The Tragic Tale of Yorick Mori

http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/img/champion/splash/Yorick_0.jpg

With Yorick's rework coming out, I wanted to do a small retrospective on Yorick. In terms of champions who have received a massive overhaul, Yorick will be the first one who wasn't a launch/proto-season-1 champion (Taric, Sion, Poppy). No, Yorick was around Season 2 and yet he was so bad that he ranked up with Sion, Poppy and Taric when it comes to game health...but why? Well, that's the purpose of the retrospective. In doing this, I hope we (and Riot) can understand the errors that were made and what would become Yorick's own coffin.

#The Beginning http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/2/2e/Yorick-teaser.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110608034131

For a long time, people had requested a minion-based champion. Yes, we had Heimer and Malzahar, but people wanted something on the scale of Furion/Nature's Prophet or Chen in DOTA. People wanted a micro-intensive, minion-based champion whose power was directly tied to the beings he could create. Yorick was promised to be the realization of that.

Now, if you think League's code is bad now, back then it was even worse. Minion/Micro control was unheard of and AI was pitiful. Riot was unfortunately in over their heads in designing this character. Micro would be next-to-impossible, meaning that they had to go with AI. Which made Yorick's kit even more binary and simplistic. This part is a rumor and I question the legitimacy of it but from what I hear, Yorick's ultimate was changed two days before release. Originally it was to be a ghoul-wall similar to Karthus but on an ultimate level scale. Instead we got Yorick's current ult, where he summons a ghoul that will bring characters back from death.

From the beginning we can see that the deck was stacked against Yorick.

#The Release https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSDYK-s7siQ

Holy shit that dislike bar.

Yorick's release was plagued with major problems and probably the biggest cautionary tale that Riot has. For the unaware, Yorick on the test realm was weak....VERY WEAK. He was pitifully underpowered. If you look at the spotlight you can even tell Yorick's drastically more fed than those he's playing against. People were furious. Not only did they not get what was promised but Yorick was billed as WAY stronger than he was. He'd need several buffs after release to get him to an acceptable state.

Coupling this was one of the worst league bugs (IMO) that ever happened. Due to Yorick's ult coding being an apostle of the flying spaghetti monster, Yorick's ult would constantly revive and kill you...over....and over...and over.... http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nQozzfnRngU/T2pJtl821_I/AAAAAAAACeI/JJ-3W4G3cKE/s1600/yorick.jpg

With his release, the hype revealed Yorick to be the ugly hunchback we know today.

#The Follow-ups

Yorick's follow-ups came in two waves. The first was buffs trying to make him work, Riot giving ample power to both Yorick and his ghouls. Doing this made Riot soon discover just how problematic Yorick truly was. He was a lane bully who had all his power frontloaded. Once lane-phase ended, Yorick was little more than a shambling ult bot. Couple that with truly confusing kit decisions (Why does he get an MS boost AFTER using Q? Buh!?), players soon learned to fear Yorick until the 15 minute mark, at which point he was...well, dead meat.

Riot recognized the monstrosity they created. It wasn't like Urgot who was an oddball but SOMEWHAT workable. No, Yorick was an abomination. Work had to be done on a large scale with him. I famously recall Xelnath coming up with some sample Yorick reworks yet these would go nowhere. Behind the scenes, from what I remember from the dev podcast, Yorick ended up being a doomed project. Anyone who tried to work on him met with struggles, tribulations and eventually just frustration and leaving him be.

Ironically Yorick's fate in-game perfectly mirrored his lore: He was a forgotten, unloved monster shambling on with little remembrance of his duty.

#The Revival https://lolstatic-a.akamaihd.net/frontpage/apps/prod/rg-yorick-champion-update-2016/en_AU/479f0a5975e1dfe45a4f4540ad47072dff03047e/assets/img/skin-1.jpg

Yorick's finally coming back but I feel we can derive some key things from Yorick's story that explain why he needed a rework so badly. Yorick will be the first major overhaul of a champion whose creation didn't hit the mark on any level and whose gameplay held no value to keep. With this in mind:

• Yorick was billed as a minion champion yet lacked proper minion control on any level.
• Yorick was an extremely messy release. I'd argue one of Riot's worst.
• Yorick had a kit that had nothing of value to keep. He was pure thematic.
• Yorick had a theme that wasn't explored strongly enough to warrant keeping.
• Yorick, for a long time, was a doomed project.

This champion is a cautionary tale of how overpromise and trying to fill more on niche than gameplay health can lead to downfall and ruination. Yorick always had potential but from birth he was unfortunately and tragically crippled. For those who ever want to design a champion or want to think about creating something, do yourself a huge favor:

Remember Yorick Mori.