LoL fans want Riot to nerf this OP item during its effect overhaul

Each preseason, Riot Games does a spring cleaning on Summoner’s Rift, tweaking and tinkering with both the most broken and underwhelming features to bring League of Legends to a state of perfect balance. This year, the devs are taking a second look at items (again), and one broken one has escaped nerfs (again). 

On Sept. 26, players noticed in a post on League’s subreddit that Stopwatch will most likely spend another season being OP. While Galeforce and other similar items that show signs of being broken are almost immediately nerfed, Stopwatch remains an incredibly strong item in the hands of pros and high-elo players.

If you’re confused about why I am ranting about Stopwatch, give me a second to present my case. First of all, it’s an item that any champion in the game can buy, and it gives them invulnerability for whole 2.5 seconds. So, for a price of only 750 gold, you get one get-out-of-jail-free card that saves you from a certain death.

In pro play, it’s a rather regular occurrence to see all 10 players buying Stopwatch and holding onto it as long as possible, either to live another day or to make a jaw-dropping outplay. But, the problem with all that is that Stopwatch has little to no counterplay. 

“It’s sadly become a completely normal thing for like 5 stopwatches to be popped in a crucial teamfight in pro play. I think that sucks. I can understand it better if Stopwatch is a very specific counter item to certain champions, but it’s not really what we see. We just see Stopwatch all over because it’s highly valuable on most champions. Even supports often buy it in pro play,” one player wrote, explaining what all fans are thinking. 

It feels that Stopwatch is getting special treatment while even Doran items and runes are getting their power trimmed down. So, if Riot were to let me on their balancing team, I would make the Stopwatch effect only available on Zhonya’s Hourglass, and if I’m in the mood, I would even give bruisers and tanks a defensive item that has the same effect. Hire me already, Riot.