A new patch has been released in League of Legends, and once again champions have been nerfed and buffed. Especially one buff is hotly debated by some players. Because the hated champion is not doing so badly – at least among the LoL elite.
Which champion is it? Not all champions are liked equally in the community. Many players have a collective hatred against some champions. One of them is Yone. The swordsman was among the 10 most banned champions in LoL in patch 14.19, alongside his brother Yasuo (via lolalytics.com). At least when looking at the statistics across all ranks.
Now, with patch 14.20, Yone is getting another buff. His Q is being buffed. According to Riot, this is because he was weakened by changes to crit items. Some players find the buffs unfair, claiming that Yone has been broken
in the highest ranks for 6 patches.
Another change also made players angry: LoL: Players are frustrated because Riot is removing a popular feature: “The change is incredibly bad”
Players find: Yone is too good to be buffed
What is being criticized? The user Korderon criticized the buff in a large reddit post. He does not understand how Yone can be buffed when, statistically speaking, he is actually doing well. He refers mainly to the Challenger rank. This is the highest rank in LoL. There, he has been quite popular since patch 14.12.
Popularity does not always speak for the quality of the champion. However, it is different in the Challenger area. If he were not good, so many people wouldn’t play him.
The user does not understand how he can be buffed. He is a flexible champion, quite safe to pick, and he is flexible and just strong. This is also supported by the Challenger numbers. Looking at 14.19, Yone had a fantastic win rate of 57.5 % in the Challenger rank (via lolalytics.com).
The community on reddit mostly agrees with Korderon. They even find he has been a problem from the very beginning:
- DCFDTL:
This guy has been a big problem since his release.
- Cube_:
Ultimately, the problem is that champions with too high base damage or low cooldowns (Yone has both) inevitably go through a “Broken Bruiser” phase. Ekko did it, Fizz did it, and so on.
- DeadAndBuried23:
A win rate of 56 % in Challenger means that he has won over 50 % of a total of 146 games worldwide. And this based on a 30-day retrospective. The sample size in Challenger is not large enough to obtain valid data.
It is not that simple: As DeadAndBuried23 has already written in his comment on reddit, it is not that simple to conclude the champion’s position only based on the Challenger data. Only a tiny percentage of players are at this rank.
To interpret buffs and nerfs, one must look at all ranks. This is quite complex, as a small buff or nerf for lower ranks can have a significant impact on the higher ranks and the professional scene. When looking at Yone’s statistics overall across all ranks, he only had a mediocre win rate of 48.52 %.
Pick rates must also be examined across all ranks. Events like the Worlds can cause an unnoticed champion to suddenly appear on many players’ screens. E-sport fans can currently be excited anyway, as it is quite thrilling right now – especially for Europe: The decisive phase of the LoL world championship starts in Berlin, European teams draw tough lots
