Viego Nearly Ruined League of Legends

Ever since his debut in League of Legends, the undead menace, Viego, has inspired some pretty complicated feelings in both solo queue and pro players.
Despite Riot’s attempts to bring the Ruined King to heel, the champion has remained a frustration of truly majestic proportions.
So, we had to ask - was anything ever going to bring an end to Viego’s tyranny?
Written by: Alina Sotula (@ASotula)
Edited by: Sam Gore (@famgore)
Production Assistance: Jason Lo (@JasonLobsterr) and Nicolas Buck
Thumbnail by: Bennett Grainger (insta: @bennettgrainger)
Hosted by: Daniel Rosen (@Daniel_Rosen)
Produced by: Alina Sotula (@ASotula) and Daniel Rosen (@Daniel_Rosen)
Footage credits: pastebin.com/iJ74TucZ
Music used under license from Associated Production Music LLC (”APM”).
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[@guilhermesampaio5924]

" I have a fed but brain dread ADC this game, let's try to make her stay alive so we win" Viego kills her in a team fight, Viego now is a fed ADC that's not brain dead, same thing happens 3 more times, Viego now fed, we can't kill him.

[@jomareyd.parreno5112]

The best way to kill Veigo is as a team focusing on him bursing him down or just fronting your inting/tilt teammates. Viego is cringe and broken af

[@josephkwon6241]

As a jungle main that started playing season 9. I didn't know the likes of Evelynn when she was first dropped. Now I've experienced the true power of a broken champion upon release. Man what a time it was to be alive as a jungler. Lol

[@Triqkshot]

It wasn’t when Evelyn was dropped it was her rework. Original Evelyn was pretty shitty.

[@josephkwon6241]

@@Triqkshot oh okay thanks for the info! I think she's broken right now so i can't imagine her stronger lol

[@Findyification]

old master yi will ruin live 😂

[@Cryoptic_]

@@josephkwon6241 shes not broken at all. shes feast or famine. if u dont snowball then shes one of or if not the worst jungler. u need good tracking and macro so she tends to be ok at higher elo and just bad in low elo (as a rule of thumb, some otp's can make her work in low elo)

[@jomareyd.parreno5112]

As a jungler main for 6 years i can agree that Viego is the most broken champ. ULT RESET HEALTH PLUS REGEN

[@dyelawn893]

I have never heard anyone call league their “comfort game” before.

[@MrROCKSTAR2926]

yeah same thats a new one

[@audenaux6657]

well League is a comfort game for me, because i only play AI & URF for Fun.

[@thedank6849]

@@audenaux6657 chad

[@Kyong008]

it's kind of a comfort game if you always mute all

[@senior332]

​@@audenaux6657 ur a chad gamer

[@kuyachaswhub3086]

At least, Viego fed Vandiril in those days.

[@Enttoma]

Viego payed the bills

[@josereneticsay32]

He still does

[@ThomasDiesch]

Viego was 6 months after released first playable in competetive because of the 10000000000 Bugs

[@samehamnoun7791]

It's funny that a couple hours after this got released, T1 Oner gets an insane triple kill with Viego.

[@vidgamplay]

Quadra

[@waiyanhtetaung442]

It's Quadra kill man

[@cookiezkook8810]

Quadra kill for oner

[@BARRYCARRY]

Nah your wrong , after they took away graves cigar the game has been on a mass decline . Coincidence ? I think not

[@ChoB1den]

Viego got the smoke though

[@Ra-tm4de]

Cos he's vaping now

[@ChoB1den]

@@Ra-tm4de more like shisha with that amount

[@dzhk143]

I thought graves cigar is removed only in wildrift

[@LiTgg]

Truu

[@Razhor]

The "What am I doing?" and getting a quadra is the best way to describe Viego.

