Is red really stronger than blue in League of Legends?

League of Legends players claim that being the red side has a serious advantage in win rate over blue, but is the myth actually true?

League of Legends matchmaking has always been a controversial aspect of the game. On the technical side, League of Legends experienced regular and severe connection issues in early 2024, with many not even able to start games. However, technical issues are far from the only problem.

Over the past few months, players began to notice a trend in the win rates. While League of Legends should be a balanced game, players discovered those on the red side would win games more often than those on the blue side. These patterns left some fans wondering if Riot inadvertently gave a huge advantage to one side over the other.

Does red actually have a higher win rate than blue in League of Legends?

Data and statistics from League of Legends players worldwide support that the red side wins more than the blue side. 

According to League of Graphs, the win rate favors the red side heavily towards the higher levels of play. While it’s more even in lower ranks, skills equalizing means the advantages granted to the red side can make or break games.

The #1 ranked player in North America has a win rate favoring the red side over blue, especially in the upper echelons of matchmaking. Some players claim that a truly balanced game would not have such a discrepancy in win rate between the two sides. Newbies may be wondering why the red side seems to have such a big advantage over the blue side in high-level play.

Why are red-side players more likely to win in League of Legends?

The red side allegedly groups players with a higher total League Points than the blue side, making its win rate higher.

u/Faileby on Reddit claims the imbalance comes from Riot buffing the red side after years of the blue side being the favorable starting position. Before the patches, blue had higher ELO and first pick, resulting in heavily skewed games.

Riot gave the red side one distinct advantage to compensate for this by having high Elo players go towards red instead of blue. As the importance of the first pick lessened and with fewer players in high Elo overall, the advantages of the red side became oppressive. Challengers would often be grouped together in blue while skilled players hit a ceiling as they cannot fight other players on their level.

If this strange matchmaking decision is true, players hope Riot will notice this growing issue and act accordingly.