League of Legends players are currently beset on all sides by the tyranny of an evil mage, that being none other than Mel Medarda, the latest addition to LoL‘s massive 170-champion roster.
She has already earned herself the appropriate nickname “mage for babies,” with players calling her anything from “giga broken” to “absurd.” She was released very recently on Jan. 23, but has already racked up a 60-percent ban rate in Emerald and above, according to u.gg, and has retained a relatively balanced 49 percent win rate (though this is likely due to her novelty, and not her inherent weaknesses). Across numerous Reddit threads posted over the past few days, players have been imploring Riot to hotfix or nerf this champion altogether, with most complaining that her overall kit is simply too powerful and forgiving, while also zeroing on on a couple certain spells.

One Jan. 26 thread joked that if “her numbers being too high” was “the big problem” with this champion, then they “consider her an absolute success of a champion release.” The thread’s creator added that Mel too easily deals damage, with other champions feeling underpowered when faced against and compared to her.
Another user wrote on Jan. 25 that Mel is a “mage for babies” and that no champion in League should feel “easier to pilot” than Lux. They also added that she looks like she’s “from a mobile game with how forgiving and easy her kit is.” While her whole kit is a major grievance for players, it appears that her Q and W are the most biggest transgressors. One player noted how difficult it was to dodge Mel’s Q at all with no cast time or windup associated with the ability, and that “she can just breeze through the laning phase with Q spams all day long,” forcing melee champions playing against her to constantly take massive damage for the slightest chance to farm.
Her W, Rebuttal, is in line with Fiora’s W, and grants Mel a barrier that sends projectiles back at her attackers, mitigating all damage and granting her additional movement speed. It is understandable, then, why players would hate on it so much, given the negative track record both Fiora’s and Yasuo’s W have had over the past decade plus.
All of the above, with the addition of her ultimate that requires not a single click save for pressing R and can even execute enemies Garen-style, has turned Mel into one of the most hated champions in League. If we average out all ranks, Mel’s win rate comes up to about 50.5 percent as per u.gg, who places her in the S+ tier. She enjoys a 14-percent pick rate, which would undoubtedly be much higher if over 50 percent of players didn’t outright ban her, making her situation reminiscent of the old days in League when Kassadin was a dominant force and genuine pick-or-ban champion.
Given her novelty, Riot is likely to take a while to nerf the champion, especially since she is tied to the Arcane IP and is bound to be a skin-selling machine. That is, if players can actually get past the banning phase to see those skins in their game.
Published: Jan 27, 2025 03:05 pm