Yasuo is one of the most popular champions in League of Legends. At the same time, he has a horrible reputation in the League of Legends community as one of the most hated characters to ever come in the game’s history. Even though the champion isn’t overly strong, there are many people who hate Yasuo so much they’d rather wait 15 minutes to queue for another game than play with or against it in a game.
The Release of Yasuo, The Unforgiven
Yasuo was released on December 13, 2013, a few weeks before Christmas. During that time, there weren’t a lot of champions on the roster so it was really exciting for the community to see new characters coming to the game. It was also the height of anime hype with heavy emphasis on the samurai and ninja archetypes being the epitome of cool. Now you understand why the community was absolutely ecstatic when the edgy Yasuo was announced to be released the way it was.
When Yasuo came out, almost everybody, and that meant about 95% of the entire League of Legends community wanted to play him in the game. They wanted to play him so much that people would go on Normal Queue so that the champion wouldn’t get banned. Everybody absolutely loved the way he played since his kit was absolutely unique and gave a lot of skill expression to players from every rank.
Why Do People Hate Yasuo So Much?
Being the most popular champion in the world had its disadvantages. For one, people got tired of seeing the same champion being played in their games over and over again from both teams. In ranked games, Yasuo practically had a 100% ban rate since people didn’t want to deal with him as a teammate or an opponent. This meant that people were mad if Yasuo gets played and the people who do use him get mad when they can’t play the champion.
The negativity surrounding the usage or inability to use this champion escalated to complete toxicity. That issue persists to this day. The endless arguments and blaming that people did every game even made people who don’t participate in debates sick to their core. You’d be surprised that this wasn’t even the biggest reason why people hate Yasuo. In the ten years that this champion existed, there’s a lot of hate towards this champion for another reason.
When a cool-looking lone samurai champion who is being hunted down comes to the game, it is almost always certain that players under the age of 16 would be the demographic that would “relate” to this champion the most and identify with him a lot. Needless to say, players who are younger than 16 aren’t always the best players in the game. While there are a large number of prodigies that break out early, most kids and early teenage generally suck at the game.
People who are not good at the game using an extremely technical champion like Yasuo is a recipe for disaster. In lower ELOs, this champion is one of the most broken champions to exist. In higher ranks, this champion is basically fodder. People absolutely hated it when someone would pick Yasuo because they’d always imagine that it’s just a kid trying to play a champion they don’t know how to use that will most likely result in a loss.
The Yasuo Hate Over the Years
The status of Yasuo being an overhype champion over the years faded but the fact that he’s still one of the most popular champions to be played in games despite poor performances from the majority of the playerbase persisted into the next decade. People believed that they would always hate Yasuo for the negative experience this champion brings to the game brought about by the majority of his fanbase.
The community even meme’d about Yasuo being completely useless if he is on the allied team but a complete monster when he is on the enemy team. The community felt like the meme was a fact. It was so bad that the community even banned Yasuo not because they didn’t want to play against it but because they didn’t want to have the champion on their team. People hate Yasuo so much they’d rather spend their ban on their own team.
The complaints and experiences shared with the community throughout the different social media platforms have built a form of running joke inside the League of Legends community. Eventually, even people who didn’t even care about Yasuo went along with the joke as well. It became a part of League of Legends culture to hate Yasuo and make fun of Yasuo players. Yasuo mains were practically immune to the jokes and criticisms of the other members of the community at this point.
When Yuumi came around, she took the title of most hated champion in League of Legends. Despite Yuumi taking a lot of negativity from Yasuo, the community never lets us forget that he is a champion that you should always despise. To this day, you can always hear a player on the other side of the screen let out an annoyed groan or sigh whenever another person picks Yasuo on their team.
Will The Community Stop Hating Yasuo?
No. The culture of League of Legends has already been established. The hate for Yasuo is passed down between one generation of LoL players to the next. At this point, it is more likely that people will forget about hating Yuumi than Yasuo because the joke about Yasuo being the most annoying champion in the game is so deeply rooted that it’s impossible for the community not to bring it up. Even Yasuo players have learned to join the champion.
Luckily, Yasuo will always become one of the most popular champions in the game even though he’s simultaneously one of the most despised units in the game. Riot Games likes to market his character a lot by making him skins whenever they get the chance. If you’re a hardcore Yasuo hater, you’ll have to learn to accept his existence for the next decade to come.
