Few champions have taken over League of Legends quite like K’Sante has in season 13. His complex kit with a flurry of charged abilities, crowd control, and invunerable timings have made for tons of stylish outplays. On top of that, K’Sante has become the king of pro play these last few weeks; he’s been selected or banned in over 75 percent of games across all four major regions, according to League stats site Gol.gg.
Some of the biggest performances in pro play so far this year have come on K’Sante, like Fudge’s astounding 14/2/25 stat line across the first two games of the 2023 LCS Spring Split playing only the Pride of Nazumah. Fudge clearly took a lot of time to hone his skills on the newest champ and has continuously outplayed opposing top laners.
Pro players and teams are obviously aware of the power K’Sante brings in his unique kit, but does it translate to more casual players?
Well in low Elo, it is a definitive no. Out of all champions consistently played in the top lane in Silver Elo, no champion has a worse win rate right now than K’Sante at 44 percent, according to U.GG.
Even in Platinum and above, K’Sante sits just above a 47-percent win rate, according to U.GG. That’s a far cry from the success seen by the Nazumanian warrior at the highest levels of competition. So how does this make any sense?
Why there’s a K’Sante disconnect in League
For starters, K’Sante is far and away one of the most complex champions League has ever seen. K’Sante’s Ntofo Strikes (Q) has two phases, one that slows and deals damage but players can also stack the ability with back-to-back hits on an enemy champion to unlock a different form of the ability. Instead of slowing enemies, the Q3 form of Ntofo Strikes knocks up and pulls enemies back. Path Maker (W) makes K’Sante unstoppable for a short duration before dashing in a direction, stunning any champions hit by the ability. Footwork (E) is K’Sante’s dash that adds extra distance and a shield only when dashing toward allies.
In total, K’Sante has a multi-layered Q that has different forms of crowd control based on if the ability is charged or not, a timing-based unstoppable window with an added stun, and a dash that acts differently depending on who the player is dashing toward. That’s already complicated enough, but all of that is without talking about K’Sante’s ultimate.
All Out (R) sees K’Sante knock a single enemy back while following the enemy. But if K’Sante throws a champion into a wall, the knockback will send both parties over that wall and stun the enemy. On top of that, casting this ability unlocks K’Sante’s All Out form, which changes all his abilities and boosts his overall attack damage.
Now, K’Sante’s dashes are much quicker and on a lower cooldown. K’Sante’s Ntofo Strikes (Q) no longer slows but instead deals increased damage. Path Maker (W) blocks even more damage and deals more back too, depending on charge time.
All of this explanation on K’Sante’s kit is in a very basic form and yet it still is a lot to take in for one champion. Pro players who loaded onto Summoner’s Rift for a living have the time to learn K’Sante’s kit and master it. But random players in low-Elo solo queue do not. Players stuck in Bronze, Silver, or Gold don’t have the mechanical skill to pick K’Sante up and play well, nor do they have the time to practice him enough to master him.
K’Sante’s stark difference in win rate is another example of how the pro meta differs from what’s seen on the League solo queue ladder, especially at low Elo.
Will the K’Sante gap be bridged eventually?
The sad truth is this is a trend within low Elo games when it comes to champions with different or complex kits. When Vel’Koz came out in 2014, his kit was revolutionary with so many lineups for his abilities to do damage. For a while, nobody touched Vel’Koz, especially in low Elo, because of his hard skill cap. The same can be said for champions with vastly different playstyles compared to other champions in their roles. Nilah is a great example of an AD carry that still isn’t popular in low Elo because she plays so close range that nobody in these ranks can understand how to use her.
The hard facts of low Elo is a lot of people stuck there don’t have the wherewithal to stick with complex champions, but instead turn to the “easy mode” champions like Garen and Master Yi, to name a few.
K’Sante is truly one of the coolest champions Riot has made, which makes him super fun to watch being helmed by the best players in League. But it may be a while before we see the lower Elos of the game really grasp and understand his kit.
Until then, K’Sante’s low-Elo win rate will likely stay low, for now.
