Pentakills Pour in for Zeri Players in Competitive League of Legends
Riot Games has not considered nerfing Zeri in LoL Patch 12.15 despite her being a pentakill machine
Zeri, the Spark of Zaun, was the first new champion to grace the Summoner’s Rift in Season 12. Riot Games introduced her to the players as an attack-damage carry (ADC) with a very unique and highly-mechanical ability kit. She can literally zip, zap, zoom and run circles around her enemies. After her release in Patch 12.2, she has been constantly nerfed by Riot Games, which continued to experiment with her abilities. Despite being constantly changed by Riot Games, Zeri has become a top pick in the League of Legends esports scene with pro players prioritizing her in the bottom lane. In the last week of competitive League of Legends, across different regions, pro players who picked Zeri raked in pentakills and scored style points on the Rift.
Zeri’s stats in pro play
Before jumping into the Zeri pentakills, let us look at her stats from the top regions of League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK), League of Legends Pro League (LPL), League of Legends European Championship (LEC), and the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS).
According to Games of Legends, the following are Zeri’s stats:
Bans: 84 (15/69)
Picks: 40 (19/21)
Pick/Ban rate: 96.1%
Win rate: 67.5% (27W - 13L)
In LoL Patch 12.10, her pick/ban rate was 1% and it has grown multifold in the last three patches. This is because Zeri does really well into Lucian and Aphelios in the bottom lane and can sustain against Jinx. However, she is weak against picks like Sivir.
LCS veteran and League of Legends streamer Christian "IWDominate" Rivera tweeted, “Zeri has to be the most disgusting champ design in the history of the game. Buffed and nerfed every patch and literally never comes close to being balanced. The answer that Riot has decided on is to make W just a lux Ult and it's maybe the most "fair" the champ has been.”
Zeri pentakills in the last week in pro play
Zeri has been the center of attention in League of Legends communities on social media platforms as the champion farmed pentakills across regions in the 2022 Summer Split. Last week, the following players secured pentakills with Zeri:
Kim "Berserker" Min-cheol - Cloud9 vs FlyQuest in the LCS
Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong - T1 vs KT Rolster in the LCK
Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk - Gen.G vs T1 in the LCK
League of Legends players were surprised to see that Riot Games had ignored Zeri nerfs in the recently announced patch preview for LoL Patch 12.15. The champions getting nerfed are:
Master Yi
Qiyana
Sivir
Gwen
Taliyah
Kalista
A Twitter user wrote, “How many Zeri pentakills need to be had across all the regions of League before she’s banned or nerfed? #LCS #LCK #LEC #LPL #LeagueOfLegends.”
It will not be a surprise if Riot Games chooses to nerf Zeri mid-way through LoL Patch 12.15 if she continues to stomp on enemies in pro play and Solo Queue.