League of Legends has so many characters that it is inevitable that some champions will neutralize others. When this happens, we speak of “counters”. Preferred choices in a given situation that can increase our win rate. It’s not the most effective strategy for winning games and the results show that it’s better to choose the champion that best suits your team rather than thinking about your opponent.. However, it is something that many players value.
The biggest counter that exists in League of Legends
Most counters in League of Legends aren’t as visible as in other games. Sure, they can make the game easier, but they have a limited effect on determining the outcome. We can be satisfied if the champion we have chosen increases our chances of victory by one or two percentage points. However, out of the 12,720 possible matchups in the game after the introduction of Bel’Veth, there is one that is nearly impossible to beat. It’s the Sylas vs. Malphite pick, which results in the most unfair match-up possible.
Phlox, Phreak or GalaxySmash are some of the Riot Games employees who have pointed out this situation on different social networks in the last nine months. If we consult the advanced statistics pages that collect data on League of Legends, the situation is confirmed. Consistently across all viewable patches (since patch 11.19), Sylas beats Malphite between 7 and 10% more games than he is theoretically entitled to. This data is obtained by taking as a starting point the average win rate of the two champions and observing how much it varies when they face each other.
The truth is that this match-up was already one of the most hated in the League of Legends community before this data was published. Sylas holds up well against Malphite and can steal his ultimate to use it more effectively, increasing his ability to kill enemies — but also get close to them to chain his spells. The problem is that while Riot Games has balanced the Shard of the Monolith around its powerful ultimate, that’s not the case for Sylas who can wreak havoc if he steals certain ultimates. The solution is simply not to give him anything too powerful and to be careful in choosing his champion.
To get an idea of how big the seven to ten percentage point gap is in terms of win rate, just compare it to other top counters. In ranked matches and competitive play, the community feels that Jax is the best way to respond to pick Gwen — and it turns out she’s right. This is another of the most unfavorable match-ups in League of Legends. However, it is 50% less efficient. Jax only beats Gwen 3.5-5% more times than the stats indicate.
If we were already aware of the Sylas factor every time we wanted to play Malphite to help our team, the data invites us to be extremely careful. This pairing not only secures us a very nasty moment in the line phase like so many others, but it really puts us at odds and makes it nearly impossible to win.
A member of the League of Legends community has created a gigantic post criticizing all of Riot Games’ events, claiming that they “have always been pretty bad”. To his surprise, one of the company’s founders responded by offering him a job.