Pick & Ban Phase Suggestion
As we move into the new season, I've wondered if Riot, if ever, has considered increasing the number of bans allowed during the pick and ban phase of the draft to compensate for the sheer number of champions introduced to the game (120+?)
Even going from 3 Bans per team to 4 Bans per team would create another dynamic to the game, especially from an eSports perspective.
** : Disclaimer : ** This post is simply to put forth the idea of having more bans in Draft mode of League of Legends. What is shown below is only a simple musing and is to get a discussion going
Even still, it can be done in a variety of ways. My suggestion would be as follows ( I will be describing bans as Blue or Red side Ban 1, 2, 3, 4, and the picks will be 1 - 10);
- Blue Side Bans first Champion
- Red Side Bans first Champion
- Blue Side Bans second Champion
- Red Side Bans second Champion
from here, we allow picks to happen, Blue side getting pick no. 1, Red side getting picks no. 2, & 3, and then Blue Getting pick no. 4. At this point we can continue the banning process
- Red Side Bans third Champion
- Blue Side Bans third Champion
- Red Side Bans fourth Champion
- Blue Side Bans fourth Champion
After these second set of bans, it would resume as we normally remember. Blue gets pick no. 5, Red gets picks no. 6, & 7, Blue gets no. 8 & 9, and Red gets no. 10.
The way I see this from an eSports perspective is that this requires far more thought, and has more depth to it. By making only 2 bans per team available before the initial set of picks go out, this means there is a higher priority on some champions some teams or players think are broken or simply very strong in the current meta.
On the other hand, by allowing bans after the first 4 picks, this also forces teams to either pick ambiguously or in turn have other champions that are linchpins for their compositions be banned out if read correctly by the enemy team.