Since League of Legends’ 2023 Mid-Season Invitational began on May 2, we’ve seen several unique picks across the lanes in matchdays one and two. While some of these picks have been off-meta and have done well, like Nautilus in the mid lane, one jungle champion has the worst win rate across five games—Wukong.
So far in the 2023 MSI Play-Ins, Wukong has been piloted by Do “Levi” Duy Khánh from GAM Esports, Sebastián “Oddie” Alonso Niño Zavaleta from Movistar R7, Park “Croc” Jong-hoon from LOUD, and twice by Mun “Steal” Geon-Yeong from DFM.
Unfortunately, in all five games, Wukong was heavily beaten by meta jungle champs Viego, Nidalee, Vi, and Lee Sin, with Oddie recording the lowest Wukong KDA of 0.33 against Bilibili Gaming.
As most junglers know, Wukong is a reasonably solid pick due to his sustain and damage. And he has excellent crowd control, which can be effective in team fights. But before League’s MSI patch, Patch 13.8, Wukong was nerfed in 13.7.
His attack damage was reduced, the cooldown for Warrior Trickster (W) was increased, and the bonus attack speed he received from Nimbus Strike (E) was also reduced. Although there hasn’t been too much of a win rate drop for League players between Patch 13.7 and 13.8, it’s astounding to see what was once a prime jungle pick start the Mid-Season Invitational with zero wins on the board across a majority of matches.
While we’re all building him relatively the same, with Divine Sunderer, Plated Steelcaps, and Black Cleaver, the 57 percent win rate he has across all regions when piloted by pros doesn’t seem to be translating as well as teams would like.
When compared to the dominating junglers like Lillia, Viego, and Elise, Wukong doesn’t seem to be cutting it after he was, quite literally, nerfed to zero.
As Play-In games continue on May 4, it will be interesting to see if these teams pick Wukong, the once-solid choice, in favor of buffed and dominating jungle champions.
Published: May 4, 2023 12:28 am