There was a time, when video game culture was still in its infancy, where it seemed every morning talk show had a segment about being appalled at video game violence. The platform was still not well understood, especially by those who had no interest in engaging in playing video games. Naturally, many mothers and political groups assumed that the violent themes and images in video games would encourage violent tendencies in those who played them. Their premise was ridiculous and repeatedly proven to be unfounded, but I think that is because they were looking at it the wrong way. It is not violent themes that encouraged hatred, the culprits were frustrating design and multiplayer-versus. There is a consensus on what the most toxic video game communities are. Something you’ll notice is that almost all these communities are multiplayer team game focused and League of Legends is somewhere on everybody’s list.
At any given point, half the players are losing and more than half are criticizing their team. Frustrations have reached a point, where just the sight of certain champions (whether on your team or the enemy team) is enough to send players into a rage spiral. Is it a self-fulfilling prophecy? Does the belief that you always do poorly against a certain champion ensure that you play poorly, since you’ve already resigned yourself to loss? Does the belief that certain champions (especially when challenging the meta by being in a different role) are useless to your team ensure that you won’t encourage that player or help them? The answer may be intangible and a complex combination, but in any case, here are the fifteen most hated League characters.
15 Teemo
He is the worst. The absolute, undisputed reincarnation of the Devil, in League of Legends. I hate him so much!
Alright, I’ve let that out of my system, I’m sorry, but just seeing his name sets me off. In fact, I hate him so much that I wanted to put him at fifteen to not give him the satisfaction of being number one. How can one character warrant so much hate? It is actually all in his design. Teemo’s kit is made specifically to frustrate the other team and not contribute to his own. He doesn’t synergize well with any other champions, he can’t peel, he’s not designed to tank, and he doesn’t spit out as much damage as other marksmen or mages can. Instead, he just contributes to frustrating deaths. The wasted flashes and dying to his poison, the dying to a mushroom he planted in your jungle five minutes earlier, and the dying while swinging and hitting nothing because he blinded you. These types of frustrations weigh on the enemy players and usually have them lashing out at their own team, which crumbles their ability to play together. This character is powered by how much we hate him.
14 Urgot
Long forgotten by Riot, Urgot is in desperate need of a rework to make him relevant again. Every once in a while, when the tank meta comes on too strong, you may see him make a reappearance, providing armor reduction for the rest of his team, but generally he’s an inconsequential pick. Don’t get me wrong, he’s fun to play and there are some players who are very good with him and useful. Unfortunately, they are a small minority and he has an abysmal win rate. So just the sight of him on your team usually sends your teammates into rage spirals before the game can even begin. If for nothing else, he needs a rework as an excuse to replace that Giant Enemy Crabgot splash art. Why Riot still has official art up of a big cyborg crab monster kidnapping a scantily clad girl is a mystery to me.
13 Twitch
Our first example on this list of a champion “that is always Wood V when on my team, but Diamond level when I face them.” He is very frustrating to play against, especially for those new to the game. For new players who have yet to get a hang of looking at their mini-map, having an invisible character walk up to them and open fire can be very frustrating. League of Legends requires players to be skilled at their champion and to understand the threat level of every other champion in the game. Well, Twitch is one of the hardest to understand. Especially since his ultimate has a small visual cue change, but suddenly your entire team is being shredded. Then there is the fact that it will feel like when he is on your team, he will always pick the worst moments to come out of invisibility and you have to scramble to try to peel the enemy team off him.
12 Ryze
While the recent rework for Ryze has made him a lot less “point and clicky,” it is still frustrating that he gets to unilaterally decide to snare you. Almost every other champion with a snare that long requires them to land the spell on you. In turn, you have to have failed to dodge that spell, so theirs is more of an inward feeling of frustration when it happens. However, against Ryze, you know there’s nothing you can do, at some point when fighting him, he will decide you’re not allowed to move and you have to like it. Still, at least his damage all comes from skill shots, so overall the rework made him less frustrating to play against. Why is he still on this list then? Well the rework made him more frustrating to play with. His ultimate now transports his own teammates to a location of his choosing. A single poor choice has sent many a team into a toxic, in-fighting spiral.
11 Tahm Kench
With yet another character with the ability to transport his teammates, you may start to see a pattern develop. While Tahm Kench’s ultimate ability works a lot like Ryze’s, except for a maximum of one other ally, it’s not his ultimate that puts him higher on this list. It’s mostly that he can ingest an ally and run around with them before spitting them back out. While this can be a very helpful mechanic to a team and many a champion’s life has been saved by it, it can also be a tool for great evil. Pro-tip, don’t be toxic to a Tahm on your team. They have too much power over you, should you tilt them. A Tahm Kench who has abandoned trying to win can actively decide how your game will play out as well. You shouldn’t rage against your own team anyway, but at the very least, keep the Kench happy.
10 Bard
Finally, the last entry in the epic trilogy of the League Transporters, Bard. The worst of the trio, for the simple reason that the enemy team can also use his Magical Journey portal. It can act as a great trap, using himself as bait, to lure unsuspecting enemies straight to Bard’s waiting allies. However, sometimes the portals are created out of panic, as Bard tries to escape the clutches of death. If not properly coordinated, all Bard accomplishes is the equivalent of the drowning person who pulls down those around them. To top it all off, there is his ultimate, designating anything in an area invulnerable and unable to move for a couple seconds. While useful to lock down a fleeing enemy, giving time for your team to catch up, it often backfires and only locks down his pursuing allies, allowing the enemy to escape. In addition, look at his face, so lovable and peaceful… he doesn’t belong in League of Legends.
