League of Legends regularly releases new champions. The first new addition in 2025 was a mage, who was deemed too strong by many players. After some nerfs and adjustments, she is still hated by the community.
Which champion is it? The first new champion of 2025 was Mel Medarda. You might have met her in the Netflix series Arcane before she arrived in the Summoner’s Rift. From the release, she was incredibly strong and was nerfed after just two days.
Players definitely did not want to see the new mage and brought Mel to a ban rate record of almost 80%. In November 2025, Mel had the highest ban rate among over 170 champions with 40% and is ranked 15th among the most played champs.
The latest champion is called Zaahen and received a trailer at Worlds 2025:
What makes Mel so unpopular? The unpopularity of the mage has several reasons. Mainly, it is due to her abilities and how easy they are to use for the effect they bring.
Mel has a strong attack ability that is hard to dodge. Additionally, she throws a magical orb, holding opponents in the inner area and slowing them in the outer area. Her passive ability allows her to debuff her enemies and ultimately execute them. Her ultimate is no joke either, as every opponent with a debuff receives devastating damage.
However, the biggest thorn in the players’ side is her shield. For a short while, Mel becomes invulnerable and fires abilities back at the opposing champs.
The community finds Mel just annoying
What do players say about the mage? The Reddit user Subjctive tried Mel for the first time after seeing Faker play her. He referred to her as “a damn cheat code” and pointed out why she feels like cheating:
The execution of the passive ability also works on minions, making it very easy for the player to secure crucial last hits for a gold advantage. The laning phase is also very simple with Mel because every ability has decent range, and with the shield, she is protected from attacking champions. Furthermore, Subjctive writes that Mel is only fun when you play her yourself.
Another user describes Mel as Yuumi of the mid lane. Yuumi is also a disliked champ, as the support cat simply sits on her teammate’s shoulder and bombards you with annoying abilities.
Tunivor believes that Mel’s shield is a crime against humanity. He is particularly shocked by the reflecting of abilities, as they do not fly randomly but have auto-aim towards the original source of the spell.
Finally, we saw a pro Mel at Worlds 2025. Even the LoL god Faker played her and was able to inspire players to try her out. If you want to get better at League of Legends, we have 5 tips for you from Faker himself: 5 tips from the LoL god Faker himself that will help you improve in the game
