The Irony of the ROX Warning
The VOD for those that want to watch (picks and bans start at 11:30).
Nami, Janna, Lulu banned.
ROX first picks Karma, then picks Ezreal and Rumble
Vaevictis picks Lucian, Sejuani, and Lissandra, leaving their support pick for the last phase.
Thresh, Braum banned.
ROX picks Kayne and Illaoi
Vaevictis picks Morgana and Jarvan 4
Meanwhile, Champions that Vaevictis team members played more than 10 games on last season.
Top
BANNED Lulu - 59 games
BANNED Janna - 11 games
Jungler
BANNED Nami - 52 games
Lux - 23 games
BANNED Lulu - 19 games
PICKED Morgana - 13 games
Leona - 12 games
Mid
Katarina - 83 games
Taric - 40 games
PICKED Lissandra - 39 games
BANNED Braum - 29 games
BANNED Janna - 24 games
Zac - 19 games
BANNED Lulu - 15 games
Rakan - 15 games
BANNED Nami - 15 games
ADC - Couldn't find
Support
PICKED Morgana - 60 games
Orianna - 41 games
BANNED Nami - 38 games
Lux - 36 games
Ahri - 26 games
BANNED Janna - 22 games
BANNED Lulu - 20 games
BANNED Thresh - 17 games
Syndra - 12 games
Soraka - 11 games
Of the 26 most played champions across these 4 players, 12, nearly half, were banned away.
Of the Support Player's top 5 support picks, 4 were banned away, in order of most played, leaving only Braum as the exception.
The game ended in 21 minutes, 12 to 1, no towers taken by Vaevictis. That one kill, that was on Morgana - the player that they tried to ban out.
Now the Irony - Riot's warning is that "the wide gaming community of League of Legends, took this as a manifestation of disrespect for the players of the Vaevictis Esports team." No, this was targeted bans, plain and simple. Banning anything else would be disrespectful of either Vaevictis - banning champions they knew Vaevictis wouldn't pick anyway - or disrespectful of ROX - expecting their coaches to overlook Vaevictis's strongest player.
Vaevictis's other players need a lot more practice on different champions before banning something other than Supports will make sense.
And for reference, the only team to play against Vaevictis that didn't get a warning banned Urgot, Lissandra, Katarina, Orianna, and Karma, target banning Vaevictis's mid and forcing them to play Vlad - someone they only had 5 games on last year. They finished in 20 minutes, 20 to 1, again with the support picking up the only kill. Their Support could take the bans, their Mid couldn't.
So long as Vaevictis's champion pool is this weak you can expect target bans on one player or another.
