Yone win rates are terrible at release, so what’s the problem?

The release of new champion Yone was one of the most anticipated in a long time, but his solo queue win rates are looking very dire early on.

Yone was released to a lot of hype around the League of Legends community, and few could wait to play the highly mechanical assassin. Yone has a kit that invites a lot of skirmishing, very similar to his half-brother Yasuo. But while Yone does have an interesting kit, his win rates are off to a very bad start in both the top and mid lanes. 

Yone is currently sitting at a 45.38% win rate in the mid lane in games from Platinum elo and up. This is the fourth lowest win rate among all champions in the game, which is not a good look for a new champion who is supposed to be at his strongest in the mid lane. Yone is also struggling top, where he has a 42.14% win rate. This is the lowest win rate among all qualifying top lane champions in League. Even though top lane is not his primary role, close to 20,000 games have been tracked, so it’s hard to argue with the sample size.

Why is Yone’s win rate so low after release?

Experienced League of Legends players will know that new champions are often overtuned on release, with the result being very high win rates. Good examples of this are Aphelios and Zoe, who were both very strong upon release and even after several attempts to nerf their power.

Recently, we have seen the opposite effect on new champions. Like Yone, new jungler Lillia has also been struggling to find wins in solo queue, and there might be several reasons for this.

One reason could be that Riot is starting to go easier on the power of the game’s newer champions so they don’t dominate Summoner’s Rift right from release. The community has been complaining about champions being initially overpowered for years, and it could be that Riot has been listening. 

Champions can also struggle on release even when their kit is perfectly balanced. This happens because people are playing the champions for their first time and will need some games under their belt to figure out these champions. This can affect the early win rates because people are playing without a full understanding of the new kit and how best to build items on the new champion. 

Lillia had some terrible win rates during her first week in the game, sitting below 40% at one point. While Lillia is still seeing a low win rate, it is going up a bit in both the jungle and top lane.

Yone is a playmaking champion with a complex kit. It’s only logical that players will have to figure him out before we see his win rate go up. Just like Yasuo, he is a champion that could become a solo queue crusher, so it’s expected that he will become a strong meta pick within a few patches.