Aphelios’ astonishing ban rate has LoL players calling for more nerfs

Aphelios has smashed the ban rate record in League of Legends, being banned over 200% of the time according to statistics from Korea, with players calling for more nerfs to the overpowered AD carry.

There’s no doubt about it, Aphelios is one of League’s strongest champions at the moment. The newly-released AD carry takes a while to learn, but in the hands of the right player, can single-handedly win games.

That’s why Aphelios has gained the honor of being the game’s most banned champion in history just a few short weeks into his existence.

Since the champion’s release, Aphelios has garnered a ban rate of over 200% on the Korean server in Challenger elo, making him the most banned champion of all time. 

The exact rate, according to Korean LoL stats website fow.kr, is 223.47%, 50% higher than the next most banned champion Akali.

Getting a ban rate of 223.47% is impressive, and almost impossible. It means Aphelios is being banned by both teams in basically every game, including remakes ⁠— which don’t count towards the total number of games.

• Read more: Aphelios nerfed on LoL Patch 10.1

He’s also being picked in 15.1% of games, which means that if he’s somehow making it past the ban phase, he’s almost immediately picked up. His win rate isn’t as impressive, sitting at 47.62% in Korean Challenger, but he’s still oppressive.

Ban rates of this level haven’t been seen since the likes of Kassadin, who gained notoriety back in Season 4 for hitting a 95% ban rate, and a pick rate of almost 5% alongside that. This was back when bans were unique, so no team could ban the same champion twice.

With statistics like these, players are now calling on Riot to nerf Aphelios once again. The champion received a small nerf on Patch 10.1, with reduced movement speed, base HP, and damage on his Infernum ultimate, but some want more.

• Read more: League of Legends Season 10 start date announced

“This sh*t should alert Riot immediately that something is wrong,” said Reddit user ‘CitronRind’. 

Because he has a relatively high skill floor to get over, it’s difficult to play against him, making him almost impossible to counter in ranked at all elos. 

“For how much Riot stresses how important game clarity is for them, this champ makes literally zero sense,” said ‘drobit1’.

This sentiment was echoed by a number of players, with some even questioning why the champion was released in the first place. 

“This champ shouldn’t leave the drawing board to be honest, let alone make it to live servers,” said ‘IWillNameMyChildZoe’. 

Riot have not revealed any intention to tone Aphelios down further until they look at the statistics from Patch 10.1, but the community consensus is pretty clear. The champion is busted, and something has to be done before Season 10 starts.