Talk:Lee Sin/@comment-5077844-20141029223918/@comment-1330314-20141108091456

But that's just the thing: Poppy isn't popular because she's being deliberately kept in a state where she's not likely to see that much more play. She's not weak by any means - just unviable. Lee Sin doesn't have design problems anywhere near as bad as Poppy's, but his kit is crowding a lot of other interesting junglers out of viability and is oppressively strong early, yet he's still maintained as an extremely popular jungle pick. He's the jungler, has been since his release, and his kit has until now defined jungling and the competitive viability of junglers in general.

The other problem, though, is that any balancing pertaining to Lee Sin is a bit of a minefield: part of the community hates him and wants him gutted (and there's likely some bias behind this), and part of the community (plus Riot) wants to change him a bit (not to buff or nerf him specifically, though, or really change his playstyle), but a very vocal part of the community doesn't want him to change at all. On top of that, despite his flaws he's one of the most fun champions to play and watch, and can do a ton of cool stuff at all levels of skill, which is why he hasn't been made less popular. It's unfair that Lee Sin is as popular as he is now when his very existence has been harmful to jungle diversity over several seasons, but his strong fan base and importance in the competitive scene wouldn't make gutting him fair either.