[@RakuenAram]

Who thought releasing the equivalent of Morphling in League would be a good idea lmao

[@tingispingis]

Morphling without a cooldown

[@valkyriedown]

Lets wait until Invoker inported to league and see how busted he will be

[@Kyong008]

exactly, in the same game where players whine about Stasis lmao

[@thebernardoespinacovers6081]

@@valkyriedown Aphelios? When i saw Aphelios.. i thought his On Hand and Off Hand mechanic just feels like Invoker's Quas, Wex and Exort...

[@bigdingus69]

I miss playing viego top, I know it was unhealthy for the game, but damn this champ is fun

[@pangin5178]

i like how when he describes viego's kit he makes "his q makes him do more damage" and "his w does damage" so scary

[@itspyrenees]

yeah and he got his ult wrong he said "it teleports to the lowest enemy" but he just teleports to where your cursor is

[@johnsonwu3001]

@@itspyrenees Yeah it should have been strikes the lowest enemy

[@itspyrenees]

@@johnsonwu3001 in game description it just says he teleports to the cursor and does damage in a wave around him

[@waves1all1day1er1day]

If you turn on captions they call him “the ego” and have never been more accurate

[@icewallowcome4027]

As a viego main, I couldn’t agree more

[@housecat_]

Apart from how the core mechanics of the champion are just totally busted, the most frustrating part to me is how the flow of a fight with him stops and starts over and over again because of his invulnerability. It completely breaks the flow of the game that people gotten used to over a decade.

[@crisnmaryfam7344]

AND THAT is what riot loves about him. It breaks the core meta. I look for more champions to be the same. I havent played this game in quite some time thanks to that rinse repeat meta. Hopefully they keep pushing the boundaries.

[@albusseveruspotter9531]

Viego is like the old Morde but you can fully control the Soul and can use skill unlike old Morde

[@j14ty22]

I miss old Mord. He was hardly picked and no one knew how to play against him.

[@saucy0_0]

Riot released a broken champ Players: so how do we counter him? Rito: that's the neat part you can't

[@ethanv.a.t.exclamador4030]

I main Viego, he literally gets countered by most or all cc champs, if u cant reset, u cant win any fights u literally get deleted by combo chain

[@sleepyheads45]

Its so easy to counter viego now, but if you talk when viego first time release thats different story

[@shutupMaji]

@@ethanv.a.t.exclamador4030 countered by CC thats crazy, bet putting his HP to 0 counters him too

[@slothking1014]

"Swears in Italian" was an absolute understatement ahahahha

[@Gadottinho]

Hahahah the guy cursing in Italian, so good, he said every blasphemy he could've fought of

[@higglyjuff]

Viego was always a really hit or miss champion and this video really oversells what he did. He had the potential to flip fights on their heads, but it always required the enemy team making some stupid mistake combined with the Viego player being absolutely insane. Sure, we get lots of pop-off Viego games, but we also have a lot of really mediocre ones where he doesn't do a hell of a lot for his team. Honestly, he's just like Yone, Yasuo or Sylas in many ways but his base form is much weaker and he relies on his passive to be able to play at full strength. He was never close to ruining league of legends, and was never the strongest champion in pro play. There was a time he was pick/ban, but there were other champions that were often better at the same time.

[@ethanscot7565]

He is far to strong of a carry when you have a team that sets him up and plays off of him. Thats why although hes op jn solo q, I agree hes in the same boat as yone,yas, etc. The issue is proplay where the team that has viego just needs one reset to win the teamfight.

[@higglyjuff]

@@ethanscot7565 His win rate peaked at 51%. He was never OP for solo queue. I think generally his balancing has been pretty okay. He was balanced so that as players got better with him and understood him, they could nerf him a little more. My only problems with Viego have ever been how he becomes untargetable and he had a lot of bugs. Right now, he is in a completely fine place where the best users of him may still pick him up from time to time, but he's a little more of a niche pick right now. He has a 46% win rate this year going by the top regions. I think you can potentially argue that he has an overloaded kit, but personally I think that his kit is rather simple when you set aside how he can take over enemy champions.

