Champion Mastery, Free Week Rotations, and Ban Slots in Ranked - A Win/Win/Win

Context: The number of bans in ranked (and the size of the free week pool) has remained the same despite the champion pool expanding from ~60 to ~120 champions. The best argument against expanding the number of bans is that it raises the number of champions a player needs to own to play ranked. Players are required to own champions to play them in ranked, as an attempt to protect against 'first time X' players. The champion mastery system was released yesterday, which allows player performance on a champion to be measured relative to all other players on that champion.

Suggestion: Use champion mastery to judge whether a player can bring a champion to ranked rather than ownership, because owning a champion guarantees nothing about someone's ability to play it. If you do this, you can then allow players to play free week champions in ranked, easing the barrier to ranked, which in turn makes it less painful to expand the number of bans. Along with increasing the number of bans to reflect the larger champion pool, Riot should also increase the number of champions in the free week rotation.

Concerns _1) Banning out an entire class of champions _- Don't offer all the bans before picks, but offer them in phases. This lets players still ensure they can draft a certain role, while also giving players a bit more control over bans (ability to ban reactively, ability to ban toward a strategy beyond just the permabans, ability to spread bans out among the team).

_2) Champion mastery, as a system, is unproven _- Sure, but it's still better than the criteria being ownership.

_3) Riot's profits _- Players will still only have access to the free week champs during their free week. Players would be encouraged to later purchase these champs by the champion mastery points they had built up as well as the experience they had playing these champs in ranked (say, if they're ranked-only players)

Let me know what other concerns you have, and I can add them to the list. I've tried to be objective in providing the context and suggestion, so I'd appreciate it if you could do the same. Criticism is certainly welcome, but do try to maintain an open mind. Thanks!