League of Legends players are begging for Zeri nerfs after she’s spent months dominating pro play in every region. Her near-100% pick/ban rate has players “sick” of seeing her so much.
On paper, Zeri’s kit sounds unique and fun. Her need to aim every auto attack adds a certain layer of skill other ADC champions just don’t have. Paired with her high mobility and strong team fight presence, Zeri is a force to be reckoned with if she can get past her incredibly weak early game.
This has made her a relatively balanced champion when it comes to solo queue. Those who choose to one-trick her have high win rates compared to those who pick her up for a game or two, but her overall numbers aren’t anything special. It’s not like she’s throwing the win rate into complete disarray like, for instance, Annie’s massive set of buffs did for a patch or two.
But League of Legends pro play fans are tired of seeing her every game. Thousands of passionate fans flocked into one big Reddit thread talking about how much they hate Zeri and that, despite being relatively balanced in solo queue, she needs nerfs to bring spice to pro play.
League of Legends fans sick of seeing Zeri in pro play
The League of Legends balance team has a well-documented history of balancing around pro play when needed most. Champions like Ryze and Azir have spent years in a place where their solo queue win rates are horrendous, but they’re both still very pro-play viable.
Some champions just do better in pro play, where you have a tightly-knit set of 5 players who can capitalize on the very best aspects of certain champions. For example, Ryze’s ultimate is kind of hard to use in solo queue, but it’s an absolute game changer in pro play.
With pros being able to draft and play around Zeri effectively, she has a much higher power level in pro play than in solo queue. She’s not bad in solo queue by any means, but she’s an absolute monster in pro play.
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Plays like Golden Guardians’ Stixxay going in 1v5 as Zeri and surviving have really sparked a discussion as to whether or not it’s possible for Zeri to be balanced in a way where she’ll be viable in pro play and solo queue.
She was heavily nerfed before Worlds 2022 in order to shake up the meta after she dominated the entire year, but a set of sidegrade changes wound up being a massive buff for her going into 2023, and she’s been omnipresent ever since.
This has resulted in a massive conversation on Reddit, with players chiming in about whether or not Zeri is healthy for the game. The original poster had a point that was echoed through the thread: “This feels like another champion that can’t be balanced in solo queue without being permanently present in pro games.”
This take was expanded upon with players citing Zeri’s high base health scaling, high mobility, and near-unrivaled late-game scaling as reasons she may never be balanced.
It’s been revealed in the 13.7 patch preview that Zeri has some nerfs on the horizon. We aren’t yet sure what those nerfs are at the time of writing, but hopefully, they’ll be able to mitigate Zeri’s overall power level as an ADC without removing her from viability entirely.