However, just like in high school, not all champions are equal when it comes to popularity. While champions like Thresh, Yasuo, or Vayne seem to find their way into every meta and season, some characters are basically forgotten. And we’re going to look into some of the less popular side of the Rift here, ranking the least-played champions in League of Legends at the time of this writing. And since it’s somewhat difficult to graph out solo queue stats across the board, we’ll be looking at the professional scene spanning from season 4 up to season 11, taking into account both the champion’s pick and ban rate.
20. Xerath
(281 picks / 196 bans) This one might come as a shock to some, as Xerath seems like the ideal champion when it comes to pro play. He’s a walking skill shot that can bully the hell out of you from across the map, and push waves like it was nobody’s business. However, the pro scene does value consistency quite a lot. So maybe having a champion that’s unreliable is a bit risky. Not to mention that he’s quite immobile, with relatively long ability buffers, and an ulti that nails him to a single space. Come to think of it, it does make some sense that he isn’t too popular, when the championship is on the line.
19. Aurelion Sol
(170 picks / 288 bans) Aurelion Sol suffers a lot of the same problems as Xerath, in the sense that his skill expression is huge – but also somewhat risky when going up against top tier players. Positioning is the name of the game when it comes to Aurelion Sol. And all those pesky assassin mains are drooling at the mouth at the thought of an Aurelion pick. Although the space dragon looks cool and can absolutely stomp solo queue in the right hands, his self-peel is just too weak. And even his roaming potential is outclassed by other mid-laners. However, it’s worth noting that the dragon is sporting a 54.7% win rate – so there might be hope.
18. Riven
(204 picks / 239 bans) Although players like Box Box make Riven seem like the second coming of Christ, the pro scene doesn’t seem too fond of her. Since we’re taking about the best in the world, it’s not like her skill celling is holding players back, but rather her lack of overall usefulness. Yes, she’s a lane bully, and has made for some great clips over the years – even popping up in the mid lane. However she remains fairly niche. If you want a CC fighter in the top lane, why not just pick Aatrox? If you want to push lane and melt a clumped up team, why not just go for Orianna? So even though she’ll always have a place in my heart as the red pot rushing bully that made me quit top lane, Riven is just not up to par when it comes to the big leagues.
17. Veigar
(216 picks / 210 bans) Stacking champions are a bit rough when it comes to professional play. Not only do they need a while to really get going, but they’re also quite limited when it comes to rotations and mid-game team fights. Unlike Sion, Veigar needs stacks more than life itself. And his 44% win rate speaks volumes when it comes this fatal design flaw. Pros are not going to just sit there and let you farm. You’re either going to get poked out of lane, or they’ll move with their team and force early fights. The fact that he’s a mid-range caster also complicates things, as he neither has the easy burst of an assassin, nor the safety of a poke mage. So you might say that he comes up short overall.
16. Quinn
(172 picks / 179 bans) Science has yet to discover what Quinn truly is. She’s like a marksman, but also kind of an assassin and a second jungler. This diversity might sound like a good thing. But in reality it just means that her design has an identity crisis. Although we’ve seen her do extremely well in the mid lane and jungle, her primary role as a top laner is not quite as good. With an overall win-rate of 47.1%, Quinn just feels like an extremely niche pocket pick that’s going to get pulled once in a blue moon. With no real hard CC, questionable burst, and mediocre DPS, you can only high so fly.
15. Kayn
(213 picks / 120 bans) This one came as a surprise to me initially, as on paper Kayn should be pretty stacked. His shadow assassin form provides some top tier burst, as well as decent mobility and roaming potential – while Rhaast is just an unkillable CC machine. But then we go back to two things we’ve already mentioned in this list: First, he is technically a stacking champion, as you need enough souls to get your transformation. So his early game is pretty laughable. And second, he isn’t really the best at what he does. A good LeBlanc or Zed will provide the same burst as Kayn, but also have the ability to immediately escape, while he has to commit to the fight. And if you just want an unkillable CC bot, a single angry cow has you more than covered.
14. Vi
(251 picks – 79 bans) If I had to take a wild guess and state why Vi is among the least present champions in professional play, I would put my money on her Q. It’s a pretty standard ability that gives you a gap closer and some CC, however it’s pretty mediocre in both terms. If we look at a Gragas E we’ll see that it’s both way harder to dodge, and more spammable than our flying fist of fury. And if your Q gets interrupted, you either have to ult or just accept death at the hands of an ADC. I think she’s one of the best designed champions with a killer soundtrack. But it simply wasn’t meant to be when it comes to pro play.
13. Illaoi
(100 picks / 186 bans) I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Illaoi is S-tier when it comes to climbing solo queue. And a large part of her power is how dramatically she can punish mistakes. You get hit by one E and suddenly it feels like God has forsaken you. But guess who’s going to dodge most of your Es and potential tentacle slams? That’s right, a pro player. When Illaoi has the dream setup, like 3 passive tentacles with an E clone and an ult on multiple targets, she’s busted. But when your enemy just hides behind a minion and then kicks you around for like 15 seconds, she doesn’t seem as desirable.
12. Singed
(152 picks / 130 bans) What can you even say about this guy that isn’t already obvious? For years, he has been the go-to troll pick. And that reputation is very much still present today, as his playstyle is just built around making your enemies angry. But when your entire counterplay is three words that have been done to death by the meme community, “don’t chase Singed”, you’re kind of in a pickle. I say that, but the mad chemist is rocking a 57.2% win-rate. However those victories are few and far between, as he’s just too niche to ever be a competitive pick.
