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A long, comprehensive list of Yi counterplay.

Wuju Styłe·6/21/2018, 3:09:04 PM·33 votes·8,118 views

As a Plat 2 Yi main that has over a million mastery points, it absolutely baffles me how the entire community was incapable of finding a counterplay to such a simple champion with a straightforward and basic kit. (50.51% WR and over 60% ban rate in NA and EUW) The problem lies within Taric regarding the gold funneling strat as he was NEVER remotely strong(meta) before the strat emerged. I figured I might as well share my knowledge to cure the ignorance that has caused a mass hysteria.

1)Deny him resets, Yi is absolutely useless in teamfights without Highlander. By making him waste highlander, his damage output is significantly lowered and is now vulnerable to attack speed and movement speed slows. So try your best to run away(there's lot of champions with mobility), go into stealth, cc him, or use your death prevention ability.

  1. A list of champions that are absolutely a nightmare for a Yi to play against Stealth Akali Khazix Pyke Shaco Rengar Talon Teemo MonkeyKing Vayne Invulnerability Kayle Kindred Taric Aatrox Bard Kalista Lissandra Zilean Tryndamere Untargetability Elise Evelynn Fizz Kayn TahmKench Vladimir Xayah Fear(makes Yi run away in the speed of light during highlander) Fiddlesticks Hecarim Warwick Nocturne Shaco Dodge Jax Shen Silence(Unable to dodge cc with q) Blitzcrank Chogath Fiddlesticks Garen Malzahar Soraka Disarm and Blind(Unable to AA) Irelia Teemo Knockback Alistar Azir Gragas AurelionSol Gnar Janna Jayce LeeSin Syndra Taliyah Tristana Vayne XinZhao Ziggs VERY ANNOYING in general for Yi to play against Ahri Akali Alistar Anivia Annie Bard Braum Caitlyn Cassiopeia Ekko Evelynn Fiddlesticks Fizz Heimerdinger Irelia Janna Jax Kayle Kayn Kennen Khazix Leblanc LeeSin Lissandra Lulu Malzahar Morgana Nocturne Poppy Pyke Rakan Rammus Renekton Riven Shaco Shen Skarner Soraka Syndra TahmKench Talon Taric Teemo Thresh Tristana Tryndamere TwistedFate Udyr Vayne Veigar Warwick MonkeyKing Xayah Zilean Zoe Zyra

Yes, you're right. You can dodge SOME of the cc listed above with alpha strike but that is entirely skill based and some are very hard to do without precise timing. QSS? You can't cleanse hard cc without precise timing and burning your flash at the same time. Making someone build a 1300 gold item reduces their damage output when they could be building something else. And even if he QSS the CC, all you have to do is just cc him again since he won't be using that again in another 90 seconds.

  1. Items to build against Yi item 3157 item 3026 item 3075 item 3047 item 3143(crit yi), any movement speed increasing, shielding, healing, and dmg reduction items.

  2. **BURST YI DOWN. **He is a naturally squishy melee dps carry, he has to get in melee range in your team where the whole team could easily focus him down as a whole. You can also catch him offguard as he will stand no chance against burst when he just does constant dps. He might try to reduce the damage with meditate but its easily interruptable.

5)Flashing/Dashing into your team when Master Yi alphas you puts him in the middle of your team to get gangbanged

Why does playing Yi sucks? 1)Yi provides 0 utility for his team 2)He is a squishy melee carry with the SHORTEST attack range with no built in escapes which means he has to be committed to every fight 3)He has ZERO jungle pressure early game which means he has no control over the snowbally gank meta right now nor scuttle control 4)He's shit at ganking because he has 0 cc and only a dash pre 6 so the enemy jungler can easily outgank him 5)He's gold reliant where as his jungle counterpart with cc that is behind will be useful throughout the whole game in teamfights 6)It is near impossible for Yi to team fight without ult as he would be unable to get to the backlines/carries by just walking. And even if he does succeed at reaching the backlines/carries, he would easily be kited by the ADC without the movement speed buff from highlander. 7)His alpha strike is extremely buggy where as you will die during alpha by skillshots or it will go on CD when Yi fails to complete his alpha strike cast time before his target vanishes into the fog of war or dashes away. So basically alpha strike just goes on cd without you actually following or damaging the target. 8)Random people who don't understand the struggles of playing him will flame you because he's "easy"

**Despite popular beliefs that Yi is an easy champion that is overpowered, it is easy to play Yi but it is hard to become a good Yi player as you need to take time to learn the tricks, timing, match ups, playstyle and the damage output of the champion. Just because you went god like in a game where people failed to cc you down and make use of their jungle pressure doesn't the champion is overpowered. Before you try criticizing the champion, please first try experiencing playing him in high gold and above. **

85 Comments

PhearBunny6/21/2018, 3:49:25 PM21 votes

just because a champion CAN be killed/beaten, doesn't mean they are balanced or healthy.

Fízz v26/21/2018, 3:58:36 PM17 votes

Shouldve been an empty thread tbh. "Bursting him down" or building general defensive items "counters" every champ lel

PhearBunny6/21/2018, 3:37:34 PM13 votes

the only counterplay to Yi is human error on Yi's end.

