Both the Wind Brothers are getting some late Season 14 love.
Yone has been one of the hot topics at the 2024 League of Legends World Championship in Berlin, Germany this week, with the attack damage mid laner boasting a huge 92% presence across the star-studded Swiss Stage's opening days. Even more incredibly, he's won 83% of the games he's appeared in after making it through 12 of 23 draft phases.
Many agree the AD duellist is overtuned, including Dplus KIA superstar Heo "ShowMaker" Su, who called for him to be banned in L'Équipe, and most of the LoL community, many of whom have taken to X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit to protest the skirmisher's strengths. Most complaints have focused on the fact he feels "unfair" to play against with other LoL champions and can build into damage, tank, or somewhere in between depending on game state.
In upcoming LoL Patch 14.20, however, Yone is actually getting buffed, should Riot Games be happy with the tests its running on the LoL PBE realm.
Riot wants Yone to build crit again
These surprising buffs will see the Unforgotten's critical strike attack damage ratio on his Q ability - Mortal Steel - lifted to 157.5% and comes less than a half-dozen patches after the LoL developers buffed his Q damage.
There's one clear reason for this change, with Riot clearly unhappy with how Yone (as well as his iconic brother Yasuo) has been built in Season 14. The oft-dubbed "Wind Brothers" have succeeded with critical strike-focused builds during their respective lifetimes, but this latest LoL campaign has seen them drift towards bruiser items. LoL balance boss Matt "Phroxzon" Leung-Harrison recently confirmed this stance as testing for the patch cycle began.
"The Wind bros have been opting out of crit [because] the item system for melee crit users doesn't feel great," Leung-Harrison explained. "In the meantime, [we're] giving them a power injection to tide them over until we do this work."
This suggestions Yone and brother Yasuo may eventually be nerfed again, though Riot made no mention of when that expected power reduction may happen.
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Yone will reign at Worlds through to finals
None of this Riot action (or inaction, depending on how you slice the devs' most recent comments) is going to change the championship metagame playing out in Europe either though. LoL's year-end glamor event is being played on Patch 14.18 from day dot to the grand final, meaning Yone's here to stay.
So far, only Aurora has popped up in more draft phases - the 168th LoL champion, added to the roster in July this year, has a 100% presence through the first five days of Swiss. Most have been bans, with the Witch Between Worlds being barred from play in 20 of her 25 appearances. Of the five times she made it through, she won three. Kim "Kiin" Gi-in has wielded her power the most, playing her in all three games as Gen.G downed Hanwha Life.
Yone meanwhile ranks behind only Rell (18) in played matches. He's been piloted by nine players through 12 matches, with only Rasmus "Caps" Winther and Marek "Humanoid" Brázda losing. Gen.G's Kim "Zeka" Geon-woo has the best run-rate with two played for two wins through the Swiss Stage week.
Out and out Yone counters like Akali, Cassiopeia, and especially Vex have yet to truly appear in the Worlds 2024 playbooks in Europe but with how strong the Unforgiven feels out the gate in this 14.18 meta it's likely only a matter of time until they begin to pop up in Swiss draft phases.
The Worlds 2024 Swiss Stage continues with MAD vs. GAM today. Expect MAD's mid Humanoid to chase the Yone pick again in the elimination best-of-three.
Stick around on esports.gg for more Worlds 2024 news and updates.
