Why don't teams ban Bjergsen's Syndra?

III BAKURYU III ·Mar 20, 2018·3 votes·1,083 views

5 bans -10 total and yet, teams still don't ban out Bjergsen's Syndra!?

Why?

He has played more Syndra(59 games in his career) than his next highest played champion Ori(41 games)for close to a full split(18 games) and yet Syndra wasn't even in the top 5 most banned champions against TSM for teams.

Hmm, most picked champion in his career and has been a large portion of the last 3 years for him.
Hmm, 3rd highest win % with 20+ games behind his Azir and Cass.
Hmm, after a 4-6 start for TSM he picked Syndra 3 times in the last 10 games for TSM and won all 3.

Do teams not realize that when Bjergsen/TSM are in a pickle he plays her constantly over and over again?
IF I was Clutch Gaming I would ban out Syndra period!

15 Comments

ModWulf HelhammerMar 20, 20182 votes

You can't ban out Bjergsen. The guy simply has too many champions. Better to just focus on banning out OPs or champs that counter a team comp than focusing on any individual member on the squad.

III BAKURYU III Mar 20, 20181 votes

But Syndra is TSM's team comp considering he plays such champion a decent amount. I understand banning such champs such as Ryze and Azir but what's so hard banning those such champions with the Syndra?
Maybe you can't ban out Bjergsen but you can literally set up a 5 mid champion bans to weaken TSM, in which will make TSM a bit vulnerable considering when Bjergsen doesn't feel comfortable TSM tends to just get smacked easily(mainly INT tournaments) but still.

GeminiRuneMar 20, 20182 votes

I was watching those games with my brother while discussing some other stuff in general. And we came to the conclusion: we have no freaking idea. It's bizarre how the moment the likes of Huhi and Aurelion Sol win it becomes a target reminder but then you get Bjerg with Syndra and it's like "we can beat this." Not to grieve; it was just really astonishing how many times it was let through based on his mastery. Of course it's still Syndra vs Sol: common meta pick vs uncommon pocket pick. Hard to discuss or debate that.

III BAKURYU III Mar 20, 20182 votes

I just thought teams would ban nothing but Bjergsen's picks. I'm talking about nothing but 5 mid bans(Ori-Gone, Syndra-Gone, Azir-Gone etc) and while it may hurt such team banning meta picks I would gladly sacrifice my chance at playing such picks if that means the "best mid laner" doesn't get his hands on such picks himself.
Banning non-stop mids would make Bjergsen pick X champion as early as possible in fear of having no picks himself in which would eliminate any potential "flex" picks for Hauntzer etc.

RaiyzaMar 22, 20182 votes

Its because teams can work around the Syndra pick. They arent losing games because of the champion against TSM, but rather TSM has shown that they can revolve around whatever champion bjergsen picks.

III BAKURYU III Mar 23, 20181 votes

Can teams actually "work" around such pick cause Bjergsen has a great KDA as well as winning % on such champion.

LinoWidgeMar 23, 20182 votes

I think it's just that non-OP mids aren't exactly viewed as ban-worthy. As a comparison I'm going to use Jensen & his Ori (I know he hardly played it this split, but it's a great comparison since no-one seems to ban it away from him & he dominates almost every time he picks it).

Bjergsen/Syndra: [GAMES] 59 [WIN-RATE] 71.2%(42/17) [KDA] 5.65 [CS] 349.56

Jensen/Oriana: [GAMES] 49 [WIN-RATE] 71.4%(35/14) [KDA] 8.41 [CS] 332.96

As you can see the stats are similar but no team dares ban these picks since if you ban them you likely end up giving away OP picks that will likely have more say in how the game progresses than the Syndra/Ori pick would.

III BAKURYU III Mar 23, 20181 votes

I suppose it's a pick your poison in regards to either having Jensen/BJergsen play their signature champions or giving up OP picks. I just get annoyed when teams are facing TSM who at times are either behind the 8 ball(vs Samsung Galaxy potentially being 0-2 if they lost to SSG in 2016), against Dignitas in which Bjergsen played Syndra constantly in the 2014 Playoffs, as well as picking her often the last few weeks in which boosted TSM from a garbage tier team to 3rd place that teams don't just ban her away. He's shown to be a master on such champion and when against heavy lane dominate players or down 0-1 in series he tends to pick her and the enemy team tends to just lose.

Off point but I expect Bjergsen to pick her against Febiven in the Playoffs, especially if TSM go down 0-1 in the series and the enemy team will be none the wiser.

Overall, I get what you mean and thank you for the comment/answer to such puzzling question of mine.

LinoWidgeMar 23, 20182 votes

No problem. This was a problem that used to get to me all the time when I first got into the competitive scene. Back with the original C9 roster & Balls then legendary Rumble which was undefeated for almost 2 years.

III BAKURYU III Mar 23, 20181 votes

Indeed. Like I said it's just a bit confusing when realistically teams can't ban out all OP champions so players will get 50% of the OP champions, to begin with as well as leaving open their bread and butter champions.
The way I see it Ban Option A(50% OP champions) it still leaves open Option B(50% OP champions as well as their mains), when you could ban Option C(their mains) and it would still leave them with one or the other A-B options anyways. You feel me?

You bring up Balls and his Rumble and it's interesting to note that when he did in fact finally lost on his Rumble that was historically great he never was the same. Sure he declined as the splits continued in his career but once he did in fact lost, he pretty much disappeared in the scene altogether.

LinoWidgeMar 23, 20181 votes

That's how we end up with OP's still in play (People are still getting to play Skarner, Olaf, & Swain despite their OP status...), other wise we get the results of Spring 2017's meta (Red side had to ban Camille/Rengar/LeBlanc or lose). Plus I'm sure the upcoming TSM/CG series will have a few target bans Like Febiven's Azir or I expect CG to ban Ryze from Bjergsen (He's played it the same number of games as Syndra this split & had ridiculous stats on it) rather than Syndra (though she could pop up as a phase two ban).

On the note of Balls & his Rumble, it's amazing on how he went from the most dominant Top in NA(One of the best in the world even) to the only member of that roster out of the league right now (might change with OpTic droping LemonNation the other day). He was 21-0 on Rumble before Samsung Blue beat it twice at Worlds 2014 & was 26-0 on it in NA before TiP beat it on June, 28, 2015 (2 years, 1 month, & 17 days after his 1st pro Rumble game) I don't think there's ever been another player/Champion Combo have a run like that. Sadly Assuming he's done playing he ended his career 38-24 on it after that 26-3 start...

Zohan789Mar 28, 20181 votes

Same reason they don't ban Wymul Ziggs dude, it's just too good

III BAKURYU III Mar 28, 20181 votes

"Wymul" ?

BigBellBruteMar 28, 20181 votes

They're not banning it out now because she is down a bit right now. Near the bottom of the list in fact. And Bjerg has several other champs you don't really want to see him on either that are higher powered for pro play. at the moment.

Swain is broken at the pro level.

III BAKURYU III Mar 28, 20181 votes

All I'm saying besides the Syndra pick is why don't teams just ban out any and all available mids that BJergsen can play like Syndra, Swain, Ori etc? We all know Bjergsen is the catalyst to TSM and once he feels the pressure he and TSM tend to fall. However, my post seems to be avoided as CG beat TSM in the playoffs I believe without banning Syndra but he did play her in the final game as he tends to always do when TSM is in holes.