League of Legends fans are accustomed to seeing specific picks take over the competitive meta, and over the course of two weeks, a new addition to Summoner’s Rift has quickly taken priority as the most-played champion of the 2023 LEC Winter Split so far.
K’Sante has become the most recent flavor of the month for top laners across the league, boasting 20 games played since the start of the season. He is renowned for his durability and sustainability, as he dives into an enemy team to snatch a target for a quick one-on-one battle. He does, however, need some getting used to for on-stage play, as shown by the champion’s abysmal win rate.
He has only won five games during the 2023 LEC Winter Split, with three of those victories coming from Team Heretics’ veteran top laner Shunsuke “Evi” Murase. In fact, the 27-year-old has only played K’Sante over his first six games in the region with a 50 percent win rate alongside his new teammates.
The champion has been struggling in the league with a 1.8 KDA, lackluster early-game stats, and the third-lowest average damage to champions per minute of any top lane champ played in the league, according to Oracle’s Elixir. The two other players to pick K’Sante and win were MAD Lions’ rookie top laner Kim “Chasy” Dong-hyeon and Team Vitality’s Kyeong “Photon” Gyu-tae, making him an unusual case where players want to play him but aren’t able to execute him properly.
K’Sante has a heavy focus on all-in plays, especially when he uses his ultimate to grab an enemy and pull them away from a fight. But it is easy to get surrounded and overwhelmed if an opposing team is able to collapse wherever he and the targeted champion dashed to. There is plenty of room for error with K’Sante, and many players have fallen within its boundaries throughout the split.
Riot’s developers are planning to nerf K’Sante in an upcoming patch, which could affect his play rate moving forward through the rest of the year. Patch 13.3 is scheduled to release on Wednesday, Feb. 8.
Published: Jan 31, 2023 01:16 pm