Brand is already a niche hero getting almost no tournament exposure, even the "pros" who hit skillshots well think he is too skillshot oriented, and on top of that he has no escape with only a random ult that can do almost nothing or do some strong AOE damage. Compare him to someone like mordekaiser who can come back from being shutdown early game hard and has a ton of AoE as well as a shield to protect bruisers. He has an ult that can reliably be game changing if you manage to hit the carry and is more durable with his two shields as well so he doesn't get instantly melted in teamfights. Couple this on top of how he fits into the double wota meta, his way easier skillshot (which is barely even a skillshot) and his 0 reliance on blue buff, and you have a champion that pretty much obsoletes brand, not to mention brand gets countered by high mobility such as ahri/kennen. The only things brand has on mordekaiser (who isnt even a god tier mid) is potential to do more Aoe with his ult and skillshots, an iffy stun, and a decent passive to chunk tanks. Not really reliable at all.