2021 LEC Summer Split, Viego and Gwen to make their pro League of Legends debut

Riot Games’ head of esports for League of Legends in Europe and MENA, Maximillian Peter Schmidt, also known online as “MAXtheX”, recently announced that both Gwen and Viego will both be available in the 2021 LEC Summer Split.

#LEC Update:League’s newest addition Gwen will be enabled and is expected to be a serious thread.Viego is also expected to finally make his competitive debut next week.Make sure to tune in next Friday at 6PM CEST for the return of the (unofficial) best League in the world.

— Maximilian Peter Schmidt (@RiotMAXtheX) June 4, 2021

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Viego and Gwen join the fray in Summer 2021 League of Legends European Championship

League of Legends' most recent champion, Gwen, was disabled from professional play due to ongoing playoffs in most regions. As for the Ruined King, Viego’s competitive debut had been delayed due to numerous game-breaking bugs.

watching the games i missed after i fell asleep yesterday what ? lmfao how what hahaha what XD what happens to clg pick ban for this to occur pic.twitter.com/9WfmwfjylJ

— forestwithout (@forestwithout) June 5, 2021

Despite the announcement, the game’s community remains skeptical as several bugs continue to be spotted. Popular League of Legends YouTubers like Vandiril and former pro League of Legends players like Michael “Bunny FuFuu” Kurylo have documented video footage of Viego being unable to cast possessed opponents’ abilities due to insufficient mana and being able to possess a Soraka bot during the Protect the Soraka Nexus Blitz event.

Ever since his release on Patch 11.2, Viego and his passive Sovereign’s Domination, an ability which can allow a player to temporarily possess slain enemy champions, has been a repeated problem. Attempts to resolve the issue have come in the form of bi-weekly hotfixes which have been coming since the champion’s debut, but Riot has still been unsuccessful in completely remedying the in-game issues. Viego may be disabled due to the current volatility around his unique passive.

At the time of writing this article, according to u.gg, Gwen is being picked most for the top lane position with a 49.71% win rate, a 49.97% in the jungle, and a 48.85% in mid lane. As for Viego, he's seen lesser success with a 48.08% win rate as a pick for the jungle, 48.11% as a top lane pick, and 50.33% as a mid lane champion.

The 2021 LEC Summer Split is currently scheduled for Friday, June 11th at 12 PM (EST) with a bout between former LEC champion G2 Esports and 2021 LEC Spring Split MAD Lions. The opening day for the split will be streamed via LEC's official YouTube channel as well as LEC's Twitch channel.