Not long ago, Riot released patch 12.7 with many adjustments. The most notable changes were related to the buffs/nerfs of various League of Legends champions. A slew of names were “mentioned” in this round of nerfs, most of whom were popular champions from the Spring Split 2022. Among them, the most prominent was Zeri – a champion considered to be “overpowered.” This champion from Zaun was so strong that in the finals of the LCK Spring 2022, she was banned in all 5 games to prevent talented marksmen like Gumayusi and Ruler from getting their hands on her.
However, just after Riot nerfed Zeri, this champion became incredibly “fragile and weak.” Perhaps due to overwhelming community feedback and Riot’s own recognition that the adjustments for Zeri were a bit “too harsh,” they had to revert some of Zeri’s power in an emergency patch within 24 hours. Specifically, a series of parameters such as health, attack speed, and cooldown times were buffed back up.
Witnessing Riot’s “clumsy” move, the League of Legends community couldn’t help but feel disheartened. In fact, many voices suggested that Riot should also make adjustments to the champion Ryze. Although Ryze is one of the favorites and fits the current meta, many gamers believe that Ryze shouldn’t have been nerfed so heavily. In the LCK Spring 2022, Ryze was not used effectively. In other regions, Ryze was more popular but had a low win rate. For instance, in the LPL, during the group stage alone, Ryze had a 71% pick/ban rate but a win rate below 50% (specifically 48.6%).
If Ryze doesn’t receive a timely hotfix in the near future, it’s likely that this champion will appear less at MSI 2022 compared to the previous Spring. Although Ryze isn’t a champion with a very high win rate, his ability to create bursts of power with his Realm Warp cannot be denied. The absence (if any) of the Ancient Mage could very well lead to the disappearance of many currently effective playstyles in the near future.