LoL players bombard Ahri with targeted bans to protest divisive new Faker skin

Faker’s controversial Hall of Legends Ahri skin is now available in League of Legends. Some players have already undoubtedly cashed out on the expensive skin and spent their hard-earned money on repping Faker, but we doubt they have even had the chance to use it yet.

Ahri’s ban rate in solo queue has skyrocketed since the Faker bundle released. At the time of writing, the champion has a ban rate of up to 16 percent in some ranks. It’s doubled and even tripled in some cases, according to a League stats site, LoLalytics.

Those following League in recent weeks shouldn’t be surprised by this sudden uptick in ban rate. League players were up in arms after Riot Games announced the $450 price tag of Faker’s Hall of Legends bundle.

Faker was awarded a physical trophy to coincide with the Hall of Legends event. To add insult to injury, it looked noticeably damaged, angering League players even more.

Riot Games defended its decision to set the expensive price tag for the new bundle. In an interview at Summer Game Fest, League director Pu Liu said most players enjoy Riot’s games “for zero dollars,” trying to justify the price.

Liu compared spending money on League to buying things like Warhammer figures. But honestly, we’d feel much better spending hundreds of dollars on physical items instead of skins in an online video game. And it seems many players agree.