Why League of Legends' Ornn Had Such a Low Winrate At Launch

League of Legends’ latest champion, Ornn, launched to quite a low winrate, and the champ’s [...]

By Tanner Dedmon

Ornn (1)
(Photo: Riot Games)

League of Legends' latest champion, Ornn, launched to quite a low winrate, and the champ's designer has attributed it to a variety of reasons including player skill and new mechanics.

Ornn's designer, Blake "Squad5" Smith, addressed Ornn's low winrate during a recent Ask Riot session and spoke a bit about other champions' releases. He brought up three different examples – Ornn, Camille, and Kled – as champions that were either too weak, too strong, or just right at release. Ornn had a pretty weak release as players practiced their Vanguard play, but his winrate still sits at just 43.8 percent, the second-lowest in the game above only Ryze.

Squad5 said that the mastery curve of the champion plays a huge part in their initial winrate, saying that some champs have more initial success due to being easier to pick up.

"Since champions must be balanced assuming the person playing them is experienced, a champion with a high mastery curve (such as Yasuo) will have a very low win rate for first time players that rises significantly over time; a champion with a low mastery curve (such as Braum) will start higher but have much less growth relative to their true balance state," Squad5 wrote.

While champions that share abilities and gameplay elements with other characters might be easier to pick up than others, Ornn had several new facets to his kit that hadn't been seen before. From brand new item upgrades to his Brittle debuff that only he can apply, learning the tricks and patterns for these new elements can take time and lower initial winrates.

"Quite frankly, these factors can all make it easy for us to make mistakes—especially considering the limited amount of data we have to work with relative to the millions of games we have on Live," Squad5 said regarding how they measure balance internally for champs that have innovative parts of their kit.

Squad5 closed out the talk about his most recent champion by saying that they look to make every champ balanced, but even if it's not on target the first time, they try to respond quick enough post-launch.

-------

Kingsman_Banner

Want to win a killer Kingsman: The Golden Circle prize pack? 2 lucky winners will get the chance to win some epic Kingsman gear by clicking here or the image above! Also click here to find out when Kingsman: The Golden Circle is playing near you and pre-order your tickets for your local Regal Cinema!

Trending Now: