Arriving in Summoner's Rift at the end of 2010, Leblanc made her mark on the League of Legends universe. In addition to its influence in lore, it has especially marked the minds of players and spectators during competitive games. However, it will be necessary to wait until 2019 and the choice of Rookie for the Pale Witch to receive her first skin related to esports. If for many this may seem anecdotal, you should still know that the influence of the Noxian in the game and the meta has always been very important.
From legend to history
During the early years of the game, Leblanc made a discreet place for himself on the competitive scene. Until season 4, she remains a fairly marginal pick, considered interesting on her lane phase but not very effective in teamfights. At that time, many matches were still played on decisive teamfights, the macro being both less good than today, but also less interesting in terms of snowball. Taking Leblanc is a tough call because it means the mid laner thinks they can totally outclass their opponent and destroy them during the laning phase. It will be necessary to wait for season 5 so that Leblanc enters another dimension, thanks to the nimble fingers of a certain Faker (I don't know if you know).
To return to the context of the time, after their victory at the Worlds of 2013, the SKT are destroyed in the Summer Split 2014 by the teams Samsung White and Blue. These two teams will put on a show in what is still considered one of the most beautiful tournaments in the history of the game. At the end of the season, the two Samsung teams split up and many players left for China . SKT needs to rebuild, and Faker's Leblanc will play an important role in that rebuild. The former world champion shines with her in the regular season, to the point of arriving at MSI being unbeaten on the champion in competition, and that all seasons combined. It's almost a mandatory ban against SKT, except during the final round of the final. EDG leaves Leblanc to SKT, but Pawn has already planned a Morgana to counter her. It works, and EDG manages to temporarily end Korean hegemony in Summoner's Rift. If she did not allow Faker to win the tournament, the champion nevertheless entered another dimension after this competition, going from pocket pick to contested and potentially decisive champion.
Passage to posterity
Between 2015 and 2017, Leblanc returned to the Loliennes mores. The Black Rose cult leader has become a must have for all mid laners in the game, with any one of them having the potential to take her out on the competitive stage. In the spring of 2017, she took center stage again, but for the wrong reasons. Along with Camille and Rengar, she forms the trinity of OP champions in this year's Spring Split, and the trio are almost always banned from official matches. Yet despite this popularity and two new victories for Faker at the world championships, Leblanc remains shunned by esports skins despite being one of the most present champions for several seasons. If this can be understood for Faker who has the right to prefer other champions, it is quite strange that Riot Games does not try to take advantage of this by releasing a special skin for one of the major events on the competitive scene. . It will finally be necessary to wait for the victory at the Worlds of Invictus Gaming in 2018 so that Rookie finally offers her the skin she deserves.
In the process, Riot Games chose her to illustrate the world championships of the year 2020. The irony of the thing is that since Rookie's victory in 2018, Leblanc has continued to lose popularity on the competitive scene. Between the new champions and the reworks, other candidates have come to settle in her character niche, and although interesting, Leblanc is no longer the best champion in the game to dominate her lane and stagger with her jungler. Same for oneshot squishy, it still does it well, but others are even faster. You still have to put this into perspective, because if Leblanc is no longer in the top 5 of the most contested champions in the game, she still remains in the top 10 in all major regions (but with less than 50% overall winrate) , proof that League of Legends may still hear of her.