Weekly reminder that Riot removed ARAM bans because ARAM account users weren't happy about it

PaffWasTaken··161 votes·21,158 views

Yup, I'll start now and I'll continue doing these until Riot brings back the best addition ARAM ever got.

Sooooooo yeah, let's all remember how ARAM bans, even if they brought more balance and fun to the gamemode, got removed even through a vast majority of observable feedback being in their favor before they were introduced, while and even after. But they did confirm that they considered community feedback to make this decision. Hmmmm I wonder what kind of persons would dislike a new mechanic introduced to counter a certain kind of persons from abusing the gamemode...hmmmm, oh wait...

Edit: Some of you people are actually thinking that Riot might consider losing a ton of money by making all champions unlocked in ARAM. Little spoiler, they've been reticient to do so for years, I highly doubt they'd even consider this over reimplanting a mechanic that was already added before and that was unrightfully removed.

126 Comments

SnupRawr32 votes

Problem is, not enough of the good community is here, they left this game and only trolls like aaram only account users were left.

General Esdeath 2 votes

{quoted}

Problem is, not enough of the good community is here, they left this game and only trolls like aaram only account users were left.

Oh that made me sad :( I miss a lot of my old League friends who never logged back on

F

Sir Saltarin30 votes

Bans shouldn't come back, but all champs should be availeable on ARAM to prevent those aram accounts

Sukishoo6 votes

According to Riot that didn't change anything either on their internal tests so, and there's unintended side effects they don't want from it.

Sir Saltarin4 votes

Source?

Because unlocking all champs would make aram accounts useless since what they do it's only buy the OP aram champs

Sukishoo7 votes

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/general-discussion/FA8HwyQe-on-the-recent-issue-of-upvate-if-you-want-bans-in-aram-returned-threads?comment=0003

With all champs unlocked in our internal playtests, we still managed a Lux/Morg/Blitz/Jhin/Alistar comp. It was terror. It happens.

Why not just unlock all champs - This would help for sure, but has side effects we aren't comfortable with. It's no secret that Riot does need to make money in order to continue as a business, and this would impact that quite a bit. However, I do think we can make improvements in this area. 42 F2P champs isn't enough. More on this hopefully soon-ish.

BackdoorPrincess4 votes

The issue isn't "it happens", the issue is that accounts with only certain champs massively skew it towards those super high winrate ones. Using the excuse of "oh we still got this super good comp" just doesn't work here, I own all but 3 champs on aram and I still get great poke champs like ziggs and lux too, but these accounts completely negate the possibility of the games of getting trundle or morde or other SUPER situational champs. In a gamemode that is based around the complete randomness of who you get, allowing accounts to only own carries or high winrates is just plain anti-fun

Sir Saltarin2 votes

Thanks

Cevrad2 votes

This is so damn true, I actually have 4 or 5 aram only friends who legit have 300k blue essence in storage with only 16 champions.

SoryInAdvance4 votes

No clue where you found that, but that's 100% not true. The only reason ARAM only accounts exist is to only buy the champs that are good in ARAM. If they just open it to every champ in the pool, then the chances of getting anyone else increases beyond just the weekly free champs.

HorseProofBacon21 votes

Bans completely solved the problem of ARAM only accounts. In my games I always would ensure that veiger would never see the light of day because he was my ban. He is cancer to play against in ARAM, even with an incompetent veiger player.

Sir Saltarin8 votes

No, what ends ARAM accounts is making all champs unlocked to everyone on ARAM.

Not adding bans

ModAcademy Kayn21 votes

Weekly reminder that Riot removed ARAM bans because ARAM account users weren't happy about it

And you know this how exactly?

Sir Saltarin13 votes

Confirmation bias, they think that it's that way so it must be true

Cevrad4 votes

Because against the massive positive feedback on bans they removed the feature with no reason other than a chart that showed nothing about it.

What Riot fails to comprehend is that nobody really plays ARAM outside of ARAM only accounts because it isn't fun to play against the same 20 champions every damn game.

