Every time League of Legends has a new patch, there’s a lot of debate in the community about why this champion isn’t nerfed, that champion isn’t buffed, this champion never shows up in ranked but gets weakened… Although the stats from the normal matches we play daily are important in balancing adjustments, Riot Games also has to pay attention to professional tournaments. That’s why strong champions in tournaments get nerfed even if they are not strong in solo queue.
But have you ever wondered how a champion gets nerfed, except in cases of extreme “overperformance” like Ornn or Sett in patch 10.4, whether it can get nerfed again or if other conditions are needed? In a recent stream by LCK English commentator LS, he explained this very specifically to the community when asked if Leblanc deserved to be nerfed in patch 10.7.
Commentator LS: “If you don’t know, Riot has a standard based on professional tournaments, especially in major regions, for nerfing champions. It’s calculated like this: if a champion has a ban/pick rate of 95% in one patch at any of the major tournaments, it will be nerfed in the next patch. However, I believe that champion will not be nerfed in the next patch unless it has a 100% ban rate after being nerfed.”
“So the way it works is, a champion gets nerfed when it has a 95% ban rate, to get nerfed again it must reach a 100% ban rate afterward because Riot doesn’t want to nerf a champion two patches in a row. So, since Leblanc has a 95% ban rate in LCK, she will be nerfed in the next patch.”
“I’m thinking that, in theory, because it would be too ridiculous to happen, teams in a region could collaborate to eliminate a champion. If teams don’t want to see Teemo anymore, they could just keep banning him continuously, so that Riot would keep hammering down on Teemo with nerfs.”
What LS said makes a lot of sense, at least in patch 10.5 when Ornn and Sett were the champions directly nerfed since both had over a 95% ban rate in most major tournaments worldwide. Even Senna and Aphelios also followed this pattern as they almost always appeared in the ban phase.
If this formula is applied, then Leblanc will be the next champion to be nerfed since she also falls into the situation of being either banned or picked in LCK. So now we have a new tool to predict the meta, just look at the ban rates in major tournaments to know who the next unfortunate soul to get nerfed is. Casual players can just play different champions than those in tournaments and can climb the ranks easily without worrying about their main champion getting nerfed.