[@jaybeecaranza9471]

When the divine sunderer is his most niche mythic item he is OP af in the lane when his Q passive heal is a thing back then when its still not being nerfed until now

[@higglyjuff]

@@jaybeecaranza9471 You can make even the weakest champions in the game sound strong when you describe their kits. Ryze is a mid-range mage who can deal lots of damage while building full tank. He scales with mana and then he never runs out of it and ends up moving so fast. He even has a point and click root so he's nearly impossible to catch up to. But that's not even the best part. His ult can teleport his whole team across the map. If that doesn't sound OP, then maybe his >35% win rate does.

[@christanulanday8619]

Agree , maybe aphelios is much suitable for the title man that champion, his ulti one-shots me from a mile a way and the first time I met him in solo queue he got a penta. Absolutely broken champ.

[@fejkyidk4227]

Well, as an ADC main, I never really had that much of a problem playing against him. I more hated when new Eve came cuz it was ultimate no hands assassin. Also Aphelios was much much worse than Viego

[@sytherwusky]

It seems that every new champ terrorises the game the second they come out

[@overzetter4747]

Not me screaming when i heard Vars‘ voice

[@benjaminhavens7266]

"That's what League needs: more cheese-based champions." No, I think League has enough cheese-based champions already

[@deus8576]

I remember when he came out he was in every lane. Mid, Top, Jungle. In jungle if you bought lifesteal you were able to full clear with no healt loss and it was building into core items. Of course Bork was awesome for him and it basically made him an early game menace if you got it fast enough. Vandril probably has 20-30 videos on his bugs too. It was hilarious seeing Rito struggle fixing every gamebreaking bug. I remember the Lux, Ziggs interaction... or the Dark Seal bug... or the Teleport across the map bug... or Mordekaiser (ult) bug... Viego was something too new, kinda like Aphelios but in a much simpler way.

[@ya3mour]

As soon as I start learning him and maiming him you release this video 💔

[@ichigoichie369]

the recent oner viego incident in t1 vs g2 was so good.

[@Jaybird9x]

I hope do they a video on Riot’s idea of disabling chemtech drake just to add a champion who basically did a better chemtech drake, as well as, similar cases

[@Mezha07]

His hear was broken and he made everyone feel the same way

[@yannickjanssen4307]

This man so good they made a skin set for him in valorant

[@Salesedere]

Bro has to just buzz his head instead of rocking that 80s combover

[@h1murashi]

He maybe broken, but he is the sole reason Vandiril made mad bank. xD

[@jfbeast]

Ryze: _"Why do I hear boss music?"_

[@mangasaint]

I read the title and thought this was a Vars upload.

[@yiannisharalambidis4418]

Viego did indeed ruin the game. He was disabled in pro play cause of bugs but in soloq was a menace (in any lane) because they couldn't nerf him (besides some minor tweaks), since he had yet to be played in competitive.

[@luckypennybenny]

Make it so he isn't immune while possession is active and balance is instantly achieved. I've been in LoL since closed beta and the sheer power creep around movement and invulnerability is insane. Give WW back point and click suppress too. I'll never forgive riot for that.

[@yiannisharalambidis4418]

​@@luckypennybenny they took galio's w+flash combo, because of pro play. Ryze is a shit tier champ, again because of pro play. The dude's been sitting in 42% wr basically the entire season and most of last season as well. Aint no way they give WW his point and click

[@BasicNotAcidic]

@@luckypennybenny his possesion barely heals him anymore. taking away the vulnerability would make him too weak. hes already in a fine state rn.

[@chillmadude]

I've always thought that the best way to balance viego would be to put a cooldown on his passive

[@retardnation2266]

I like when he mentioned low elo they showed a clip of yassuo

[@Patrick-cc3ub]

Also, he used to be immune to turret shots as well while possessing.

