Top League players are banning one champion in over half of their matches

One champion has been increasingly popular in the high-Elo League of Legends matches in Patch 13.1.

So far in the Master and higher rankings, Kassadin has been banned in 51.4 percent of games, being the only champion that has crossed the 50 percent mark, according to U.GG. At the same time, he holds an eye-watering win rate of 52.32 percent and is considered one of the best champions to pick for the mid lane in the meta.

Kassadin didn’t receive any major changes in Patch 13.1 besides some minor bug fixes. The latest significant update for the Void Walker was during Patch 12.23, where his Null Sphere got slightly buffed and the mechanics of Force Pulse adjusted, mostly to Kassadin’s favor.

Looking at Kassadin’s enormous win rate and ban rate in the high ranks, it looks like both changes made a big impact on the most skillful League players. Still, it remains to be seen whether he will be acknowledged by the pro players in competitive games.

So far, there’s little data we can look at since the competitive season has yet to begin. But there have been some competitions played on Patch 12.23, including LPL’s Demacia Cup. Quite surprisingly, Kassadin wasn’t picked even once in that tournament, according to Oracle’s Elixir.