As in, somebody plays that champion REALLY well, or finds a build that makes that champion too strong, everyone else follows suit, gets popular, riot takes notice and hammers the champion down?
recent examples on top of my head are
SaltyKracka1 votesAP Tryndamere comes to mind. One guy played it forever, people picked up on it, then Riot realized it was absolute cancer and they rightfully gutted it.
A Basic Island1 votesthis is almost every champion that gets popular in the scenario that you gave us.
Most of the time it is not the player base "breaking/discovering" a champion. The vast majority of league player are sheep, and just follow what they see other players do, which those players are getting it from watching streams, the LCS, msi, etcetc
It isn't until the last year or so that rito has been blatantly overbuffing champions and they become OP with everyone realizing it right away, most of the time a streamer/pro match thrusts a champion into the spotlight
Now, if you're asking can a single player get a champ nerfed, because only they/a small handful of people can play them properly, the answer is yes. Just look at nidalee
ChargeItDownMid1 votes[deleted]
A Basic Island1 votesdid singed ever actually get nerfed because of that?
i know the guy single handily got the mechanics of the game changed (making your gold value reset every x minions) but did singed actually get nerfed o.o?
LadyRenly1 votesall of bronze hates blitzcrank but you don't see him being gutted
same deal with yi, til devourer was a thing
Gotted1 votesDekar got Rengar's ban rate above fifty percent then he got nerfed.
Mecha MaIphite1 votesProbably not directly.
Dedrius1 votesThe only one I can think of is a few seasons ago Voyboy basically got Olaf nerfed single handedly. But an average player not in LCS can not.
