When League of Legends‘ newest champion Hwei arrived last December, the player base was worried about how broken he would be on the Summoner’s Rift. A month later, he has become one of the most-played champions in the game—but with a massive caveat.
Through Patch 13.24, Hwei currently holds an 11.7 percent pick rate among Platinum players and higher, boasting more than 727,000 matches globally within that ranked distribution according to U.GG. The Visionary does, however, also hold a shocking 41 percent win rate, the lowest number by far across all champions in the game.
There have been many new champions who have made their League debuts with a low win rate, such as Runeterra’s hungry jungler Naafiri, who opened up with a 40.69 percent win rate shortly after release. A month later, however, she was tearing up the solo queue ladder with the highest win rate in two separate roles, showing just how quickly summoners could adjust to ability sets and their various interactions on the Rift.
Hwei, on the other hand, is far more complicated than his predecessors, since he is the first champion in League history to feature 10 different abilities in his kit. The talented artist has three spellbooks with three different skills each, and players judge specific situations to decide which spell to conjure—all in the span of a quick skirmish or timely engagement.
He builds like a typical control mage, featuring items like Liandry’s Anguish, Rabadon’s Deathcap, and Horizon Focus, but there are so many different decisions that need to be made in the blink of an eye. For example, Hwei must choose whether he wishes to damage his enemies, set up his allies with crowd control, or heal and protect his teammates during teamfights. Even then, players might not be willing to fill certain roles that the team composition might require to succeed, especially if their own personal playstyle isn’t as flexible as it needs to be.
Overall, Hwei’s innate power isn’t really the problem. The general player base might just need more time to learn how his skills work, and how to maximize his efficiency in every situation with a multitude of different champions.
