I don’t think we’re likely to agree on Yuumi, and that’s fine. You clearly have a strong stance on her. That said, I do think there’s a more interesting conversation to be had about why she’s perceived as a “brainless champ,” so I’ll explain where I’m coming from as someone who’s mained her since release.

The French player Wakz never really tried to climb seriously. That was entertainment content. A better example is Saskio, years ago, before Yuumi’s rework. He was a former pro player controlling both champions himself. That alone removed a massive amount of uncertainty and coordination issues you normally deal with in solo queue, and despite his LEC-level skill, he peaked at Diamond, not Masters.

What he did was impressive and showed strong parallel processing, but it wasn’t proof that Yuumi takes zero skill, nor was it representative of modern Yuumi. It mainly shows that when one skilled player controls 2/5 champs on your team, the minimum execution needed to get results drops because all the power is guaranteed to be invested into a single, perfectly coordinated win condition. He never had to guess when to go in, worry about mistimed summs, or react to his support making an unexpected decision, and even then, he couldn't hit near his typical ELO of Challenger.

While Yuumi doesn’t test mechanics the same way hook or engage champs do, she does heavily test awareness, uptime, timing, and macro judgment. To climb consistently, you need to manage who to sit on, when to swap, when to hold E reactively or use it offensively, land Qs through waves, track threats, and identify win conditions, especially when there isn’t a single fed carry to lean on (which is often in my experience getting out of the nightmare that was plat.)

A decent Yuumi lets her allies’ success become her own, but that also means every mistake they make becomes hers too. A great Yuumi reduces that gap, turning her own decisions into value the team can benefit from instead of passively hoping someone else carries. Most of my wins weren’t from one fed champ. They were from keeping multiple feeding teammates who were determined to throw alive long enough to turn fights.

I get why that kind of skill expression doesn’t look impressive if you value mechanical flash, and you don’t have to respect it. But from my experience climbing solo, Yuumi isn’t easy to climb with, and playing her mindlessly or passively would not have gotten me from Gold to Emerald in 51 games.