The patch preview for the League of Legends Patch 13.19, dubbed the 2023 World Championship Patch, is out, and there’s one clear winner: Kai’Sa, who very narrowly dodged the Worlds nerf hammer.
Others, including Rek’Sai, Renekton, and Zeri, weren’t so lucky.
Matt “RiotPhroxzon” Leung-Harrison, the big boss for Riot’s balancing team, unveiled the last changes the League squad would be making before Worlds arrived, and while there’s loads of buffs in the chamber—including boosts for pro play darlings like Lee Sin, Syndra, and Jhin— only three champions are being nerfed.
Rek’Sai, Renekton, and Zeri are being nerfed because they benefited too much from the items buffs from the previous patches and needed slight tweaks to make them more balanced, Phroxzon explained alongside the list of changes.
The Zeri nerf especially is focused on her status as one of the more popular AD carry choices for pros, with Riot aiming to bring a little more variety in the bot lane other than the usual picks like Zeri, Aphelios, and Jhin.
This is why it’s a little surprising Kai’Sa didn’t make the 2023 Worlds patch nerfs, given her popularity. Riot has accounted for that though; Statikk Shiv, one of her core items, was nerfed in League Patch 13.15, along with many of the pro staples. This nerf did see her win rate slump quite a bit, making her much more balanced than she once was.
Until we can look over the full patch details (expected to drop tomorrow) we won’t know if this narrow miss was a good idea from Riot or an oversight.
It’s also worth adding there’s every chance she is added, or any of the other champions listed for changes are taken off before League Patch 13.19 goes live next Wednesday, Sep. 27—all these plotted tweaks are tentative until then.
Published: Sep 18, 2023 07:41 pm