League of Legends player uses math to prove why Mel’s Q cannot be dodged

Mel, the latest League of Legends champion, continues to be a menace on the lane and off it, with Riot completely ignoring the players’ complaints. Now, one player went out of their way to prove that Mel is overpowered, using math to show that her Q cannot be dodged.

The player posted their findings in a Feb. 9 Reddit thread, outlining the circumstances of Mel’s Q and how quickly it travels. The spell takes 0.42 seconds to land when cast and travel time are accounted for, and cannot be dodged unless the player behind Mel misses the target completely, the player argued. If centered on a champion, the said champion would need 411 base movement speed to dodge the ability, given that the spell has a 65 unit AOE and the average champion movement speed is around 335. When reaction times are added to the equation, a professional player would need around 556 movement speed, whereas the average player would have to move at 784 units to effectively dodge the ability.

Therefore, the player’s math shows that even if you reacted as soon as the spell’s animation started, you would get hit by at least a third of the total missiles. The average player, however, can expect to take damage from at least 93 percent of the projectiles, the vast majority of the potential damage.

So, it seems it’s not really you who is making numerous mistakes against a new champion whose matchup you’re yet to master. It’s actually Riot Games designing a champion spell that cannot be effectively dodged. As one player in the replies put it, “Mel is, as a whole, a character who can be played to over 90 percent of her potential in Bronze and Silver,” implying that she is so easy by default that she can be mastered by pretty much anyone.

And her stats reflect this. Though her win rate is less than the average 50 percent (likely due to popularity than anything else), the “mage for babies” remains the most banned champion in League of Legends, sitting at around 75 percent, according to u.gg. Whether or not she is truly OP, the player base definitely feels like it, and the calculations above are reasons enough to keep this champion permanently removed and banned in all of your matches. That is until Riot nerfs her, if ever.