[@cowkow]

They should either make it that you cant use ult unless you take over an enemy body or that is doesn't reset after killing someone.

[@syafranmuflih7139]

Riot mistake is that they always try to create a champion that is fun to play as, but never consider is it fun to play against.

[@masterjohn2HB]

I swore to God that score has made this video before already

[@nickparsons3194]

Yoooooo was that the man Purpp let's go

[@brokentempest4268]

First time i pick up Viego when he was released, i got a lv4 triple kills on top lane. Next game i got a Penta in the late game. Since i've played every single champs in league as a flex players, Viego is just the sweetest freelo i've ever gotten.

[@fqck1999]

Sheesh cant wait til viego got drop on wild rift and already i can see him being the most banned champ with a fck ton of nerf that even irelia looks on him with pity lol, that is if he manage to join wild rift without bringing bugs

[@damnmanstopmaldinglol6028]

Cool bronzie tell us more + post opgg

[@federicogiacobbe8320]

I don't think a lot of people can understand what the italian streamer says, but i don't think its very family friendly what he screams

[@bestialusofficial9944]

That clip is a masterpiece indeed

[@briansagaser748]

Even if they just made it so Viego doesn't get a heal when possessing a spirit, he suddenly becomes a weaker champion due to how much less health he has to work with. Yes, he can sustain it back up, but what if the champ he possesses doesn't have sustain? Suddenly, Viego has to really think about when he should or shouldn't possess someone!

[@paragwajskitygrys3435]

True

[@SH1NK1R01]

Without the heal he would just not get picked at all. There would be no thought process. He just wouldn’t be played.

[@Reia.P]

@@SH1NK1R01 and that's good for the game

[@SH1NK1R01]

@@Reia.P not really. Hes not a real problem. He’s just another snow ball champ in a sea of others. Saying he should be removed just because he’s annoying when his pick and win rate aren’t even high is childish.

[@Reia.P]

@@SH1NK1R01 dude you don't know how many spaghetti code he brought to the game Sometimes small visual bugs, sometimes it's game breaking, sometimes he crashes everyone and the game disappears from match history After a year they still can't fix all his bugs, and new one comes every other patches

[@glazz6357]

I always ban viego in solo q to prevent the ruination from ever happening

[@bosscoolaid1015]

Give him the kled treatment, make him vulnerable while he’s switching

[@robertfancyman3873]

Even if it means giving him a shield or some damage resistance while he does it, removing the horrific amount of uninteractability from him is worth it.

[@omegaminoseer4539]

I have something that's even better. All you have to do to make Viego a skill-champion is to tie Heartbreaker's CD Refund into the %MAX Heal Viego does. He has to do 100-50% of the health he regenerates (based on Ultimate Rank) as damage in the Wraith's body or he's gated from using his Ultimate and has to wait out the duration. This forces Viego to be stuck in a potentially "bad" body (a tank) for longer and makes him play more rushdown (target carries) and potentially get killed as he goes for his Heartbreaker refund.

[@crazyblade9441]

Simple, take away his immunity frames while transforming. Make it a meaningful Joyce to become another person, not basically a zonyas whenever someone dies.

[@distorte8]

I been saying this for so long he shouldn't make a wrong move but say oops lemme just click r and get out of jail free

[@Sinaeb]

@@distorte8 If you think that riot cares about anything except brrring

[@RisingShadow11]

this right here ^ take away invulnerability and he will be okay

[@abhishekprasad000]

then he'd be absolute trash,he's a literal melee glass canon like yi and hence needs that element of invulnerability like Yi's Q

[@TheRealSonicBeats]

@@abhishekprasad000 that's unfortunately true, the only way I think to really nerf him is not let him reset his ult unless he kills with it. The fact he can get access to his ult more than 5 times if he plays it right in one fight, is insane.