Zed genius6/21/2018, 3:47:22 PM11 votes

I mean, boards still haven't found a way to beat yasuo for 5 years after all

ChaddyFantome6/21/2018, 4:38:45 PM10 votes
  • Stealth

Fair enough

  • Invulnerability

This counters everything. It doesn't counter Yi in any innate or specific way unique to the champion.

  • Untargetability

middle of the road. It does cuck yi in a specific way to how he works but ti also cucks everythign in general because of how the mechanic works.

  • Fear

Ehh, when he is ulting sure, but that can actually be to his advantage depending on the situation.

  • Dodge

Fair enough.

  • Silence

No. It doesn't counter Yi in any innate or specific way unique to the champion.

  • Disarm and Blind

Fair enough

  • Knockback

It doesn't counter Yi in any innate or specific way unique to the champion.

Rest of your post is consistent and true tho.

Nyarlathοtep6/21/2018, 4:57:05 PM6 votes

So basically counterpick him or burst him down before he burst your carries. Nice cool bruh. Thanks for the obvious!

Thanks to how stupidly good he synergies with conq, rageblade and possible essence reaver, he can proc a lot of aa's in a single second and deal metric tons of mixed damage. One of which is cant be reduced.

Oh and i almost forgot, he snowballs very very hard ( yes yes i know a lot of champs do, but he is a bit different because he has godlike clean up+literally no way to outplay him or counterbuild him)

five oh tree 6/21/2018, 3:37:08 PM5 votes

It's the same reason why the boards cry about assassins; most players are horrible at reading the map and grouping at the right time.

yes, if yi catches you alone past 15 minutes and you're not a duelist you're going to die. 1500 units away from your team is not grouped. You will die, then they will die as he gets 7s more on highlander, then anyone around them will die as yi 1v1s each of you in succession. He's STRONG, but NOT op or broken.

Andrey03456/21/2018, 4:06:27 PM5 votes

Yi's ability to dodge cc with his Q is so overrated. It's hard to do and only saves you from a single ability (if they are not boosted to waste all cc at once)

Despìca Bìll6/22/2018, 9:23:11 AM3 votes

He's less a problem in your ELO, where people actually build team comps in response to the enemy picks. He's a big problem in mine, where everyone is trying to solo carry because they're in high school and haven't figured out teamwork yet. So, if there doesn't just happen to be some easily-hit hard CC, a lot of games get carried simply because Yi kills before us folks with slow reaction speed can counter him. It's one of the problems with balancing champs around high ELO: a handful of them will invariably end up overtuned in low ELO, simply because some are easier to use than others. A good Yi is needed to play in high rank games. Low rank? It doesn't get much easier than him.

That being said, this post should be considered required reading. Very well done. High-effort content, with a definite message, and well thought out. Thank you for putting so much effort into this. I can actually use a lot of this.

Modl Ryden l6/21/2018, 5:03:08 PM3 votes

Breaking line of sight is a great counter to anyone that relies on basic attacks as most of their damage output.

item 3364 and item 2055 placed into a bush when Yi is pursuing you will stop him momentarily when he can't see you and if he isn't right clicking rapidly into the bush. It also disallows his ability to Alpha Strike.

Harden Stepback6/21/2018, 5:24:27 PM3 votes

at least 3 of the 5 champions must have a stun. other than that its over.

P4ppino6/21/2018, 3:33:28 PM3 votes

I read the title, then read the post. You delivered.

hhaavviikk6/21/2018, 5:35:30 PM2 votes

funny thing is kayle doesn't counter yi because while kayle has her ult on yi can just use meditate to regain health and get 70% damage reduction and since kayle doesn't have any hard CC she can't stop him.

and see allot of these seems like nice suggestions but he can chow through 2 hard CC, 1 with Q, 1 with QSS

HalcyonDweller6/21/2018, 5:43:53 PM2 votes

Right now he takes advantage of the new items way too well, and he just becomes a nightmare to deal with.

Maybe yi needs to be given better skill expression, so that he can have more power but also more counterplay. Auto-attacking from melee range is not that fulfilling a playstyle in the first place, and two of his abilities just revolve around making him auto more/harder, his only actual abilities are Q and W. Seems to me like he could use an update.

Ignika D6/21/2018, 4:53:25 PM2 votes

yi squish but he got 600 hp lvl 1 and 2200 lvl 18 lol

Nanolathe116/21/2018, 8:30:05 PM2 votes

i personally like when i see im playing against a yi. any jungler like VI, Volibear, WW would EAT HIM ALIVE. let him alpha to you, absorb the dmg. attack, cc and poof he gone. to counter a champ you must know the champ. as they say, to beat thy enemy you must know thy enemy. if you know how to play yi then you know how to beat him. same with every champ in this game

Critmaster Garen6/21/2018, 11:13:54 PM2 votes

not that i generally disagree, but you can take Garen off the list.

the decisive strike animation is so slow and telegraphed, that yi can alpha to interrupt it by going untargetable, then come out of alpha and get enough auto attacks in to have it available again and cast it before the second attempt at decisive strikes animation has a chance to connect.

thats not even exaggeration. its part of the reason why i fucking hate how slow the animation is.

garens visual update was probably the only one to date, that nerfed the champion. because pre VU in season 3, garens q was practically instant.

Ahri Body Pillow6/21/2018, 8:02:35 PM1 votes

Counter picking is not counter play.