QoL improvements to champion select to increase pro pick/ban viability in solo-queue
Alright, so I disagree with the reasoning for blind bans as opposed to bringing us the competitive version. I personally would really much rather have what I love watching so much every weekend. I think that system would greatly increase the level of strategy attainable in champion select even for the average Joe. This post isn't to argue with riot's reasoning though, it's to present some of my ideas for improving champion select over all and in ways that I think will make the competitive ban system more viable in solo-queue. (This is going to be long, so buckle up)
First, some general pain points in the current champion select:
A) communication is hard.
If you aren't physically with a teammate or in voip, your only option is chat. If you aren't friends on league, your only option is team chat. This slow to use, non-targeted, has a "boy-who-cries-wolf" notification as a result of being non-targeted (you get an audial ping for all messages, no matter who they meant for), and has infinite abuse cases as a result of being an unfiltered communications channel.
There is also a problem with follow through, this relates to point C. Just because I say I'll trade doesn't mean I won't go get a glass of water after locking in and forget to do it. Just because I said please don't ban jax doesn't mean my message will be seen.
Any feature that allows specific, targeted, notifiable, non-abusable, instant communication (click of a button) with painless or automatic follow through is a potential improvement.
B) strategic planning
Currently strategy can be planned in one of two ways:
- hover a pick
- chat
Strategic actions that can be taken:
- ban a champion
- pick a champion
- trade champions
So the available 'planning actions' outside of chat (which we want to avoid, see point A) only covers one of the three 'strategic actions'. This needs to be improved.
C) duration of attention
If I'm last pick, but know from the outset what I want to play, I still must be attentive to pick bans to the very end. If I hover my champion, then work on masteries and miss my lock in time, I get a 5 minute ban and everyone else starts over. I know this is a known issue by riot and they're working on adjusting things to make the pick/ban situation easier to see while in masteries, but I still think there is more that can be done here.
Anything that speeds up champion select, reduces or eliminates a period of required attention, or allows actions to be taken sooner all without reducing the impact or number of options in champion select is a potential improvement.
Alright, so now it's finally time for improvements:
- Improve the ban selection implementation (problems A and B)
Currently The only time you can hover a ban is during your ban timer. Frankly, this sucks. Adding a second champion bubble by each player for ban hovers and allowing players to hover it from the get go just like their picks would be really nice. I realize that needs a concise and clear way to distinguish which you are selecting, a pick or a ban, but maybe that could be done with right vs left click or a toggle above the champion list.
This adds a new communication tool (problem A), a new 'planning action' (problem B), and improves the utility of the minute of time before champion select actually starts moving. It also helps prevent teammates from accidentally banning someones champion, since now that player has a chance to call them out in chat (or better, see later suggestions).
- Allow preemptive lockins (problem C)
Once upon a time if you hovered a champion and then afk'd, it would be locked in for you at the end of your time. I still think this was a good thing and should be brought back. Having to go back into queue because someone forgot to lock in is not fun. But having to wait out someone's timer is also not fun, and having to be there ready and waiting to click lock in when I've already done everything else is also not fun. I'm being required to pay attention simply to click a button at the right time. Obviously if I don't know yet what to pick, I need the time and the button, but if my desired champion is still available at my turn to pick, I don't. A togglable pre-lockin button that will auto lock in for me lets me work on masteries, talk in chat, etc without needing to worry. There's a soft notification when your pick becomes unavailable, changing that to a hard notification (bring window to front or highlight in taskbar etc) and closing the masteries window if open when your champion becomes unavailable and auto-lockin is enabled should be enough to grant players some peace of mind to during champion select.
- Allow order swaps (problems A and B)
This is the big one. There is currently a champion trade feature built into champion select, but it has loads of issues:
- It is only a strategic option, not a planning option. This means it relies chat to be the planning tool.
- It has no guaranteed follow through. In other words, planning is not tied to acting, so the plan can be forgotten or ignored, leaving people stuck with the wrong champions.
- It requires players to own everyone else's champions. What happens if you own what your midlaner wants, but then your support pick gets banned before he can lock it in and he doesn't own any other supports? Not only does everyone need everyone else's first choice, but their second and third after that. That's a huge burden for players. Earning ip for champions is a time consuming process.
- It requires a significant increase in attention duration and effort over not swapping
Adding an order swap option using the same style prompt as the current trade option (player 1 requests with one click, player 2 accepts or denies within a time frame also with a single click):
- combines the action and planning phase together to eliminate a large period of waiting between the plan and the action
- eliminates the need for chat to be involved
- fits every mark of a good feature for improving problem A
- eliminates the need for champion pool overlap
- makes strategy in champion select much easier and less stressful
- allows more to happen in the minute before champion select really starts
This could be allowed to happen at any point prior to either of the players locking in a champion. If neither has banned, the ban positions swap too. If one player has banned, the ban positions do not swap. Yes one player gets two bans and the other gets none, but this scenario has to be acceptable to both players in order to happen, so I don't think that's really an issue.
Personally I know I'd use this feature a lot. I usually don't want first pick, I'd rather get a counter pick or pick something that rounds out our teams comp. So I usually offer up my first pick. But that's useless if my champion pool doesn't overlap with someone else's.
This can also be used to great effect in the pro version of pick/bans to allow players to switch between phases. Someone with deep pockets or off meta picks can comfortably wait till round two of picks for a sweet counter pick while someone who wants a shot to play that lane stomping op pick can switch to first or second pick. Not only do they move up in pick order, but the split draft means fewer bans before their pick and higher chances of getting what they want. This flexibility helps alleviate the imbalance or unfairness riot feels pro draft would bring to solo-queue.
Personally though I see no reason for that to keep it from coming to solo-queue as nothing else in the entire game is "fair and balanced" by this definition. The game is "fair and balanced" by this definition only over an average of many games. Specific games need only be "fair enough", which I think the pro draft is. This feature would make it more fair though as players have more opportunity to change their situation to the one they want. (for the definition of fair and balanced I'm talking about, read the riot post linked to this post)
If you made it this far, thanks a ton for reading. Upvote if you liked the ideas, comment if you didn't or have more. I really hope to one day have the full version of 10 bans in solo-queue because I think it would increase the value of champion select and make it feel more impactful to my games and it would let me connect more with pro play.