LoL players are so scared of one champion they’re mass-banning it in 3 roles

Neeko’s new kit is striking so much fear in the hearts of League of Legends players after her gamechanging rework in Patch 13.9 that she’s quickly become one of the most banned champions in three roles this season—mid, support, and jungle.

Since League Patch 13.9, which changed nearly everything about the Curious Chameleon, League players have had a chance to experience terrifying ganks from Neeko-disguised minions, blast cones, and even wards. And the scariest part is you can never truly know when she’ll attack or if walking through your jungle is actually safe.

So, it’s not all that surprising that she has an 18.6 percent ban rate across all ranks this season, especially considering she can be so terrifying for any player.

What makes this ban rate rather interesting is that Neeko actually has below-average win rates in support and jungle, with Neeko jungle, in particular, coming in at a 45 percent win rate, according to League stats site U.GG.

This is an improvement on her old jungle win rate, which was 42.5 percent before her rework, with the Riot developers looking to buff her in Patch 13.10 with stats boosts.

When she does get picked in mid lane (and isn’t banned), Neeko is quite balanced, winning around 50.27 percent of matches across all ranks. Players have had the best success with Neeko when she’s built with Sorcery and Inspiration. Specifically, Arcane Comet, Manaflow Band, Transcendence, and Scorch from Sorcery and Biscuit Delivery, Cosmic Insight, Offense (Attack Speed), Flex (Adaptive Force), and Defense (Armor) from Inspiration.

After the item updates in Patch 13.10, Neeko’s best items in the mid lane include Hextech Rocketbelt, Sorcerer’s Shoes, and Shadowflame, and depending on your enemy’s team composition, you may want to take Rabadon’s Deathcap, Zhonya’s Hourglass, Void Staff, Banshee’s Veil, and Mejai’s Soulstealer.

So if she does dodge bans, you should play with these setups.

That said, the League fandom seems deadset on locking her out of every game this season, so any chance to play her may be quite small, for now.

Things may get worse soon too, with League Patch 13.13—which recently hit live servers—hitting her with even more nerfs to her Q, W, and even her ultimate ability.