ModAcademy Kayn4 votes

The massive positive feedback on the boards, or the Reddits too. That's not taking account for anyone elses opinions who don't show their faces around here.

What Riot fails to comprehend is that nobody really plays ARAM outside of ARAM only accounts because it isn't fun to play against the same 20 champions every damn game.

Literally no way to prove this my dude.

floo2 votes

While his claim is very vague, where else would prople complain about the bans, and that in such high numbers, that they even removed them? I haven't seen anything about 'please remove bans' in any public message.

ArtumisPrime18 votes

This is factually incorrect according to RIOT.

"The number of "ARAM only accounts" is actually REALLY low. The sample size doesn't actually give meaningful data."

https://twitter.com/Mortdog/status/1118567454572072960

I have no idea how they classify an ARAM only account. It very well could be that if any account has ever played a Blind Pick or w/e, then it's not an ARAM only account........but that being said, the facts point towards your claim being false.

SociopathFriend11 votes

Well given that Riot can actually SEE what accounts own what and how many champions they have...

Players have always only-ever had a portion of the data. You can't see the rerolls the enemy team had, or their champion pool, to know how truly random it was. All you ever know about the enemy team's available champions are the ones you have, the ones in your pool, and what they come to the match with.

ArtumisPrime2 votes

Definitely. I'm not here to argue that whatsoever. On the other hand, if they were to make such information publicly available, claims such as the OP's could be firmly and definitively debunked.

Assuming you took issue with my disclaimer at the bottom, my only point was that companies tend to use PR speak to make themselves look better. This has the possibility of being one of those cases. If RIOT were to make public this information I could discard any doubt that I have. That has not been their modus operandi for a long time though.

Cevrad1 votes

But you as a player can see that over the course of 40 games a person will end up with the same pool of 16 champions always. You don't need the complete picture to see what is going on...

ArtumisPrime2 votes

I think that is in large part due to the way ARAM rolls are weighted. For example, if there were 100 champions...you would expect each to have a 1% chance of appearing. I don't believe this to be the case though.

I'm fairly certain that the free week rotation champions (the last 3 sets in ARAM) are weighted more heavily than other champions. So, instead of having a 1% chance for each champion, you then have 42 champions who have a 2-3% chance of being selected, with the rest still only being 1%. Completely made up percentages here, but I hope it illustrates my point.

SociopathFriend1 votes

I do believe there's a hidden weight of some kind. Because I own all but perhaps 10 champions yet I frequently see repeats and seldom, if ever, have rolled champions I own but never use such as Zed for example. I think I've rolled him once in all my years of spamming ARAM.

I'm quite sure the system somehow factors in mastery because there's no other good reason I should get Mordekaiser as much as I do.

ArtumisPrime4 votes

My main account has all champs unlocked. I see ridiculous numbers of repeats, and repeats on teammates and enemies as well. Almost always if I see a champion 3 or 4 times within the same number (or maybe one or two more) games EDIT: [could be just lobbies as well, due to dodgers], it almost always coincides with that champion being in the current or previous two free week rotation(s).

Mastery might play a part, but I'm unconvinced. There are some champions I would love to get frequently, who I have mastery on, but only extremely rarely seem to hit. Ezreal, for example, I'm M6 on my main account. See him once maybe every 20-30 games, and only roll him myself every 50-200.

Kairoptra17 votes

Damn vote manipulation.

30 upvotes in 30 minutes? Yeah, sure, I'll believe that.

(Not accusing OP, but somebody probably did it)

L Psy Kongroo14 votes

As a primarily ARAM player, I haven't been seeing ARAM-only accounts as much as I used to before their ban introduction test. Yeah, they still definitely exist, and the champions that are strong on ARAM are still usually overbearing, but it seems like a lot of people realized how much fun ARAM can be if all the toxic cancer champs are gone. I'm seeing a lot more comps with 2-3 melee champs, especially when I play with other ARAM players I know. I wholeheartedly disagree with Riot's decision, but I honestly don't think it's as bad now as it was.