11. Katarina
(69 picks / 123 bans) Considering what a staple Katarina is in the League community, it’s wild to think that she’s the bottom of the barrel when it comes to the competitive scene. You hear Katarina and you think of 1v5 pentakills with a million daggers flying around, and enough blinking to put you to sleep. However, that’s just solo queue. Katarina is very high risk/high reward and gets absolutely bodied by counter picks. And what are her counters? Literally anyone and anything that has CC. So if she doesn’t get that perfect team fight, or if an Annie just decides to click on her champion model, she’s reduced to garbage in a second.
10. Brand
(89 picks / 75 bans) Brand thrives on disorganized teams. Having the enemies clump up and give your ulti free bounces, as well as stacking your passive bursts, is a wet dream for Brand players. However, when people know when to move out of the way, the dream quickly dies. His single person burst or lockdown isn’t that high compared to other mages – and even his wave clear is meh at times, meaning that he simply gets outclassed by other champions that fill those same positions. I’m also just going to throw this out there, but he has a negative win rate as a mid laner, support, and ADC. That’s a big oof moment right there.
9. Warwick
(86 picks / 48 bans) I think the Warwick rework was one of the best Riot has ever done. However, even that glorious makeover couldn’t really push him into the pro player lime light. Why? His R is just far too inconsistent. Having his signature suppression be a skill shot that scales with movement speed was a brilliant design idea in regards to the casual player base. But it also made him quite inconsistent. Why even risk the chance of getting body blocked when you can just pick Malzahar and click someone to death? Plus, Warwick does require some early gold to really get going. And God knows that relying on early kills is a death wish once you go pro.
8. Master Yi
(37 picks / 73 bans) Master Yi has every single issue that Katarina has, but it’s all jacked up on steroids. The dude can do absolutely nothing without the perfect setup. He can get bullied out of lane by just about anyone, and his ganking potential is nearly non-existent. Also, he has no CC whatsoever. And even a slight breeze will knock him onto his butt and render him useless. Master Yi literally has a 32.4% win rate – and it’s for a good reason. There is no question that he’s a solo queue stomper, and an amazing pick for smurfing. But anything beyond that is just risky.
7. Garen
(56 picks / 16 bans) As we’ve already seen to a certain degree (and it’ll repeat in the rest of this list), power creep is very much present in League. And by that, I mean old simple champions are getting completely pushed out of the main stage in favor of newer, overloaded champions. Garen can only do one thing: run at you with his sword while screaming about Demacia. Saying that he can be easily kited is an understatement. And doing a flash + Q combo is as advanced as you can get with the guy. In other words, there’s no room for mechanical outplay potential. Plus, his kit is just very weak, and offers next to nothing when team fights start rolling around.
6. Rammus
(52 picks / 16 bans) Rammus is a slightly better version of Garen in terms of what he offers – but he’s also a bit more niche. While Garen can tank just about anything, and usually goes for a split of both MR and Armor, Rammus just wants a Thornmail. In ideal circumstances, he can lock down an ADC and play the most brutal game of “stop hitting yourself” while their teammates watch in horror. But it isn’t always that easy. If he messes up his Q, he’s useless. If you cleanse his E, he’s useless. If you have decent magic damage, he completely falls off. He might not be as okay as he’s lead us to believe.
5. Nasus
(46 picks / 12 bans) You should have seen this one coming the second you saw Veigar on this list. This is because Nasus somehow has it even worse than our little magician. Unlike Veigar, who can get some stacks by poking the enemy, Nasus is completely confined to just killing things with his Q. That means if he dares to ever leave the top lane, about 50% of his damage potential is just gone. And considering he isn’t the best at locking people down either, that’s not really something you want from your top laner.
4. Tryndamere
(24 picks / 24 bans) This man is just a walking auto-attack. He’s like an ADC, but without the benefit of range or steep late game scaling. Sure, he gets some AD and Crit for his troubles. But he simply cannot compare to a six item Tristana or Vayne. And again, he’s melee. So attacking anything can be an issue in itself. People often like to complain about him, stating how his R is completely broken. But a pro player will just kite a Tryndamere and make him seem like a lost child looking for their mother. Having anger as your power was a good idea – but leave it to Olaf and Gnarr for now.
3. Shaco
(21 picks / 21 bans) Shaco just doesn’t seem worth the effort. Sure, Pink Ward can make him seem like the ultimate 300 IQ trap setter. But that’s not really what pro play is about. A sweeper completely ruins two of his essential abilities – and the chances of fooling a pro into attacking your clone is rather slim. The clown is rocking a positive win rate, but with such a limited presence, it just speaks to how niche he is. Stay in solo queue for the authentic jump-scare clown backstab experience.
2. Amumu
(14 picks / 20 bans) I honestly found this one fascinating. For years, Amumu has been my go-to when it comes to climbing – as his engage can single-handedly win a lot of games. However, that’s just bottom-tier me going against bottom tier opponents. In pro play, Amumu’s Q is probably the worst engage out there. It’s predictable and slow, and makes up his entire gameplan. And without his Q, Amumu can only either flash ult you, or slowly run in your general direction while crying. Not the best look. Especially compared to something like a Gragas or Jarvan, who can cut their animations with a well-timed flash and completely catch enemies off guard. Also, fun and depressing fact: Amumu only won 1 of those 14 games.
1. Teemo
(19 picks / 6 bans) There’s some poetic justice that the most hated champion in League is also the least played competitively. And the reasoning is pretty straightforward when you think about it. His shrooms are a joke when everyone has sweepers, his W is arguably the weakest ability in the entire game, and both his Q and E are just mediocre. Sure, blinding the enemy ADC sounds like a certain victory for your team. But there’s no way in hell a professional support is ever going to allow you to get in range for that. And even if you do, ADCs these days have so many other ways to deal damage that I don’t think it would even matter.
