League of Legends developer shares reasoning behind not nerfing Zeri for pro-play despite high presence rate

Zeri is currently one of the most played champions in League of Legends' pro-play. She is extremely strong and has a very high presence rate, which has led to several fans asking for her to be nerfed to the ground.

A developer at Riot Games recently provided his insight on why they haven't considered nerfing Zeri in pro-play yet. His reasoning is more along the lines of professionals being reluctant towards change despite the presence of various strong options.

Apart from that, he feels that it is only recently that Zeri has finally surpassed other ADCs in terms of her presence rate. So simply nerfing her right away based on data from the regular season seems unnecessary.

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Riot Games developer claims it has been a while since Zeri stood out in League of Legends pro-play meta

The major outbreak regarding Zeri's nerf primarily rose in a League of Legends Reddit thread. However, developer Riot Phreak claimed that he is one of the few who has advocated against this change.

It is because, up until now, Zeri didn't have that big of a presence rate in the meta. There have been very few champions in the past who have crossed the 80% presence rate mark, and she has done it for the first time in patch 13.5.

Most other champions usually maintain a 10% presence mark in proplay and that is considered big. Therefore, he feels that simply destroying a champion's presence just because it has risen once as a clear favorite makes no sense.

He further went on to clarify that:

"Right now, a lot of ADCs have really close presence outside of Zeri. For the first time she stands far above the rest of the crew and this is a reasonable nerf candidate."

He went on to express his doubts about professional players changing their picks based on additional nerfs:

"But this is, IMO, the first patch of proplay where it made sense to nerf her. And even still, 13.6 nerfed her most common pro builds: Lethal Tempo, Quickblades (61% pickrate), and Bloodthirster (45% pickrate) are all nerfed. So even then the question is, "Will pros change their behavior at all in the face of three direct nerfs?" I'm betting no"

Thus, he has made a pretty good point regarding Zeri at the moment. In League of Legends patch 13.6, the developers nerfed her indirectly, but the problem is pro-players are very reluctant when it comes to accepting change and trying out other options.

He further clarified the reluctant nature of proplay by saying:

"Why was Xayah sitting at 10% presence across all of 13.1, 13.1b, and 13.3? Why did it take until 13.4 for pro players to realize she was so strong?"

It is true that Zeri is indeed a very strong option to go for as her spacing, teamfighting, and damage capabilities are unmatched. However, even though the developers continue to balance her or nerf her, pro-players manage to use her in some way or another.

As of now, Zeri has the highest presence rate in the LPL and the LCK, while the lowest in League of Legends LEC.