Nowadays new champions in League of Legends are often very well thought out and often find their place within the meta quite quickly. However, this wasn’t always the case. Back when League was still relatively new not every champion was created equally. The game developers were still learning how to create balanced and well-designed champions and often missed their mark. This led to some champions that were broken beyond believe whereas others were utterly useless and/or extremely ugly.
Over the years these champions have been reworked into proper champions, although some reworks were more successful than others. Here is what we believe to be the 5 best reworked champions in League of Legends in no particular order.
Trundle
Trundle, together with Karma, were the first 2 champions that received a complete relaunch. Although both reworks improve significantly on the first iterations of their respective champions, the Trundle rework stands out a lot more. This is because Trundle actually became part of the meta quite a few times whereas Karma is only meta every so often. Trundle’s rework also stayed a lot closer to the original concept of the champion while still improving it a ton for which it also deserves a lot of credit. Lastly, he went from an absolutely hideous champion to a champion that’s actually pleasant to look at which is an achievement in and of itself.
Gangplank
While Gangplank’s complete relaunch made him into an extremely strong champion, the most notable aspect of his relaunch was the event with which it launched. Not only launched it with a new map for ARAM called the butcher’s bridge, but it also had an entire story attached to it. For a while, we would follow Captain Gangplank’s adventures and at some point, he even died. He wasn’t even playable anymore that’s how dead he was. Fortunately, he was revived and transformed into the current iteration that we have of Gangplank. His rework introduced a lot of League fans to the awesome lore surrounding the game.
Sion
Before Sion’s rework into one of the strongest tanks in the game, he was basically a meme. You had a full AP meme build for him and a full AD meme build. Both worked mostly as jokes but would never really become viable. He also had the weirdest VO of all champions as he basically sounded like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator which made him even more of a meme. Fortunately, his rework was a great success, he still retained some old aspects of his kit while also gaining one of the most original ultimates in the game. He went from meme to Noxus posterchild in a single day.
Akali
While Akali was never disliked, she was never really a champion that got in the spotlight. Her old kit also left a lot to be desired despite being quite powerful if she managed to get ahead. With her rework though Akali maintained her old identity of being an assassin that dips in and out of stealth while also becoming one of League’s most popular champions. This popularity grew even more when she received her KD/A skin which has turned her into an absolute fan-favorite champion. She now sits comfortably one her throne as one of the queens of League of Legends and deservedly so, although she might be slightly overpowered.
Poppy
Similarly to Sion, Poppy was a champion mostly played for memes as she was one of League’s ugliest ducklings. Especially her Lollipoppy skin received a lot of hate and rightfully so as it was one of the ugliest skins in the game. She was also a very weak champion. While she could work in the right situations she would never really be part of the meta. Her rework changed all this. Her kit got a complete overhaul and her lore was changed drastically as well. She’s also one of the most popular Yordles in the game right now and has long shed her status as League’s ugliest duckling.
