The fifth iteration of iconic League of Legends mage Ryze has officially hit rock bottom—days out from the monster Patch 12.10 durability overhaul, the Rune Mage has dropped to a 42.96 percent win rate in ranked lobbies.
Even worse, Ryze mains are struggling to find any semblance of success in high Elo lobbies; the ever-loyal mid laners win just 40 percent of games above Platinum.
Despite this, mid laners and League pro stars alike continue to persist with the struggling mage in Season 12. Nearly 16,000 games in the Patch 12.9 cycle included a Ryze pick and six players have locked the mage in nine times at the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational—and he actually has a positive win rate in Busan.
In Korea, Yuan “Cryin” Cheng-Wei has played Ryze four times already.
Despite that 56 percent success rate at MSI, player calls for Ryze to receive his sixth League rework continue to bubble in the game’s huge community.
Those calls aren’t overly surprising either. Of the 101 characters that have appeared in the League mid lane in Season 12, the struggling Rune Mage is dead last at 101st. Twisted Fate, Corki, and Syndra clear Ryze’s 42 percent win rate by 5.2 percent. That is hugely notable in League, where most of the 160-plus roster hovers right around a 50/50 split in terms of victories and losses on Summoner’s Rift.
Ryze first debuted on the Rift all the way back in 2009.
He was slapped with his first rework in v1.0.0.61, then again in v1.0.0.111. The Rune Mage survived for a little while before another overhaul in v1.0.0.139, and then made it all the way to Patch 5.8 where Riot Games handed him a “final fix.”
That was, of course, not the final fix. He got a near-total overhaul in Season six before changing drastically again in Patch 9.2. The latest version has survived some time, passing half a century of live patches—but things have only gotten worse recently, and now Riot is considering yet another Rune Mage rework.
The League dev team has been cranking out “mid-scope updates” for characters recently, with Olaf, Taliyah, Ahri, and Swain all getting love. Rell is up for changes too, and Ryze will likely join her on the pile.
“[Ryze is] definitely a candidate for some kind of rework,” Riot Phlox says.
The modern makeover for Ryze may not arrive until Season 13, however, considering so many champs need updates—either way, Dot Esports will keep you in the loop.