Toxic Doku River4 votes

https://imgur.com/a/2CwL7dB nah it's still bad

Semaj3xt4h12 votes

WEEKLY REMINDER, IF I CRY LOUD ENOUGH AND LONG ENOUGH I CAN GET MY WAY....

Bans remove the spirit of aram!

Tomoe Gozen11 votes

Weekly reminder that threads like these always prove to me that people who mostly always get upvoted are just sensationalists looking for a controversy. Riot already explained why they didn't leave bans in this iteration and i don't think this needs to be repeated every time a thread like yours pops up because that would mean you're never really paying attention.

I'm just going to point you to the reply i left on the same thread a week or so ago. It's a bit long but it answers your questions perfectly, which is exactly why i don't want to repeat myself:

[{quoted}](name=Tomoe Gozen,realm=EUNE,application-id=yrc23zHg,discussion-id=FA8HwyQe,comment-id=000300030000,timestamp=2019-04-23T19:07:32.577+0000)

No one's denying the existence of ARAM accounts. But the moment people find themselves in a tough spot due to AR portion of this mode, the immediate conclusion is to either blame this bad luck of the draw on the perception that you're playing against ARAM accounts at that point or that somehow, the randomizer that decided your champs managed to find the worst VS champs and put them in a single team.

In either case, it's Riot's fault for not aggressively shutting down these supposed "ARAM only" accounts that you're playing against or it's Riot's fault for not having a "consistent randomizer" in order to avoid the absolute lows of lows in games. I've seen this happen time and time again and these logical fallacies are more common that you think. Even i think like this sometimes, despite me giving you an explanation of this issue. I'm not above frustration, just like any other player.

ARAM stands for All Random All Mid. If you're saying that the Random portion is unfair... that's the whole point of the game mode. What you're asking here is for Riot to give you more control over the RANDOM portion, so that you can avoid the potential "strong" picks. But here's the thing, even if you ban the most problematic champions, there're still those second best picks that you didn't ban. They don't magically disappear nor are any less potent and crappy one-sided games can still happen. Bans don't solve this problem, they just allow for the potential removal of specific champions from the game mode, sometimes permanently.

Riot's not going to allow because all champions are meant to be played on every map. If there's an issue with such a high ban rate in any game mode, that is a clear signal that Riot should look into this issue and tune them manually instead of just accepting the fact that the community can deem certain champions effectively removed from ARAM.

I know full well how crappy and one-sided games can be and they feel as frustrating and as bad as for any of you. But one or two of these games don't sour my entire stock of milk. These pointless losses do sting and do sometimes make me stop playing for that day (because i'm out of time or i'm at my wit's end) but ARAM in general isn't a worse experience.

Such losses feel pointless and the opposite easy wins feel cheap. I do understand the need to smooth out the curve a bit and i believe that proper champion balance or specific ARAM itemization is the key to doing this. Bans won't have the desired impact, they'll just mask the problem.

For ARAM only players (players who only play ARAM, not the accounts who specialize in ARAM experience), unlocking all champions would mean that they don't have to invest anything in the game. Blue Essence would virtually mean nothing outside of unlocking champions through the shards in Hextech Crafting. Eventually, they'll play every champion available and the only downside is that they can't play exactly what they want.

Even if Riot loses a bit of revenue from this, it's still their revenue. It's not up to me or you to decide if these losses are acceptable for Riot. Riot already gave up on the earnings through the old runes by making new ones completely free for everyone. Asking for more handouts is just spitting right in their faces.

Silly Neeko10 votes

Also just want to note that 22 upvotes in 10 mins im betting a bot was involved. Dont think it is quite as popular as it looks atm. Take out 20 votes and it is more accurate. Yes, people do agree, sure there are things that can be done.... but in the end there is always testing and trying things. Like reducing ranged damage.

