League of Legends: New Champion Is Not Performing As Expected

League of Legends' newest champion Smolder has reached the bottom of the win rate list right after his release.

Smolder Header
League of Legends: Smolder is not off to a great start. | © Riot Games

The newest League of Legends champion, Smolder hasn't had the best time since he made his way onto Summoner's Rift on January 31, 2024. Like most new champions he doesn't have the greatest win rate, but unlike with K'Sante or Hwei, this champion isn't that difficult.

Smolder is a new traditional ADC in the game, something we haven't gotten in a long time, so maybe bot laners are just confused because of his simplicity?

League of Legends: Smolder Does Not Have The Best Start

Smolder has kicked off his career on Summoner's Rift and well... it didn't go as some might have thought. After years of complicated bot laners with millions of combos and abilities, Riot has finally decided to make a simple to play and straightforward marksman and.... his win rate is down in the dumps. Have bot laners forgotten how to play simple champions?

Kicking off the mid-point of the patch, Smolder has an abysmal 40% win rate in Dia+ according to u.gg. Well, what could lead to such a low win rate for such a simple champion?

Heavenscale Smolder
Smolder isn't a bad champion. | © Riot Games

Most likely, players are testing out interesting and fun builds on the little dragon, which will likely drag down his win rate even in higher elos. While he is simple to play, most players haven't figured out what the optimal items and builds are on the champion.

It's also important to note that Smolder is the furthest thing from an early game champion, so if someone simply goes in early without having enough stacks to level up his Q, which is his bread-and-butter ability, then you aren't going to have a good time on him.

Smolder has only been out for a few days and the champion doesn't seem too weak right now, so we doubt Riot will hotfix him anytime soon. He might get a few buffs and tweaks, but for now it seems like he is in a decent spot and within a week or so his win rate should go up.

Sabrina Ahn

Sabrina Ahn is the League of Legends and Riftfeed Lead. During her time at Concordia University in 2014 she fell in love with LoL and is playing it since – how she hasn't lost her sanity is still unclear....