Looking too much into it: win/ban/pick rate

winrate, banrate, and pick rate are the overall best indicators of champions health. when looked at together.

they can tell you how much people want to play the champion... how much people hate facing said champion, and to some degree how strong said champion is.

for example.. if a champion has a high banrate,. i could mean a few things

1. the champion is too strong/op
2. the champion is annoying to have to face/ has a toxic kit
3. both

if a champion has a high winrate that woudl normally mean they they are too strong

but other things need to be taken into account. what is the winrate on each elo, and the difference between said elos'

if a champion has a 52% winrate in one elo but a 46% in another they certainly arn't balanced but, they cant just receive flat buffs or nerfs, the winrate difference between elos needs closed first

pickrate tell you how many people want to play said champion. this will obviously go up with a new champion release.. and in turn so will their banrate.

but the important thing is to look at all the stats together if a champion has an EXTREMELY high pick rate and a ban rate. it would mean that LOTS of people play said champion.

therefore many of those people cannot play said champion very well.

this would mean the winrate shown will likely be lower in comparison to how strong the champion actually is. and show up in the higher banrate

on the flip side if a champion has a low pickrate, and low banrate, it likely means the people playing said champion are more experience with said champion.. therefore the winrate data might be artificially increased from the "average" player. this would show up as a lower winrate even if said champion might need buffs.

if a champion has a high banrate but low pickrate and/or low winrate... that usually mean the kit ITSELF is of a bad design and it so toxic that even if the champion isn't very good in thier current state they are still such a pain in the ass to face people don't want to deal with it.

that being said, many people do not stay up to date with patch notes, and hate for specific champions can linger well beyond the point where said champion is an issue. this can also influence banrates. to be higher even if said champion was addressed and thier winrate has dropped accordingly.

and i know i already touched on this, but i feel the most important thing to mention is the winrate across ALL elos. too many site blatantly choose to ignore data on lower elos despite that 90% of players are below plat.

this is turning a blind eye to data you don't like. when in fact this data and specifically winrate differential are KEY to showing health of a champion, in terms of balancing said champion. people dont want to play said champion for years and suddenly climb to an elo where thier champions is suddenly just trash. likewise telling people that "your not good enough to play "X" champion because your not "X" elo and therefore its winrate in your elo doesn't matter, even though said champion is their main, would probably leave you unconscious if you met said person in real life.

so what is the point of this thread? its to show you that you can just look at once piece of data, and take it out of context.

if said champion has a 52% winrate but only in diamond+ and only in korea, said champion may actually still be complete trash

if you look at a banrate the patch after a champion was nerfed after said champion has dominated the meta for nearly a year, there is a high chance the banrate will be inflated.

and if you see a pick in world it may just mean that it works very well in a specific given situation, or that specific teams can be made around it or that pro players with voice chat can work together to cover said champions built in weaknesses that would be easily exploitable in any elo except pro play

and while watching pro play can be fun, it can also lead people to thinkl certain things are op when they really arn't.

if you watch boxbox , then of course riven is going to look OP.. if you watch froggen's or frankly any champion faker decides to play.

they can make them look op.

certain champs may be op at worlds and not op in normal play.. or champs may be completely dominated normal play but never be used in worlds.

keep and open mind, try to look at all the data. by far the biggest issue i see here is "op.gg" and thier obsession to only look at plat + korean data. WHICH IS COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT to anyone on NA server.

Korean server have extremely low ping because korea is a small country, and koreans, seem to be gentially disposed to be better than everyone else at games so looking at the best koreans and saying that "this is the data at matters" is complete bullshit and thier whole "we don't have enough data to gather information on other servers or elos... and somehow there are plenty of other sites that can see that data just fine.