Briar, the 165th League of Legends champion, rolled out on Sept. 25 and is one of the most successful champions this year for one reason: despite nerfs, she’s still overpowered and has a consistently high win rate.
Typically, when a champion rolls out in League, they’re overpowered and are nerfed right away, like with Naafiri, or they have confusing kits or are so underpowered that they can’t compete against the current champions, which is what happened with K’Sante. So, when Briar was announced, many were sure she would be another failure upon launch. But when she went live in Patch 13.18, she was a pure demon to deal with on the Rift. And despite her consistent ban rates for the past five patches, her win rates have remained incredibly high, even with several nerfs.
According to U.GG, the League stat tracker, Briar’s win rate hasn’t fallen below 51.6 percent, which was in Patch 13.19, and she currently has a 52.83 percent win rate across all ranks. So, there’s a good chance you will succeed if you pick her. But of course, that’s if you know how to build her and understand how her kit works. And that’s if she’s not banned first. Even with her 35 percent ban rate, which may seem abnormally high, it was at 48.7 percent at one point, so it’s not too bad right now, she can be deemed a success on the Rift. However, if you’re playing against her, you’re more likely to feel her oppressive bite than enjoying her success.
And while most of her success does come from her being overpowered, she has been nerfed, and it hasn’t done anything to stop her incredible win rates. On top of this, part of what makes her a success is her pick rates because she has been consistently picked and become a beloved champion to many League players. For the past three patches, her pick rate has remained relatively the same at around seven percent, and the same can’t be said for the newer champions like Naafiri, whose pick rate seems to be petering off with every patch and is sitting at just 2.3 percent.
Briar’s overbalanced nature has made her a success in terms of her win rates, and the fact that she is still consistently picked proves she is a successful champion who can win games if she’s piloted well.
However, this might change if Riot ever goes heavy with the nerf hammer or reworks her kit.
