Free WEEK rotation and Special Game Modes Like URF
Point: Free week rotation severely influences game modes like URF (especially ones with bans) and it can be really unfair and unfun to players who get unlucky.
I'm a hecarim main. Hecarim is strong in URF, but no where near as oppressive as some of the other champions there. I mean, he's been altered to be more balanced in URF. You can actually fight against him (he's targetable, unlike say Vladimir who can stay in his pool consistently - why were so many cooldowns changed to start after the spell ended and NOT vlad's pool or many champion's stealths?). He's only melee and has nothing with any range (even his ultimate brings him within melee range) so he can be harassed early very easily. In the first day when Hecarim was available the enemy picked him too and my teammates had no problems getting kills on him. I find it hard to believe that I just happened to be against 5 bad Hecarims in a row - it's much more likely that actually being targetable (and having a huge hitbox) makes him not nearly as oppressive as these other picks.
Champions that are more oppressive in this mode? Vladimir, Shaco, Wukong, Zed, Fizz, Sona, Blitzcrank, Nidalee, Ezreal, LeBlanc, AD Malzahar, and I'm sure there are more.
Which is fine, I don't mind there being overpowered champions. This is a game mode for fun and people should have every right to play whoever they have available.
My problem is that Hecarim is on free week. He's been free for the entire first week of URF. The entire first day, Hecarim was NEVER banned. He's now the first ban in almost every one of my games. Hecarim was known as a strong pick from the previous URF while I'm sure some of the others listed above are new power picks that people came up with. If Hecarim was banned equally as often as these other champions (around 30% of the time) I'd be completely fine. The only reason I can think his ban rate is around 80% now in my games is because he's been free all week. If you don't ban him, someone WILL pick him. Simply because he's free so if you've banned out their main URF player they'll pick up Hecarim. By having him free, it's a safe ban for anyone who isn't planning to play Hecarim to make.
The result? Anyone who is a Hecarim main got completely screwed. Hecarim would never have been banned this often if he wasn't on the free rotation. He'd still be banned, just not nearly every game. Further, when the free rotation changes for the second week of URF, I doubt his ban rate will improve much. People, maybe even Riot, will use this as evidence that players think he was OP. Really though, he'll only continue to be banned in the second week because people are so used to banning him in the first week. They're not explicitly thinking "I'm banning Hecarim because he's rather strong but not the worst, but he's free week so I'm definitely stopping an enemy pick", they're just thinking "I win more when I ban Hecarim, why stop?".
On top of all that, I don't own most of the other strong URF champions, and I definitely don't main them.
So my resolution? During ANY special game mode such as this, the free champion rotation should do 1 of 3 things:
- Not be applicable to the game mode - no champions are available for free
- All champions should be available for free in the game mode - possibly unlocked via an IP or RP purchase
- The free champion rotation should change daily while the game mode is available. You don't need to patch every day, just literally write in a cycle that changes who is available each day. Or even for each match randomly choose 10 champions to be free.
I like 3 the best because really, I think the free rotation has a lot of advantages. I just find this disadvantage is really unfair. It basically targeted Hecarim mains and gave them a severe disadvantage in the game mode while ignoring the other oppressive main champions in the mode.
I have no issue with balance issues. I had no issues through Saturday when Hecarim was banned about 50% of the time and I would just hop on to another pick. My problem is when (including all of the dodges I seem to be experiencing lately... not sure why) my last 12 games in a row have had Hecarim banned (first more often than not) and I don't get to play my favourite champion at ALL in a mode that's supposed to be fun. Hell, I wouldn't even mind if I could go in to a mode of the game that didn't have bans available! I'm more than up to playing against the other OP champions, I just want to go against them as someone I'm comfortable with playing rather than trying out a champion I don't play often because my main is banned and my other main champions aren't very well suited to the game mode.
