Yuumi has seen an impressive rise in her opening weeks upon joining the League of Legends roster and has been a pain in the side for many players, both amateur and pro. However, that does not mean she is without counters (as if she did, she would either be first blue side or banned red side every game), and any player who wants to be able to exploit her weaknesses should know what champions punish her the hardest. Therefore, in this piece, I hope to identify some of the potential counters to and some potential synergies with the Magical Cat.

Counter - Poppy

Now I know it’s weird to see a counter come from a lane that Yuumi isn’t in (Top) but this counter has become prominent and major draft idea used my teams in multiple leagues (KT in LCK, OPT in LCS, and SPY in LEC).

So why does Poppy counter Yuumi? Well, a good Yuumi in a teamfight will be dashing from champion to champion all the time thanks to the fact that champion-to-champion hops as part of You and Me! has no cooldown. However, should a dash be interrupted it will go on cooldown leaving the hyper squishy cat open (and unattached and able to take damage) to being nuked. This where Poppy comes in. Her W; Steadfast Presence, stops dashes, which in a teamfight can completely deny Yuumi's ability to reposition.

Synergy - Bullet Hell Lanes

Now, this is a pairing that has seen a lot of success in the LCK, and no surprise it was first showcased by Griffin (GRF Lehends has been the number 1 Yuumi in the region and so it is no surprise that he brought this combination out against Sandbox in their game 2 win). So, what is this combo? It is simply running Lucian and Yuumi together and is primarily selected for the combination of each character's ulitmate, Final Chapter and The Culling.

The combination of these high-speed ultimates pairs Yuumi’s root with the shredding damage of The Culling, and it has proved itself to be lethal to almost everyone in the bot lane. There is also the consideration that Yuumi pairs well with the mobility of Lucians E, Relentless Pursuit. This is why we haven’t seen the combo made with MF, as her poor mobility is just too much of gaping hole in the defense. So here we have the bot lane wombo/mobility paying off in the form of a Yuumi pick.

Counter - Aggressive Jungling (Wards)

One of the main jobs a support has is to ward up the map so that plays can be set up while your opposition plays can be seen coming and then countered. It is one of the reasons that support is the role that dies more often as they undertake some of the biggest risks in all of LoL.

How does this affect Yuumi? Well as mentioned prior, she is one of the squishiest champions on the LoL roster, so if she is caught alone, she is almost guaranteed to die. Therefore, if a jungler positions and paths in such a way that he is aggressively set to punish a support warding, the chance of payoff is much higher against a Yuumi when compared to trying to kill something with more defensive capabilities such as Morgana or Nautilus (it is noted that a jungler with an early game presence such as Lee Sin is especially effective in this kind of play). So, here we have an example of countering Yuumi by exploiting one of her key weaknesses with a specific pick and play style.

Synergy - Safety Lanes

This is quite simply a pairing with Ezreal or Sivir (and maybe even Lucian again), who are two of the most defensively secure ADCs in the game itself (as much as an ADC can be safe given how squishy they are by nature). Now, before you rip my head off screaming that Ezreal and Sivir are one and two in the meta tier list for bot lane right now, maybe consider why they are in this spot and why those reasons have synergy with the cat.

One of the key weaknesses that Yuumi has is that she is 95% reliant on her laning partner when it comes to staying alive as when she is unbound is she squishy, super squishy, Therefore any ADC who comes with a built-in safety tool (such as Sivir’s E, Spell Shield, or Ezreal’s E, Arcane Shift) will be able to benefit from Yuumi’s amplifications without the downside of her squishiness resulting to a feeding support scenario. So, again, we see another example of a synergy that Yuumi can utilize.

Counter - Point and Click CC

Since the magic cat positioning is primarily based on where her carry/latched ally is, catching set ally out of position is almost twice as effective (provided they can’t turn the fight around), so many crowd control effects can be great into lanes that feature the cat.

But what is better than CC? How about guaranteed, point and click CC (like Nautilus’s R, Depth Charge) which when applied to a target Yuumi is will be more effective. This kind of targeting to remove the ally that Yuumi is on can also leave Yuumi with no ally to go untargetable on, meaning, you guessed it, one squishy kitty. So here we have an example of how targeted CC can be even more effective into matchups against the magical cat.

Synergy - Engage Combo (Junglers)

Now unlike what many think, Yuumi cannot solo engage a teamfight, this is because of the fact that she is so squishy when unbound/unattached to an ally. This fact is also backed up by the way that Final Chapter works. It launches a damaging wave every half second (7 total) and will root any enemy hit by 3 waves will be rooted. This means that there is a time delay on the CC which does not even negate enemies from casting return damage spells. What does that mean? Final Chapter should not be your primary teamfight engage!

Instead what it should be is your follow up to your teamfight engage. You need to follow up a second champion on your team to facilitate Yuumi; an initiation spell, a gap closer, and a moderate to a high degree of tankiness. Now there are only two real champions that do this that we see frequently right now (but maybe other sources can become meta in the future) and they are Sejuani and Jarvan IV. Initiation? Cataclysm and Glacial Prison check that off. Gap Closer? Arctic Assault/the flag’n’drag combo reduce the distance. And finally, tankiness? Sejuani’s passive, Fury of the North, and J4’s W, Golden Aegis, (along with their both naturally tanky kits) bring that. The combo for a Yuumi follow synergy has been completed.

Counter - Knockbacks

We all know that Yuumi needs to be near the frontline to get her ultimate onto the opposing team. Final Chapter can be one of the best CC ultimates in the game given its good range and AOE stun potential. However, as previously mentioned, it does have a major flaw that can be exploited, it takes a minimum of 1.5 seconds to get a stun on any member.

So how do you exploit this flaw. Well the simplest thought is to just kill the target she’s on and then her in one big burst, but this isn’t really viable as she could be on a target who is a tank or can mitigate the damage resulting in her ulti going off and probably a lost teamfight for your team. So how do you stop the ulti? One solution is to just knock her latched target away with spells such as Alistar’s Headbutt or Tristana’s Ultimate. Not only are you knocking a tank off the front line which can make the tank useless, but you’re putting Yuumi in a scenario where she has to either go untargetable or face that a large portion of her kit (her Ultimate; Final chapter and her Q; Prowling Projectile) is now ineffective which can turn a teamfight in your favor.

Synergy - The Creation of a Juggernaut

As we have previously identified Yuumi is an amplifier by nature and so she can be used in a multi-amplification team composition. What does this require? A second amplification bot laner (Sivir has been in this kind of setup), a speed orientated control mage mid (Zilean/Orianna), a tank top or Jayce, and finally the key synergy with Yuumi, a speed boosting carry jungler.

So, who are the synergy royalty targets here? Well in pro play we have seen teams such as TSM go for a jugger-Hecarim comp (utilizing Yuumi in one of 2 different setups for the jugger comp). But for solo queue, a point has to be made for the edge lord in Kayn. It's no secret he has been a solo queue menace, but Yummi amplification on a Kayn is truly scary for any enemy squishy. It is to be noted that Yuumi fits in very well in juggernaut compositions and it this that makes the champions mentioned prior have synergy with the cat.

Conclusion

To conclude, Yuumi is a champion that embodies the concept of pocket amplification and that makes her a powerful tool to many champions, but some benefit more than others and some do so in varying methods. Therefore, for Yuumi players to use her to her maximum potential, they need to understand her counters/synergies in order to get her maximum output. We have shown some of those counters/synergies and hope for those of you that have/are going to soon be picking up Yuumi I hope that you use this information to master her, with that I leave you with the thoughts of GL, HF, and GG.