Currently, there are 162 champions in League of Legends, with the latest one released being Akshan. Riot Games did not give any indication that they had any intention of not releasing any more new champions in the near future. This, in addition to constant changes in the game in the form of patches and some older champions receiving updates and reworks, ensures that the game stays “fresh” or “new”.
However, every new champion or every champion rework is supposed to add something new to the game or is supposed to look like something someone would want to play. This means that inevitably, some champions become more popular than others, and others end up being ignored and not played by a lot of people.
In this article, we talk about the ten least-played champions in League of Legends, and possible reasons as to why they are not played that much.
Go check out our other article to see the most played champions in League of Legends!
Table of Contents
Least Played Champions at Challenger/Pro Level
If you’ve been curious as to what the least popular champions at the highest ranks are, look no further for an answer. Here are the top 10 least played champions at Challenger:
- Illaoi
- Taric
- Vi
- Vel’Koz
- Rammus
- Anivia
- Yorick
- Kled
- Singed
- Aurelion Sol
Now for the least-played champs for the rest of the player base. You might notice some similarities!
Aurelion Sol
Aurelion Sol, in the lore, is a celestial being responsible for creating the majority of the stars in the League of Legends universe. He sees very little play despite his great concept and stellar (pun unintended) design. This is, for the most part, because of the fact that Aurelion Sol has a very distinct playstyle— he is very much a “push and roam” kind of champion, with some mechanics that are very unique to him. In addition, Aurelion Sol cannot even hide in brushes.
His push-and-roam playstyle needs a level of teamwork to function, which may be difficult to establish in a solo queue setting. In addition, a better understanding of the map and map states is needed to fully utilize his power, meaning that he would not seem to be as effective on lower elos. He is also a bit easily countered by assassins and champions with a high level of mobility. His playstyle is also a bit more difficult to pull off later on in the game, which means that if an Aurelion Sol does not get a huge lead in the earlier parts of a game, he may struggle as the game goes on.
For these reasons, Aurelion Sol is one of the least-played mids in League, and one of the least-played champions in general!
Taliyah
Remember when Taliyah used to be mid laner?
Taliyah used to be a reliable control mage in the mid lane with a pretty good burst combo with her basic abilities, and her ultimate as utility, enabling her to put up a wall that can prevent enemies from coming any closer, while also giving her the ability to cross a great amount of distance in a short amount of time.
Upon the removal of the area of effect damage on her Q, her wave clear on the mid lane became lower, and she has since been moved to the jungle, as the damage has been increased to compensate for the removal of her area of effect. Soon, however, she became a bit too popular in the jungle, leading to nerfs that made her jungle clear slower and slower until she simply was no longer one of the better choices in the jungle role. While her combo still does a lot of damage, the fact that she has to do it from the jungle means that she has to execute it with some setup from her laners.
Skarner
Skarner does two things: first, he walks into an enemy, and then he pulls them towards his team. The second thing that he does is that he forces the enemy team to buy a Quicksilver Sash to prevent what he does from happening.
The problem with champions like Skarner is that when one item is bought to prevent him from doing what he does, he loses his identity as a champion. If the enemy team buys Quicksilver Sash or has the summoner spell Cleanse, what is he supposed to do then?
That being said, trying Skarner out as a bruiser in the top lane might be fun in certain matchups. However, he is currently a very low pick rate jungle in LOL as of now.
Azir
Azir… is a bit of a weird case. While he isn’t played a lot in solo queue, he is played a lot in professional League of Legends. Despite getting nerfed, again and again, Azir still sees presence in the professional scene, leading to even more nerfs. This does not help as Azir has a high skill barrier, and his lower damage numbers and long cooldowns make it difficult to play in a solo queue environment.
Another low pick rate mid.
Rek’Sai
Rek’Sai kind of has the same problem as Azir— being popular in the professional leagues some time ago led to several nerfs that made her even harder to pilot in solo queue. While Rek’Sai may be very good in the earlier stages of the game, the lack of reliable crowd control on her kit means that you have to rely on your laners to get a good setup for ganks. In addition, she falls off really hard in the later stages of the game.
I understand that getting vision of her enemies while burrowed is a nice mechanic, and using tunnels is also good for running around the map and clearing camps, sometimes it may simply be just not worth it.
Corki
Corki deals a lot of damage later on in the game, but the road to get there is very long and sometimes, you might not even get there. Corki converts 80% of his basic attack damage into magic damage, which means that he is expected to itemize for the most part as a marksman, and marksman items are by no means cheap. Corki is also quite squishy, which means that he is susceptible to assassins when his only means of escape is his Valkyrie. His lack of playmaking also affects him, as, without The Package, all he can do is poke from afar and then maybe get in close to finish off an opponent with low health.
Taric
Taric is pretty strong, especially when the enemy team composition always all-ins on their engage and damage. The problem with Taric is that he used to be part of a strategy popularized by some boosters in solo queue.
If anyone was here during 2018 in this duo’s heyday, you will for sure get some flashbacks— Taric freezes the wave while healing, Master Yi gets the jungle camps, and also the wave with his Alpha Strike. The Master Yi gets fed and then walks into team fights extremely fed, but also with access to Taric’s heals and his ultimate, which grants invulnerability for a while. Because of that, he had to be nerfed, which means that even people who just played plain Taric support suffered.
Ivern
Ivern is a well-designed champion, but unfortunately, the great execution of his design doesn’t allow him to get picked a lot in solo queue.
Ivern is this pacifist, nature-loving, towering tree-man who doesn’t kill jungle monsters—he frees them. And his way of carrying games isn’t by being a damage threat, it’s by shielding his teammates and providing crowd control, much like what a regular support would do. This is exactly the reason why people don’t pick him as much— it is a bit difficult to rely on teammates in solo queue to carry as opposed to, say, professional play, where the occasional Ivern pick is seen.
Kalista
Kalista may be one of the most mechanically demanding champions to play in the game. She can dash while auto-attacking and can change her auto-attack target during its windup. The reward for mastering the champion, is, of course, dealing a lot of damage, especially during the early game. This is the reason why Kalista is still very popular in professional League of Legends up to this day, in addition to her ability to help secure objectives with her Rend, having an additional engage tool, and adding a layer of safety to her support with Fate’s Call. Her popularity in pro play is also the reason why she still gets nerfed once in a while to decrease her presence in the highest level of play.
The numerous nerfs over time, her ultimate needing some form of synergy with the support player, in addition to her getting severely out scaled later on in the game, are good reasons as to why she isn’t seen a lot in solo queue.
Kalista is a very low pick rate ADC in League of Legends.
Rumble
Rumble is also one of those champions who seems to thrive better in competitive play. He has clear early-game strengths (both as a laner and a jungle), but will have to rely more on the positioning of his ultimate later on as he has no gap closers and has a very limited range in his basic abilities. When given the right resources, though, Rumble can carry games.
However, his unique playstyle as a melee mage makes people rather reluctant to pick him up.
Final Thoughts
These champions have very different reasons as to why they’re not picked a lot in solo queue, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t viable. In fact, none of these champions are actually in the gutter! With smart play and proper decision-making, anyone can win with any champion.
If you pick any of these champions, odds are high that no one knows what they even do, which might give you an advantage! Although, there might be a reason they aren’t picked.
