Ryze’s Winrate Is Abysmal and a Riot Games Dev Pays the Price In-Game

League of Legends has over 160 champions and the latest champion to have entered the Summoner’s Rift is K’Sante, the Pride of Nazumah. Naturally, with so many champions in the fray, it becomes difficult for the publisher to make them all stay relevant in a given meta. Ryze is one of the oldest champions in League of Legends and his tryst with the game has been very up and down. Ryze can either be too overpowering or he can be spotted down in the pecking order. Unfortunately, Riot Games has failed to find a sweet middle ground for the mage over the course of many years. Notably, the champion has been reworked over four times since 2009.

Game Designer Ezra “Phlox” Lynn mentioned in 2020 that Ryze is definitely “a decent candidate for some kind of work.” However, after a recent Ryze performance in-game by the developer himself, a rework could potentially be fast-tracked. Recently, Riot Phlox reportedly received a 14-day suspension by Riot Games after his Ryze performance. Ironically, the in-game detection system suspended Phlox thinking that he “intentionally fed” with Ryze.

Riot Phlox temporarily suspended in-game

On 20th November, Twitter user Erknaite tweeted, “Riot Phlox just got a 14 day ban for inting too much on Ryze. HAHAHAHA.” The user attached a screengrab of Riot Phlox’s message from a Discord server along with the developer’s match history. 

In the Discord message sent by Riot Phlox, the developer wrote, “I guess I shouldn’t’ve played Ryze.” He attached the temporary suspension message from Riot Games which stated that his 14-day ban shall end on 1st December and that his Honor level in-game has dropped. 

The message from Riot Games read, “Your account has been suspended for disruptive behavior in the game like trolling, griefing, intentionally feeding, or deliberately trying to lose the match.” The whole ordeal is funny because Phlox did not grief the games but he simply played Ryze, a champion that is currently struggling to stay relevant.

However, according to OP.GG records, Phlox has already started playing again after likely circumventing the “wrong suspension.”

Ryze’s win rate

Currently, League of Legends is played on LoL Patch 12.22 and Ryze is one of the D-tier champions in the mid-lane. According to U.GG, Ryze’s mid-lane win rate is 45.68%, the lowest win rate of all the middle-lane champions.

Recently, in LoL Patch 12.19, Ryze received buffs. They are as follows:

Q - OVERLOAD

Magic Damage: 70/90/110/130/150 (+ 50% AP) (+ 2% bonus mana) ⇒ 70/90/110/130/150 (+ 55% AP) (+ 2% bonus mana)

W - RUNE PRISON

Magic Damage: 80/110/140/170/200 (+ 60% AP) (+ 4% bonus mana) ⇒ 80/110/140/170/200 (+ 70% AP) (+ 4% bonus mana)

However, Riot Games needs to figure out an approach to soon make Ryze playable in League of Legends.