No matter what League of Legends champions are picked and banned in the upcoming Mid-Season Invitational, two of them won’t be featured on that stage at all now that they’ve been banned by Riot Games ahead of the event. In an update shared by the LoL Esports team this week, Riot confirmed that both Milio and Yuumi would be restricted from play during MSI which means those two champs won’t be getting any play at all. Milio is still a bit too new to be featured in this esports competition, Riot said, with Yuumi in a somewhat similar situation since the champion’s minor rework hasn’t been out long enough for players to adjust to.
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Milio’s case makes sense considering this is how Riot typically operates when it comes to newish League champions. He released right towards the end of March and has not yet been enabled in competitive play, Riot said, so he’s ineligible for MSI play as well. As some pointed out in the replies to Riot’s statement, Milio wasn’t even released when some regions were nearing the peaks of their regional competitions, so it doesn’t make sense to have him enabled for the tournament.
“Milio has yet to be enabled competitively, so he will not be playable during MSI,” Riot said.
Yuumi is a bit different. This is a champion that’s been out for quite a while now and has attracted an impressive amount of hate considering how short a time she’s been on Summoner’s Rift compared to much older champions. The League community’s distaste for Yuumi was a major factor in her getting reworked recently, and that rework is exactly why Yuumi won’t be enabled for MSI. Yuumi’s mini rework dropped in Patch 13.5 which released just after the first week of March, so while Yuumi’s rework has been out longer than Milio has, the pick-or-ban nature of the champion combined with the newness of the rework led Riot to disable the character.
“Yuumi’s midscope isn’t quite ready for pro play yet, so rather than risk having an untuned and disruptive champion, she will be disabled,” Riot said.
MSI’s Play-In stage begins on May 2nd, so we’ll see then which champions are picked and most with these two contenders out of the running now.