CaeIus8 votes

I don't think aram bans were a good thing. It's aram, if a champ is broken in aram, just nerf that champ a little. Bans would take more 30 seconds in a game that was supposed to be fast paced, and remember, it's not just about the 30 seconds, but after that some people might dodge (which a lot of them do in those kind of games [URF, aram, etc])...

2Charmnot2Charm16 votes

{quoted}

it's not just about the 30 seconds, but after that some people might dodge (which a lot of them do in those kind of games [URF, aram, etc])...

Implying people already don't dodge when they get trash champs/team comps. An extra 30 seconds to enter a game without champs that are very likely to piss people off is well worth the wait.

Sillae9 votes

{quoted}

I don't think aram bans were a good thing. It's aram, if a champ is broken in aram, just nerf that champ a little. Bans would take more 30 seconds in a game that was supposed to be fast paced, and remember, it's not just about the 30 seconds, but after that some people might dodge (which a lot of them do in those kind of games [URF, aram, etc])...

Ah yes, an additional 30 seconds is so god awful. If you don't want bans just unlock every champ so aram accounts just stop rerolling until lux/sona/ez/etc.

It gives more time to set up and get ready anyway.

Icy Hot Shoto2 votes

Sadly they wont unlock every champ in aram because it would lose them too much money to unlock all champions for one game mode.

Iota Theta3 votes

[{quoted}](name=Icy Hot Shoto,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ZHEgIHfz,comment-id=000300010000,timestamp=2019-04-28T22:10:17.155+0000)

Sadly they wont unlock every champ in aram because it would lose them too much money to unlock all champions for one game mode.

Except, they eventually did it for Nexus Blitz.

SociopathFriend3 votes

During testing mind you. If it came back permanently such a decision might well be reversed.

AbiwonKenabi6 votes

I regularly play ARAMs, but am not an ARAM only account. I buy just about everyone that comes out, only a handful of older Champs I don't own. And I did not like bans in ARAM.

Some Champions basically disappeared, like I wanted to test the ARAM balance changes on them, but couldn't because I had no chance of getting them. The appeal of ARAM is you are often making the most of a comp that was randomly dealt to you. Bans didn't sit well with me, since the balancing force of this is the randomness of the Champions rolled. Its not truly random, thanks to the rerolls, but that's more a protection against your own lack of skill on certain Champions, or just general dislike of them. Bans in ARAM were tolerable, but they just didn't feel good. It just didn't sit right with me.

The alternative would be to just unlock all Champions for everyone playing that mode, but Riot doesn't want to do that for some reason. I don't think ARAM only accounts (as in accounts made that only unlock good ARAM Champs) are as prevalent as people are making it out to be. I mean, how would you even know it was an ARAM only account? Do people bother looking through enemy match histories or something to glean this info? I just genuinely don't know.

Mama Soraka3 votes

I didn't like bans either and I've owned every champ since like season 3 or something. I always banned NONE and had as many as 2 other teammates do it too, sometimes even the enemy team had a few NONEs as well. Despite the claims to the contrary, only a small portion of the boards user base (which itself is an absolutely microscopic portion of the game's playerbase) actually disliked bans enough to post about it.

I completely agree that the occurrence of ARAM accounts is much less than people seem to believe. ARAM is about doing what you can with what you get. You're going to lose a lot of games so just take your lumps and roll again next match.

Something I just considered: You get progress towards re-rolls based on the champions you own, right? So it would take an ARAM account that only has 5-10 champions unlocked much longer than average to earn another re-roll so that leaves them at the whim of RNG for every other match played during that period, leaving them very likely to pull a champ from the included free rotations instead of their own pool of "good" champions. That doesn't seem like a fun way to play, to me

[sg-soraka]

Theorex4 votes

I love this actually.

ARAM was made by the community in custom games. The rules were made by the community. And everything.

So then riot turned it into a game mode.

Years later, they don't want to add in something that is very needed in the game mode lol.

Pika Fox4 votes

ARAM accounts are rarely a thing, and not even a real issue. 9 times out of 10 that aram account youre complaining about is literally just someone who rerolled shit rolls. Not to mention with the massive forced free week unlocks in aram, even if you tried to make an aram account it wouldnt do much for you.

