League of Legends regularly gets new champions. These champions are often banned at the start. This was also the case with the new champion Ambessa. However, it hasn’t improved for her, even though she has already been nerfed and statistically is not doing that well.
Who is Ambessa? Fans of the Netflix series Arcane already know Ambessa from the first season, which was released in 2021. As part of the second season, Ambessa was also released as a playable champion in LoL. True to her character in the series, she is a classic top laner.
She is most reminiscent of Renekton, but she is much more mobile. With her W ability and passive, she can latch onto her target but also fight her way out of tough situations. With her ultimate ability, she can snatch a solo target.
Upon her release, with patch 14.22, on November 6, 2024, she was a regularly banned champion. However, even after various nerfs, this seems to have hardly changed. She is still the most banned champion in the game.
Players hate playing against Ambessa even after over a month
What is the current status of Ambessa? On the platform U.GG, you can view the current and past statistics for LoL. Pick rate, ban rate, and other numbers are accessible. At her release patch 14.22, Ambessa had a gigantic ban rate of 50.1% across all ranks.
However, her win rate was negative at 47.13%. In patch 14.23 and the current 14.24, she has been nerfed multiple times. But the aversion against her seems to persist. Currently, she still has an extreme ban rate of 33.8% across all ranks. However, her win rate has not improved. She has a win rate of 47.3% across all ranks (as of December 23, 2024).
She is currently the most banned champion. Directly below her is Warwick, who is currently in a strong phase.
Many dashes on a slow lane
What could be the reason? Here, one can only speculate, as it’s not guaranteed to know why a champion is banned when they are not successful. One possibility could be all her abilities. It’s not much fun to play against her. There is a similar case with Yasuo and Yone, who have a negative win rate despite a high ban rate.
She can dash a lot and is very mobile. However, there are many slow tanks on the top lane who can’t necessarily keep up. Players often ban champions they don’t want to play against, regardless of how successful the champion is statistically.
Champions with many dashes are a controversial topic in the community anyway, as the older champions can’t keep up with their old designs. Ambessa is a champion that especially focuses on her mobility.
What can Riot do now? They are in a bit of a dilemma. Nerfing her will eventually lead to her being banned less often. However, if her win rate continues to drop, she could vanish into obscurity. But they obviously want the new champion to be played and seen.
The only current possibility would be to simply wait. If her win rate remains so low, one can assume that the ban rate will also decrease. Another champion faced a completely different problem and had to be changed after a short time: LoL: A new champion needs to be changed in less than 6 months because professionals are just too good