[@viridian8786]

Still can't believe emiru literally called a dev

[@alyasVictorio]

Remember the Ruination pre-season cinematic of LoL? I Viego is lore-wise as the ruination, Literally

[@rk9515]

Who was worst on release? Viego or Aphelios?

[@HTHAWK93]

hahahaha Yassuo being the one used to demonstrate low elo players opinions on Viego... im ded

[@kyoumasama7093]

"Bork wich gives him extra damage" what actually happens: nemesis with a vamp cepter

[@akshatraghav727]

video on veigo on other side looking at his hair whole the time 😂

[@mpascu7286]

he's still one of the best junglers, especially in early game, but he's not easy to learn imo, and he's not beginner friendly at all

[@nomorecakes]

hes in the same vein as irelia; anyone can technically play her if they get the items, and most people don't care to learn them, but the people that do are literally unstoppable and the champ can't be beat when learned.

[@aggressiveagitatedgif806]

This is what you expect in single player playable boss character to be op

[@tabitarai974]

I play frostfire gauntlet mordekaiser so I feel more dominant and gigachad.

[@eyadayman04]

I was waiting to see that RGE vs MSF Inspired clip

[@tutowo7304]

3:37 "There is no counterplay" Just don't die I guess?

[@Tenz220]

Guess you can say Viego is the HEARTBREAKER

[@nebulimes2143]

I think the biggest problem with Viego is that there’s literally no point in not taking an enemy’s body - actually having to decide wether it’s worth grabbing the enemy champion or not would add a great dimension of skill expression as well as reward players with a diverse character pool

[@nebulimes2143]

IMO the best way to fix him would be to change him from a melee ADC (cause every one of them is just a balance nightmare) to more of a fighter/bruiser like Riven or Fiora, then tweak his passive so it only provides reduced damage during the transformation, keep the increased movement speed towards enemies but remove the additional health on transformation and maybe the ult reset could be something like Kassadin where every consecutive use has it do less and less damage, or just remove it all together.

[@cymo7344]

This dude is even more powerful in-game than the most powerful being in Lol lore..😂😂😂

[@tkZombie_]

0:30 if league is your comfort game, you are a masochist

[@k0mb4t92]

0:24 my question is why first item the collector

[@TheMrJascha]

1:32 Bro cmon NO OFFENSE Just accept it ! And Shave it off ! pls

[@MAR_10-x5w]

Viego is so fun to play switching characters actually

[@adamneradilek4444]

I was so ready to write an angry comment about Inspired's pentakill missing from the video.

[@edorn117]

The problem is every enemy champion is a free hourglass to him plus a reset

[@Chorles]

My problem from using viego is not knowing the new characters and the old ones that I sucked at so I never bothered to use😂

[@pulsefireezk9097]

As a Viego enjoyer, those were all true - the only limit of your enjoyment is keeping your HP sustain long enough to get a soul and as well as to learn other 150+ champions in the roster. But the HP will never be a problem to a champion with ridiculous built in life steal that builds life steal items. And the exp? Nevermind that, playing Viego will make you learn the others as well and even if you don't, just press R since the reset is more than good enough

[@pornhubmante]

5:45 DUDE DON'T TRANSLATE THAT YOU MIGHT REGRET IT

[@XENOSUPERX]

5:41 Grande Masse

[@piotrwalczak8090]

The only way moving forward is to take away R resets or/and nerf possess, to the point you grant half of the stats or sth like this and the items actives passive don't work. Otherwise I don't see Viego ever falling out of S/A tier jungle picks.

[@DragonoftheDarknessFlame]

Eh. Feels like he's not that bad because there's a lot of shit Veigo players

[@xniyana9956]

If Riot ever takes away his resets, I'm quitting League instantly. I'm dead serious. Viego is one of the most fun champions Riot ever made.

[@freepcplayer]

Why would you put a hashinshin clip in ?

[@nervz]

"this is support to be my comfort game"

[@wiinter7562]

"There are holes in his design especially in lower elos"?????