Baka Red2 votes

I agree. Rerolls (and dodging) are the thing that give illusion of having an ARAM only account problem. Not that I mind reroll system, not at all; I love it actually.

Banning system on the other hand; it has both good and bad parts like practically everything else. Good thing for me in it was that I didn't have to see enemy Pyke getting Pentas (and since I play with a premade always, I didn't have to see Master doing the same either). The bad thing for me was that my "main" (as much as an ARAM only player can have a 'main') was banned a lot by the enemy team (and occasionally allies). (That main is Karthus btw, not one of the main villains of ARAM, but he is still rather nasty when played by someone who knows how). The good and bad thing combined means that the game mode becomes poorer; In my case I would never fight with or against Pyke or Master, and very rarely with or against Karthus. I think that the bad side of banning system outweighs the good side.

Riot, if you re-open Banning system for ARAM at some point, please do add a list of 5 preferred bans we can fill in before we queue up. That way we don't have to ban the same champion manually every time. The list would have to include 5 champions, so that we would automatically ban something, in case one of the previous 'picks' has already banned our primary ban, with the 5th ban reserved for the weird case of having all four primary picks banned by other players when you are the 'last pick'. Picking the ban for ARAM separately each time is just waste of time, since we have no way to plan our picks.

mack91123 votes

Riot stated that all the bans did was permanently remove particular champions from the game mode all together which is not healthy. They also stated they want to try and that through aram balancing and of that dosnt work they will bring back bans.

Unlocking all champions would only make the game mode terrible as you would have so many people being forced to first time champions

3TWarrior7 votes

50% ban rates in solo queue: not unhealthy 50% ban rates in solo queue and high pick rate: not unhealthy

banning unhealthy champions in aram: somehow unhealthy

why? teemo can cover the entire map in mushrooms

veigar gets his fantasy in minutes

ziggs and janna can poke you freely

Sona makes the opposing team basically immortal

Illaoi (while not too big of an issue) gets free poke every few seconds if she lands a test of spirit

quite a few tank champions and fighters/juggernauts people do not want to end up playing as

Fiddlesticks disables your entire team's abilities

Shaco

Pyke

Xerath

the only interesting tidbit is that some champions that are absolute horrors to deal with in a regular game mode...are not a big deal in aram

mack91122 votes

You don’t understand particular champions had a literal 100% ban rate. Basically deleted from the game mode.

FSRER3 votes

I really don't understand why people create aram only accounts. Do you earn something from Aram? Do you have a aram rank? No! then why bother creating a aram only account in the first place?

Noblewind3 votes

I don't believe that there is a huge number of ARAM-only accounts out there. Especially not enough to have significant influence over Riot's decisions on the mode.

It isn't a ranked mode and the only real benefit of having the setup would be to win-farm for BE and XP, both of which only get you free new champs and skins. But you are not going to spend any of the currency because it's an ARAM-only account...

Critmaster Garen1 votes

just unlock all champions for aram. i dont understand why this isnt a thing.

this solves every problem with the aram accounts.

Saevum2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Critmaster Garen,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ZHEgIHfz,comment-id=002e,timestamp=2019-04-30T15:59:50.935+0000)

just unlock all champions for aram. i dont understand why this isnt a thing.

this solves every problem with the aram accounts.

That's bad business.

Critmaster Garen1 votes

{quoted}

That's bad business.

no its not.

you cant control the champion youre going to get. people cant just play the champion they really want to play every aram and not buy any champions.

it might actually get people to find that they like champions they previously didnt consider and buy them.

Saevum2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Critmaster Garen,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ZHEgIHfz,comment-id=002e00000000,timestamp=2019-04-30T22:37:54.055+0000)

no its not.

you cant control the champion youre going to get. people cant just play the champion they really want to play every aram and not buy any champions.

it might actually get people to find that they like champions they previously didnt consider and buy them.

If that would be the case, which is not, they would have done that ages ago.

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