Should a growing champion pool mean more bans?

I am sure every player can relate to this, there are so many champions that need to be banned and with every patch that pool changes, but unfortunately no matter how many patches there are, with an increasing amount of champions there are statistically bound to be more OP champions every patch. The problem appears when the amount of champions that needs to be banned greatly exceeds the amount of allotted bans. With an increasing champion pool, and a new champion being released once every one - two months the amount of champions that need to be banned is slowly but steadily growing, however, the amount of bans is not.

I have seen many counter arguments to the increasing of bans and a lot of them indeed have very valid points. One of the first arguments, and the most basic one is that new players at this very moment need 16 champions in order to play ranked. That exists in order to avoid the possibly of having all your possible champions picked or banned and you ending up with nothing to play, resulting in a dodge. With more bans it would mean that a new player will have to have more champions in order to play, and a long time down the road you might have to have 32 champions and so on. Another issue that arises is the banning of all viable champs. If there are more bans that means all viable champs could be banned and both teams would have to rely on none-meta picks that sometimes are not even reliable. The same issue applies to the professional scene in League of Legends. The professional players have very specified picks and bans and adding more bans would make it a lot harder to practice certain champions because they could simply be banned since you're always being watched if you play professionally. All these are very real problems and I am going to give my point of view and the counter-arguments that could be provided for of each of them next.

The first argument, which argues that with increasing bans new players would need a larger champion pool in order to start playing ranked (Currently it is at sixteen champions). If thought of like that, it obviously seems like it would be a bad Idea, but in order to understand what would happen you need to think more broadly. Yes the base champion pool would need to go up, however, the amount of champions available for purchase would also go up. Also, as more champions are added to League of Legends the price of already existing ones drops. As new champions are added there will be a plethora of 450rp and 1350rp champions that could easily be obtained by a new level 30 player. As the champion pool goes up so will the availability of other champions, meaning the a base starting pool of more champions would be easier to obtain, making it not that big of an issue, if an issue at all.

The second argument, which argues that with more bans more viable picks would be banned which would prove to be a big problem in higher ELO's. This is indeed true but let us not forget that new champions are being added. With new champions come new viable picks and new meta's that could they could be circulated around. Overall the amount of viable champions would still be the same even with increased bans. Also, worst case, more viable roles are being banned means that less viable champs would have to be played. However, you have to remember that both teams are put in that handicapped position. Also, with the ever-changing meta, none-viable rules will become more viable since that would be what the meta is centered around because of the bans. And finally, if one champion has practically a 99% ban rate it is not the banning systems fault, it is simply the fact that the champion is not balanced enough according to the point of you of the players, and would need to receive a nerf.

The third argument argues that more bans would ruin professional play, which honestly has the same response as the previous argument. Yes more viable champions would be banned, but new champions are going to be there to take their place and the meta is ever-changing. The real problem comes around when it comes to how the professional teams practice. According to Harrison Jacobs from Business Insider, most professional gamers spend about 50 hours a week just practicing. If they are practicing certain champs or comps only to having them banned when playing against other teams is just a waste of this time. To this I honestly do not have a solution and is probably one of the main factors that would prevent more bans from being put into place. The only thing that I could really say for this is yes, their hard-worked-on comps are going to be ruined, but the point of practicing is to improve your mastery at the game. If professional players can still do good with comps and champs that they do not always play it would definitely prove their mastery at the game. Also, lets not forget, both teams are at the same disadvantage.

There are also many smaller side problems that should be noted too. How often should Riot add bans? Honestly this is not for me to decide. It is their game and they should change it to how they see fit. Obviously adding a ban every few champions would be ridiculous, a better solution would be to add them in intervals or when the time just seems right (Maybe even once per season). How many at a time should they add? This is a tricky one, adding two bans at a time seems like it would balance it out but then that would mean the intervals at which they are added are a lot longer. A solution to this would be giving one team the extra ban every time a new ban is added, but which team? Well according to a 2014 article written by Ferguson Mitchell, the blue side has a slightly higher, but still significant, win rate. This could mean that red team should get the extra ban but that seems unfair, does it not? Well to some extent yes it is unfair, but lets not forget once more that if one team bans a champion, BOTH teams are not allowed to pick it. That means even though red gets the extra ban, both teams still have the same chances of winner since they both have the same handicap.

In conclusion, with an increasing champion pool, the game should have more available ban slots. There are many problems with this like how it would affect new players, high ranked players, and professional players, but they all have their own solutions. Personally, I think that as more champions are added, being stuck at 6 bans is just not enough. In the end is all up to Riot to decide and for the community to want it enough.