So Riot, while you're in the system making massive changes to champion select...

It seems like a great time to bring up an old idea.

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/summoners-rift/oqYrGzjI-a-new-aram-pick-type

interesting. Innovative. Fun to use.

All while solving a huge amount of ARAM's balance problems.

Mostly just dodging remains, but you could tap that out by changing the penalty to reset after a number of games rather than unlimited free forgiveness after a timer, forfeiting MMR in order to dodge, or being locked out of the new loot system for a while.

Oh, the loot system. Why NOT add mastery with it into ARAM? Individual grades aren't all that useful. Dominion proved that and I guarantee behind the scenes of SR's system there's an equally broken formula in play. Instead, give a group score based off of the difficulty of the match. You have the numbers to do this. You can estimate win probability based on champion winrates, or even more specific winrates in specific matchups. Give a team grade based off of that. Winning a game with under 40% likelihood of victory grants an S rank. Collecting your free win with Sona on your team grants a D. Heck, you can even judge how close the match was by towers and overall team positions, how far each pushed and pushed back from. Holding out longer or pushing further than the average in an unfavorable match could give S on a loss.

I think this could be a great way to move forward. If you're really that haze about giving mastery in a mode where you don't fully pick your champion (you still do get a lot of choice via trades and rr), cut the value given to the played champion in half, and divide the other half 5 ways between the enemy champions. After all, mastery is about knowing a champion inside and out, and playing against them effectively shows you know how they work and how to deal with it.