This time last year, our eyes were just opening to the newest creation in League of Legends - the strongest monstrosity to ever hit the competitive scene: Zoe.

At last year’s All-Star Event, Zoe was just making her debut on the competitive stage, as the world was seeing, for the first time, what would become the most frightening champion in perhaps the entire history of League of Legends.

For a brief moment in time, Zoe had ruled over the competitive landscape of League of Legends. Across the entire world, her presence was felt immensely, as she was almost unavoidable. For what felt like the better half of the 2018 season, Zoe was the centerpiece of not only the mid-lane meta, but the entire game. The weight and leverage she possessed over any situation propelled her way over the ranks of the rest of the champion roster, as she quickly established herself as the game’s most important champion.

Through a harrowing combination of ridiculous burst damage, solid crowd control, and extremely slippery mobility, it became obvious very quickly that Zoe’s kit was just a little bit overpacked. This natural strength found in the champion was what truly defined her as one of the strongest picks throughout the course of the 2018 season. No matter how hard Riot nerfed her, the nature of her design allowed the champion to find strength in nearly every aspect of the game.

That same design is what allowed Zoe to burst onto the competitive scene and develop a stranglehold on professional play early on in her tenure. During her debut at the 2017 All-Star Event, she finished the tournament with a win-rate of 80%, while her pick/ban ratio sat at 95.5% by the time all was said and done. Over the course of five games played, Zoe only experienced one loss at that tournament, while finishing with an average KDA of 4.43. However, perhaps the most impressive performance at last year’s All-Star Event came from North America’s Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg, who finished a game against Brazil on the tournament’s opening day with a 7/1/8 scoreline on Zoe, with the one imperfection coming on a last-second fountain dive that tainted an otherwise perfect performance.

Even still, Bjergsen wouldn’t be the only one to impress on the champion at All-Stars, and if anything, the tournament served as a brief introduction to the reign of terror that Zoe would impose upon the professional scene for months to come.

Once the 2018 Season officially began, the world’s Zoe players didn’t waste any time taking the Aspect of Twilight onto the Rift and completely dominating with the champion for the first few months of the year. Throughout the course of the season’s first major patch, Patch 8.1, Zoe garnered 82 picks and 266 bans, good enough for a worldwide pick/ban presence of 81.1%. And while that number was certainly staggering for a champion making its official debut, the mark only increased with time. By Patch 8.2, Zoe was involved in over 90% of all champion selects worldwide, while nearly maintaining the mark well into Patch 8.3.

However,Patch 8.4 dealt a significant blow to Zoe, as the champion received nerfs to her Passive, “More Sparkles”, her Q, “Paddle Star”, and her E, “Sleepy Trouble Bubble”. Nearly every feature that had made Zoe the game’s strongest mid lane champion in the early stages of the season had been knocked down a peg with the release of 8.4, making her a particularly undesirable pick seemingly overnight. In one swift motion, Riot had effectively erased Zoe from the game for a brief moment, as Patch 8.4 saw the champion go unpicked and unbanned, effectively posting a whopping pick/ban presence of 0% throughout the entire world.

After Riot realized they may have gone a little too far with the Zoe nerfs, the champion started to gain a little bit of traction after slight buffs over the course of the next few patches. By the time the Mid-Season Invitational had arrived, Zoe was back to being one of the most effective champions a mid laner could have in their arsenal. Throughout the course of that tournament, Zoe had been picked 9 times while receiving a total of 17 bans, ultimately resulting in a pick/ban presence of 60.5% - the third highest among mid laners, and the 14th highest at the tournament.

After some miscellaneous buffs, Zoe had once again become one of the strongest mid lane champions in the game, as patches 8.10 and 8.11 saw her post pick/ban presences of 78.1% and 79.6%, respectively. By Patch 8.12, Zoe had returned to her throne, posting a total presence of 94%, while her winrate sat at 54% with 63 picks.

And although Zoe definitely meandered throughout the course of the Summer Split, averaging around 70% during the early stages of the latter half of the season, her overall pick/ban presence shot down to 10.5% once Patch 8.17 arrived. Finally, by the time the World Championship had rolled around, Zoe only saw a presence of just 4% throughout the entire tournament. With 1 ban and 2 picks, Zoe was officially a non-factor. And regardless, the two picks she did receive at the tournament both resulted in losses thanks to rather uninspiring performances from Lee "Kuro" Seo-haeng of Afreeca Freecs and Chen "Uniboy" Chang-Chu of MAD Team.

However, even though Zoe failed to make a significant impact down the stretch of the season and ultimately at the year’s final tournament, she still ravaged her way through the landscape of competitive League of Legends during the entirety of 2018. Her impact on the game was massive, and the way we approach new champions in the competitive scene has been altered greatly because of her. Regardless of how you feel about Zoe in her present state, there’s no denying that after appearing in 56% of champion selects throughout the course of the year, and establishing herself as a top 10 champion in terms of overall impact, there’s no questioning the mark that Zoe left on not only the 2018 season, but the face of competitive League of Legends, as a whole.

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