An argument for Howling Abyss draft mode

Sometimes ARAM is just unplayably bad because of team comps being random. Sometimes you just get an unwinnable game that is totally unplayable. When you have such an imbalanced mode and you're playing random champions on it, matchup quality is extremely volatile. One could argue that volatility of gameplay is fun, but I doubt that anyone considers volatility of matchup quality to be fun.

If you're gonna tell me that ARAM isn't mean to be taken seriously, you are right and I agree. Personally, as an extremely seasoned veteran of ARAM (from before it was an official mode) when I see people asking for ARAM balancing I think they're missing the point of the mode. At its heart, it is a non-serious, "for fun" mode.

But I don't consider it fun to get into a game and just wait for 15-20 min for it to end because the teams are so poorly matched. This happens way too often in ARAM.

Before Howling Abyss, there was a small community of ARAM players who slowly drifted to ADAM (draft version) because we really enjoyed the teamfight and poke focused gameplay, but we wanted fair games that were less stompy and more fun.

I can see why people would shy away from any sort of picking mode. In such an imbalanced mode, there is a single team comp which is absolutely the best, and you should never play any other 5 champions. But that is only available in Blind Pick. In Draft Mode the bans keep things somewhat fresh. When you ban the most broken champs you get a relatively decent meta because there are a lot of great champs that can hold their own once you remove the very best ones.

I also think there is some fear of a stronger dedicated playerbase forming and demanding balance specific to the mode. I think dealing with that is simple: Just ignore them. State explicitly that there will be no balance from the start. Add like 2 extra bans and let the meta be whatever it's gonna be. This mode is for people who like the champs which happen to be good in it.

So to be clear I'm not asking for a more serious Howling Abyss. I'm asking for a more fun Howling Abyss.