Tahm Kench's recent rework is going live this week on League of Legends Patch 11.13, but his souped up kit will land him in the penalty box in the European competitive scene.

The Kench will be benched for week 4 of the 2021 League of Legends European Championship Summer Split, with the reason for his disabling coming from the potential balancing issues of his new rework. The news was made public by Riot Games' Head of Esports for League of Legends in Europe & MENA Maximilan Peter Schmidt via Twitter. 

Schmidt clarified that all new items available on Patch 11.13, including the already controversial Hullbreaker, will be enabled for the LEC Summer Split immediately. 

This is not the first time the LEC has disabled a recently reworked champion, or even a newly released one. Viego has been live for the better part of a year, but only recently made his LEC debut due to many balance-affecting bugs. The newest champion, Gwen, was disabled for the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational, also for balance reasons.

Riot Games will often not make a change to the competitive scene before the start of matches and/or a big event due to competitive integrity. A change a day or two before important matches invalidates and renders useless hours of practice for the teams, so when needed, making those changes at the competitive level may be delayed until properly balanced. Occasionally, the balance of something new is not an issue, but it is simply not worth the risk with less data at all levels.

It is unlikely that Tahm Kench lands in Viego jail and is held up from competitive play for months and months because Viego's delayed debut at the competitive level was due to a myraid of bugs. Tahm Kench's rework is not nearly as bug-stricken, at least so far, and the delay should be slight and simply allow time to see how his changes affect League of Legends as a whole. It is more likely that Tahm Kench makes his LEC debut a week or so after his rework, as Dr. Mundo did last week.