While MSI 2025 broke multiple viewership records, it was a tournament to forget for two League of Legends champions who failed to secure a single win throughout the event and left fans questioning their place in the meta.
The League champions under scrutiny are Kalista and Twisted Fate, who played 10 and eight matches, respectively, and lost all of them, according to esports stats site DPM.LOL. This year’s Fearless Draft format has forced teams to go deeper into their champion pools, and while Kalista and Twisted Fate remain popular choices for both picks and bans, neither delivered meaningful results when actually played.
Twisted Fate drew the highest number of bans at MSI 2025, with teams removing him from play 45 times, which is a clear sign of the priority he still commands, despite his disappointing results when left unbanned. Kalista, on the other hand, was banned 18 times in the tournament, though several other AD carries faced even higher ban rates.
Despite being winless, these champions are far from irrelevant in pro play. Kalista and Twisted Fate have long been staple picks on the international stage. Kalista thrives on her ability to win lanes and use her ultimate ability to engage or peel for her support, setting up decisive teamfights. Twisted Fate, meanwhile, is a classic control mage whose global ultimate provides instant map information to enable proactive plays.
This MSI showed how the current meta has evolved to punish their weaknesses. Kalista’s fragile early game and reliance on perfect coordination made her easy to exploit, while Twisted Fate struggled to have an impact against more aggressive, scaling options like the most played Ryze, Azir, and other mid lane champions.
Even champions with similar struggles managed to pick up at least one win. Renata Glasc, for example, secured a single victory at MSI 2025 at the hands of T1’s Keria. Notably, that lone win came when Renata was paired with Gumayusi’s Xayah, not the winless Kalista.
Twisted Fate received a series of buffs in earlier patches, but his ultimate was nerfed in Patch 25.13, with more nerfs already slated for the next patch. As a result, he may soon be pushed out of the meta entirely, and teams might ban him less than before. As teams now shift their focus to the Esports World Cup 2025 and their domestic Summer Splits, it remains to be seen whether Kalista and Twisted Fate can find their footing in the meta.
