of almost any monster or object in League. Additionally, her AoE ultimate can be easily used when combined with Flash or a disguise from her passive. The ability knocks up enemies and deals a lot of damage. Therefore, when used well, we believe it’s often game over for the opponent team.
