Riot has learned from previous mistakes.
Yasuo’s brother Yone, the latest champion in League of Legends, won’t make his debut at Worlds 2020, Riot Games announced today.
Riot posted a new dev blog today that described the challenges of balancing champions at the professional level. Riot said Yone won’t be available for Worlds 2020, but Lillia will be enabled since she’s already been prancing around the top four regions, which grants her availability at the next tournament.
“New champions and VGUS must be enabled for playoffs in all four of the top regions in order to be playable at the next international tournament,” Riot said.
Lillia has seen professional play in the LPL and LCS. As such, she’s been enabled for the playoff stages. She’s performed relatively well in the jungle with her scaling options and mobility advantages over other junglers.
Riot is trying to ensure that this year’s Worlds won’t have another busted champion that could ruin the integrity of each match. At Worlds 2019, Pantheon held a 100-percent presence rate in the first week following his rework. Clearly, Riot wants to make sure Yone doesn’t hold the same level of dominance.
Yone is considered to be relatively strong in the current solo queue meta. But due to his kit being fairly similar to Yasuo, it’s unclear whether he’d be played consistently at the professional level. Since he’s still a solid choice in the mid lane, though, Yone has already received multiple nerfs with his Q, W, and R all being hit.
Lillia, on the other hand, will likely make an appearance at Worlds, especially if she’s picked into farm-heavy junglers like Graves or Olaf.