A new patch has been released in League of Legends and champions have been nerfed and buffed again. One buff in particular is being hotly debated by some players. Because the hated champion isn’t doing so badly – at least among the LoL elite.
Which champion is it about? Not all champions are liked equally in the community. Many players have a collective hatred towards some champions. One of them is Yone. The swordsman, along with his brother Yasuo, was one of the 10 most banned champions in LoL in patch 14.19 (via lolalytics.com). At least when you look at the statistics at all ranks.
Now, with patch 14.20, Yone is getting a buff again. His Q is buffed. According to Riot, because he was weakened by changes to crit items. Some players find the buffs unfair, even saying that Yone has been broken at the highest ranks for 6 patches.
Another change also made players angry: LoL: Players are frustrated because Riot is deleting a popular feature: “The change is incredibly bad”
Players think: Yone is too good to be buffed
What is being criticized? The user Korderon criticized the buff in a large Reddit post. He doesn’t understand how Yone can be buffed when he’s actually doing well statistically. He primarily refers to the Challenger rank. This is the highest rank in LoL. He has been quite popular since patch 14.12.
Admittedly, popularity does not always speak for the quality of the champion. But things are different in the Challenger area. If he wasn’t good, so many people wouldn’t play him.
The user doesn’t understand how he can be buffed. He is a flexible champion who is pretty safe to pick, and he is flexible and simply strong. The Challenger numbers also prove this. If you look at 14.19, Yone had a fantastic win rate of 57.5% in Challenger rank (via lolalytics.com).
The community on reddit agrees with Korderon so far. They even think it was a problem from the start:
It’s not quite that simple: As DeadAndBuried23 already wrote in his comment on reddit, it’s not as easy as just deducing the position of the champion from the Challenger data. Only a tiny percentage of players are at this rank.
In order to interpret buffs and nerfs, you have to look at all ranks. This is quite complex, because a small buff or nerf for low ranks can have a big impact on the high ranks and the pro level. If you look at Yone’s stats overall for all ranks, he only had a moderate win rate of 48.52%.
You also have to look at pick rates at all ranks. Events like Worlds can cause an inconspicuous champion to suddenly appear on the scene of many players. Fans of e-sports can be happy at the moment anyway, because it’s pretty exciting right now – especially for Europe: The decisive phase of the LoL World Championship starts in Berlin, European teams draw tough draws