[@huthaifazeidan6184]

anyone who has played against full lethality poppy knows she 100% not underpowered

[@crisnmaryfam7344]

Old Poppy used to be Insane. I miss that.

[@callmeandoru2627]

Well, his lore and gameplay fit together, I guess.

[@Diana-xx6my]

Here after Oner viego vs g2 at MSI

[@Takomuchii-Cookie.Dep.Intern]

Geez. If only the devs REMOVED THE FRICKING IMMUNITY MECHANIC WHEN HE TRANSFORMS, that would feel much more balanced to play against. But yeah, for some reason they don't want to so up until then, the only real counterplay is to ban Viego. 200 years, everybody. 200 years.

[@samuelbonafe258]

Wait is Tenz playing league 13:58 ? Wow

[@luufia]

nearly ?

[@nakedpotato9894]

notice when they show the patch its just bug fixes?

[@Gc2012V]

On my first game ever, i got 2 quadra. And i had 0 idea what i did, i just smash buttons :)))))

[@thuanphan29]

Hashinsin still active?

[@bachelorsensei9437]

Point 1 : V is the initial alphabet for Viego. V is the initial alphabet for Venom. Point 2 : Viego possesses his victim and manipulates them. Venom possesses its victim and manipulates them. Point 3 : Viego can switch his victims or get out of the victim's body once they become useless to him. Venom can switch its victims or get out of the victim's body once they become useless to it. Conclusion : Viego is the Venom of League.

[@haylongwang3002]

Alright but for real, they didnt even mention Mordi looks more like the "Final boss" king then he did...

[@kylre]

The counterplay is banning viego

[@georgeburchell296]

Who's worse kassadin season 3 or release viego?

[@Philip41018]

tbh i feel him more balanced rn than couple months ago xd

[@icewallowcome4027]

Yeah, i played viego when he first came out, i now main him, having the tower still target viego when he got a reset helped, theve nerfed him pretty hard, and hes in a good spot rn, especially if you go kraken, because hes just an assassin at that point, the divine sunderer build just isnt nearly as strong as it used to be

[@dynn457]

latest jungle champs really broken (gwen also u can play jng tho) now we get belveth

[@feardatd7961]

People though Darius' reset was bad and then rito makes Pyke and then people think Pyke's reset was bad and they go and make Viego. At least with Darius and Pyke is only reset if you kill with the ability. Viego doesn't have that restriction + he gets healed and a free Zhonya's.

[@Boromir95]

I believe it's a very fun champion to play with/against because it makes the game so unpredictable.

[@Kevinterell]

They added the SUPER TOP IN THIS VIDEO LOL!!!!!

[@kimi9824]

4:53 *AHHHH MY GOD!! saw my fucking life flashed before me eyes* 🤣🤣🤣

[@ongxuwei]

Or in the words of Darkmane : "Viego moment"

[@speadskater]

They didn't see beta Twisted Fate, innervating locket udyr, release Xin Zhao.

[@kissuri9344]

How to fix Viego tutorial for Riot Games: Step 1: Make him vulnerable when entering soul. Step 2: When in soul form all dmg he deal is lowered by 20/30% Step 3: U have done it Viego is no longer broken.

[@Skyp39]

I love the part where host says "Viego took over proplay" then show us LCS gaming xDDDDDDDDDD

[@rawminz117]

me how i feel about fade i don't play league love watching pro play for it though

[@omeredeye]

DONG HUAP!! thats a name i havent heard in a long time

[@TheJerbol]

Kinda weird to do this video now when he's not even the best jungler

[@icewallowcome4027]

Legit sub 50% winrate plat+ rn

[@ibrahim5463]

Ah,yes,the 153 champion that got mixed in one champion in riot 200 year old lab

[@gyrozeppeli00]

he's pretty balanced now I think, most people play him as a bruiser now and he's just as oppressive as any lee sin or xin zhao