9 Blitzcrank
The scourge of low elo games, Bltizcrank. As previously mentioned, a difficult thing for new players (and the hard-headed old players) is to properly assess threat level. There is a certain understanding of what an enemy champion can do to you that is only achieved after they have burned you often enough for you to learn your lesson. Blitzcrank is one of the first lessons every League player learns. His mechanic is simple, as he aims in a straight line, and brings the first thing he hits to him. Everything in his kit is designed to set up that pull and lock down whatever he hits. He requires opposing players to be aware of their own positioning, something that does not come naturally to most. Be prepared to learn your lesson the hard way. Then, once you’ve gained enough experience and familiarity with the game, be prepared to face Blitzcrank mains who have also improved and play a game of rock, paper, scissors as they predict in which direction you’ll attempt to dodge.
8 Warwick
Thank you Riot and all that is good above for finally making Warwick’s ultimate a skill shot. There was nothing more obnoxious than when he was able to unilaterally decide: you’re not allowed to play, you are going to take a bunch of damage, I am going to gain a lot of health, and you will like everything about this. He is still very much built around that decision, but at least you have a chance of dodging it. Though that is easier said than done, because unless he completely messes up, the only way you will dodge his ultimate is with your flash and you only get one of those every five minutes. He still has an obnoxious amount of life steal, especially when low health.
7 Talon
Talon can be very strong, but I think he is well balanced overall within the game. The frustrating thing is that damn ability to parkour. Walls are no obstacle to the man, making chasing him a fool’s endeavor. Even if you somehow catch up to him, the expenditure of time and effort negates the gain of putting him down. One of the barriers that keeps lower elo players from advancing is the inability to capitalize after winning a team fight. Talon exploits those inabilities. He may be the last person left alive, with little health, on his team, but he is so hated, that instead of putting pressure on objectives to win the game, the enemy team will chase him through his jungle gym. Seen here in his premium monkey skin, Talon wastes the enemy team’s time.
6 Yasuo
Just over halfway through the list, we meet our first entry with a “carry everyone else” complex. When you face against Yasuo, it is frustrating because he can almost single-handily destroy your team. Yet, the more frustrating aspect is when a player on your team criticizes you and expects everything you do to be in service of them and their ability to carry you. When an ally adopts the attitude that you are nothing but dead weight for them to carry, it is not surprising that team morale plummets. This is the main reason that the community criticizes Riot when certain champions are unbalanced to the rest. It is not only because it is frustrating to play against something that has a stronger design, it is also because it fosters independence within a team game. Ideally, victory should only be achieved through teamwork. When certain players are able to win while being selfish, it legitimizes and propagates that behavior.
5 Zed
Next on the list of champions with a “carry everyone else complex” is Zed. While being mechanically challenging, his overall strategy is pretty simple. He picks a single target, goes all in to kill them, and then blinks back to where it all started. I think this mix is what makes having a Zed on your team so frustrating. Most Zed’s you will play with think that because they can understand the strategy, they are skilled enough to follow up with the mechanics. This is rarely the case, which leads to many Zed players falling behind over the course of the game. This only exasperates the problem, because as they become relatively weaker to enemies and less able to play their assassin role, they will fail more often in their attempts to carry everyone else. It is still a team game and even the assassin characters have to learn to coordinate with their teammates.
4 Riven
The queen of the “carry everyone else” complex, Riven. With countless 1 vs 5 montages on YouTube, Riven spits on the concept of team games. While she remains unbalanced (why she has the only shield in the game that scales with attack damage is a mystery to everyone), she does still require a mechanical mastery and quick reflexes. That fact is probably what makes her so detrimental to League of Legends as an overall game. Many pro-players and streamers have mastered those mechanics and pull off amazing individual feats. This means that there are exponentially more players, after having watched the pros, who believe they are just as capable to replicate it. The game already has a toxic community from players’ inability to get along. You throw in an outlet for selfish players and the problem is only made worse.
3 Shaco
Shaco is, by far, the most annoying champion in all of League of Legends. He can go invisible and jump a distance with the same move. He can throw daggers that slow you. He does more damage to you when your back is turned to him. He places invisible jack-in-the-box traps that fear your character, laugh and damage you. His ultimate ability creates a clone that he can independently control. All the while, he constantly laughs as he executes his abilities. Again, like Teemo, he doesn’t synergize well with other champions on his team. His main contribution is that he can tilt the opposing team and throw them off their rhythm, but if they keep their composure, he becomes a non-factor in the late-game. Just pray to never face him in Ultra Rapid Fire, where his annoyance is on negligible cooldown.
2 The Players
Yes you, you’re the worst. You, the person next to you, everyone in your game, and me. We are all the worst and wildly hated characters in League of Legends. Even though I try to be very constructive and avoid getting into shouting matches, because this is a team game after all, I know I’m hated because I’m constantly told so. If I say something like, “it’s okay, play under turret, I’ll gank after backing, and we’ll win this in the late game.” The answer I usually get is, “**** you, you suck, no gank, ff” (or a variation of that, usually there are many more spelling errors). There are no lack of examples from everyone’s personal experiences. If you don’t play League and would like to see how bad it is, check out Disco Heat’s YouTube channel and his series, League of Children. Particularly, his one-off playlist after episode 10. He just rips those videos straight from other streamers. He does not edit them, he does not punch them up, it is just raw footage of people flaming while playing the game. Remember, these videos showcase players when they know there is a camera on them live streaming. I can only imagine how bad they can get off-camera.
1 Amumu
No one likes him, he doesn’t have any friends. Do you even read the lore?