Assassins struggle after rework as control mages rule the mid lane

The champion class chosen by Riot to be the focus of this year’s big update was the assassins, with four major updates (Rengar, Katarina, Leblanc and Talon) and a host of other smaller ones. Rengar, Kha’zix and Talon in particular seem to have been made significantly more viable, but the early win rate returns of ranked games in Platinum and above from Champion.gg tell a different story.

Here are the top five mid lane champions, by win rate:

1. Corki

2. Kog’Maw

3. Anivia

4. Ziggs

5. Vel’Koz

Malzahar, Zilean and Viktor are all significantly high up there, with not an assassin to be found near the top. All of these champions are comfortable sitting back, clearing waves and farming, and it seems to be working.

Ekko is the highest-ranking mid lane champion that did receive a change in the assassin update, going from a 47.99 percent win rate on Patch 6.21 to 52.45 on 6.22. But if you look at the bottom of the leaderboard, you’ll find one thing in common: a whole bunch of assassins.

Fizz, LeBlanc, Zed, Talon, Akali, Katarina — all of those champions received either major or partial work during the preseason update. Now, it is obviously still early, and as we’ve seen before with Ivern it takes time for players to get used to changes, but it’s an interesting trend to keep track of over the following weeks.