Hey, 0/13 Yasuo! How was your first ever game?
The Worst Newly Released Champions Ever In League of Legends
Naafiri is set to release on Thursday, and the League of Legends community is excited about the Darkin assassin to hit the Rift! As usual with new champions, it is to be expected that she has a rocky start. A huge player base will want to try her out, but their lack of experience will cause them to lose many games. Due to this, champions usually look a lot weaker on release than they actually are.
Sometimes, a champion is just hard to play. Sometimes, a champion is too weak on release. Sometimes, there are a million bugs infesting a single champion.
The Worst LoL-Champs On Release
There are many reasons for a champion to underperform on their release patch, and while a learning curve is always to be expected, sometimes Riot has to help a champion with slight adjustments and bug fixes. These five champions were the biggest victims of a bad release state. Do you remember their chaotic releases?
Bard, The Wandering Caretaker
Bard did not have a lot of bugs or a particularly weak release state. Instead, it was his unique play style that was so far off the existing supports that got players confused. Subsequently, his win rate barely surpassed the 30% mark. To add insult to injury, his W – Caretaker's Shrine was much weaker than most other heals in the game and rarely worked out as an emergency heal.
A few simple buffs helped players figure out how to play Bard, and nowadays, he is one of the most infamous one-trick champions among bot lane players.
Yasuo, The Unforgiven
In the day and age of complaints over Yasuo's alleged overpoweredness, it is hard to believe that he was once seen as the worst champion in the entire game. Upon release, he suffered from a lot of bugs, which caused him to be stuck at a 30% win rate. One of them rendered his W – Wind Wall completely useless, as it did not even block projectiles. Yasuo effectively had to play with a spell less than everyone else!
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This would quickly become two spells if his R – Last Breath decided not to deal any damage. Fortunately for the wind samurai, his bugs were taken care of and players would finally be able to pick him up. He became a popular champion among the community and would never ever infuriate anyone going up against him.
Azir, The Emperor Of The Bugs
Azir was regarded as one of the most difficult champions in the game when he was released. What certainly did not make him any easier to play was the gigantic number of bugs following him through Riot's spaghetti code. A month after his release, he received 15 individual bug fixes in a single patch. Not even the old Mordekaiser can match that number!
Due to that, Azir was stuck at a win rate barely above 30%. After his bugs were taken care of, Azir would go on to terrorize professional play and subsequently be nerfed to the point of being unplayable in solo queue, but at least his win rate started with a four. Ryze mains will know what that feels like.
Yuumi, The Magical Parasite That Cosplays As A Cat
It took a good while until people managed to figure out that Yuumi needs neither Flash nor boots. Players could not figure out how to be effective with her and would mostly stick to their companions, rarely interacting. That saw her start off with a win rate in the low thirties. However, once people realized she is basically a Soraka but without the disadvantage of being killable, she started being a menace to the League of Legends community.
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Not even the pro players were safe from her shenanigans – thanks to her, Garen suddenly became viable as a bot laner at the 2019 World Championship! After countless nerfs due to her presence in professional play, Riot decided to rework her but let her keep the biggest frustration point among League of Legends players. She is still allowed to stick to anyone with her W – You and Me!, remaining untargetable until her target dies (or gets sent to Brazil).
Syndra, The Dark Sovereign With A Dark Release Patch
Nowadays, Syndra is well known as a champion that will wipe you off the Rift if you are unlucky enough to get hit by her combo. That has not always been the case, though – on release, she turned out to be the lowest win rate champion the game has ever seen! Various bugs, an unintuitive play style and clunky spells limited her to a 27% win rate within her first weeks on the live servers.
The main problem of many players was that her E – Scatter the Weak was ridiculously unreliable and needed surgical precision to reap any rewards. Additionally, her Passive – Transcendent would not feel rewarding at all, although this issue has only truly been fixed through her mid-scope update in late 2022. After more than a year and various buffs and quality of life changes, Syndra would finally be considered a viable mid laner in 2014.
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These are the worst ever champions directly after their release. We certainly hope we do not have to add Naafiri to this post at any point in the future.