The Summoner's Guidebook: Our least favorite LoL champions

Everyone has preferences. We're naturally attracted to the aesthetics of certain characters, or perhaps we really like a character's gameplay or even his voice actor. For instance, everyone knows that I really like Poppy, but I'm attracted to a lot of other characters. I tend to like the "mature" seductive women like Ahri, Nidalee, or Zyra, for instance. I also really love Jax and his overconfident fighter attitude (plus "Pizza the Champ" jokes), and I really love Udyr and Sona's stance mechanics. Everyone loves Riven, too; the combination of a shy, talented warrior woman with really cool, combo-oriented gameplay tends to make her a favorite of many summoners.

League of Legends is a big game and has a lot of characters, though. Not all characters are equally loved. This week, we're going to look at some of the champions I personally can't stand, generally because I hate fighting against them.

I can almost deal with you

To start things off, I really don't like Fizz. I liked that his launch was fairly controversial (because of his on-demand invincibility mechanic), but he turned out mostly fair in the end. He's a cute character; his ultimate is neat, and he looks like Stitch. I absolutely hate him, though. Every Fizz on my team is a moronic birdbrain mashing keys, and every Fizz on the enemy team hops over all my attacks and kills me in three hits. His gameplay makes him really annoying to fight against, but it's also really hard to set him up as a teammate. Stop blind-firing that ultimate into bushes, Fizz, and you'll do a lot better.

Nami is probably the first female character I truly disliked. I like most girl characters, mostly for irrational reasons. I even like playing Nami because hitting enemies with her bubble feels fantastic. I liken her to having a teamfight ultimate at level 1 on a ridiculously short cooldown because that's what her Q feels like. However, everything else about Nami feels awful. Her real ultimate is terrible unless she's right in the middle of battle, her heal aways feels weak, and her buff spell never feels as if it's doing anything. Also, every time I am teamed with Nami, she misses nearly every bubble she throws. Her story is absolutely inane (why is she in the League again?), and to top it all off, I hate her aesthetic design. Even though she's a girl, I dislike her. That kinda says a lot about her all on its own.

Draven is like the Graves-that-isn't. He talks a lot of smack (because that's what pro-wrestlers do), but he ends up not actually being that cool. I like his design concept, and I really love his voice acting, but as an AD Carry goes, I hate his gameplay. Draven needs a lot of time to spool up to his maximum combat potential in a fight, but League doesn't ever afford you that kind of time. He also has virtually no defense; while Graves has a smoke grenade, a dash, and passive tank, Draven has a mild knockback that doesn't even knock the enemy directly away. When Graves gets ganked, he frequently escapes and often kills one or more of his attackers. When Draven gets ganked, he's lunch meat. When it comes to arrogant, manly carries, Draven fails to hit his mark.

It may be a bit weird to include another female character, but I really don't like Katarina. I am not actually sure why. I like her look. I like the assassin gimmick. I like anything that teleports me to places. Her animations are cool, and Death Lotus is a cool reference to an awesome movie. I don't actually know why I dislike her. I just do. If I had to pick a reason out of a hat, it is because she has a move named "Shunpo" and I hate Bleach. That's totally reasonable, right?

I can't believe you picked that character

Let's be fair, though. Of the above characters, I wouldn't roll my eyes if you picked one of them on my team. I have teamed with good Fizz players, and the rare good Nami players make her seem pretty cool. I don't mind supporting a Draven in lane. However, if you pick Fiddlesticks, know right now that I am mocking you in voice chat. Fiddlesticks is a character that doesn't fit anymore. The new jungle helps him out, but in the Crystal Scar where I play, he's a mediocre pick. His ganks aren't even that great if you are on Summoner's Rift, and nothing is worse than a Fiddle in lane. Every time I see Middlesticks, I predict a tragedy in mid lane. It always happens.

It seems like a long time ago, but remember when I wrote a guide on countering Tryndamere? The truth is that I hate him on my team and laugh at him on the enemy team. He puts up this big manly facade, but the truth is that he should just go home and be a family man. Tryndamere is easy to counter, and his ultimate is mostly a joke. When I jungle with Udyr, I almost always invade against Tryndamere because he can't sustain very well and is often at dangerously low levels of life. I can frequently find him at a buff camp, stun him, steal his buff, and force him to run or die. His teamfight presence is incredibly weak if he gets focused and stunned. If he's on my team, I have to babysit him in order to get him fed. If he's on the enemy team, he feels like a dead spot.

Few characters annoy me more than Garen. Much like Fizz, every Garen on my team does something awful like build full tank items (at least enemy Garens build damage items). I don't know what it is about Garen. I think he's just one of those champions that appeals to players-in-training. I've seen good Garen players, both in my games and at the top level, but most of the time he's just awful. If you're familiar with the "a wild Garen appears!" meme, then it's probably safe to say that the only reason I am familiar with it is the community. I have never seen a Garen jump out of a bush to gank me in a way that wasn't laughable.

I am trying not to type profanity

I think Riot did something horribly wrong when it made Jayce. I don't like his aesthetics at all, which normally isn't a big deal. I really like the other shapechanging characters (especially Nidalee) as they make for a fun mechanic. It takes a lot to design a character like Jayce and make me hate him. It's like his designers took every possible step to make sure he would be totally broken, then released him into an ongoing tournament season. Even now, he's still in cheesecake tier and totally abusive because the devs refuse to nerf the things that make him a problem. My advice for Riot is to delete him and start over. If you're a player, ban him every game. I hate Jayce.

There are characters whose aesthetics I don't like, and that's fine. I even play some of them, like Urgot. No character's visual and story design induces rage in me like Varus' does. When I see Varus, I am reminded of every awful Linkin' Park song ever written. Varus' story reads like a bad fanfic; he looks like a Sephiroth clone. I half-expected that he would have some gameplay mechanic where he cut himself to hurt the enemy. I don't like his gameplay either, but that's not why I dislike Varus (though if he were exactly like Graves or Sivir, I'd like him). Riot often creates really cool storylines and has done quite a few really great ones recently. Let's just forget about Varus and move on to someone else.

My least favorite character in the entire game is Shaco. Quite frankly, I'm ashamed to have him in my character roster. I bought him at a time when his boxes were fairly overpowered in Dominion, and I've felt awful about it ever since. I recently sent an email to Riot customer support asking if someone could remove him from my roster. I'm well past the point where he could be refunded, but I don't want my IP back. I just want him deleted so I never have to look at him. I don't hate the evil clown design; he has a lot of things I like, such as a blink, stealth, traps, clones, and deceptive abilities. I like those things. I just don't like Shaco at all.

Whom do you hate? Why not chime in with your own opinions down below? Until next time, good luck and have fun!

We understand what it's like to climb the skill ladder in League of Legends. The Summoner's Guidebook teaches you the tools you need to get a competitive edge. Whether you're climbing the ranked ladder, playing Draft Dominion, or getting crushed by intermediate bots, every enemy has a weakness. And every Thursday, Patrick Mackey shows how you can improve improve on yours.