10 Bans being blind pick will lead to VERY stale metas
I am posting it here in hopes there are more who agree with this sentiment. 10 bans is coming (god bless) and its a GOOD THING. we do not want longer draft phases, however, so riot has made it all blind bans at the start of the game. with there being the possibility for duplicate bans. This will never work effectively to help us in solo queue, and here's why:
1.) Every patch there will almost always be something that is either broken, hideously op, or just flat out better than everything else in its respective role. Think release camille, rework sejuani, or on a lesser scale graves in some recent patches in the jungle, Caitlyn/Lucian, etc.
2.) If both sides want to play the OPs that means neither side will ban them (sometimes people ban from teammates, but not often enough to take note of). In this scenario this results in a meta where every game has the same champions in it. The OPs will be picked every game OR one side will always be forced to ban the ops giving them a distinct disadvantage and ruining the entire idea of 10 bans.
3.) If neither side wants to play the OPs due to a meta developing where you just ban them rather than risk them getting to the other team, then that means we still get a very stale meta. this means each side bans the ops wasting 2/3 bans on EACH side meaning there are less bans overall than before! if there are 3 popular bans that means there are now only 4 bans for unique picks. And that also means A+/A- tier champions (those just below the OPs and S tier) will be picked in almost every game since there will be less bans to target at those as unique bans by the players.
the point of 10 bans is to give every player agency over the ban phase. All this is gonna do is frustrate people as the OPs will always exist (no way league achieves perfect balance and thats ok) and create a lot of arguments over who is going to waste their bans on the OPs. who gets to actually ban for their lane phase? jungle counter? annoying hated picks like yasuo/lee sin/riven?
I think the idea was good to increase bans, the idea to shorten the ban phase by speeding it up was a good idea. making picks blind was not good. Here's my alternative suggestions:
First two players ban two champs blind at same time. (first team, first phase) First two players ban two champs blind at same time after. (second team, first phase)
Last 3 players ban three champs blind at same time (first/second team, second phase) Last 3 players ban three champs blind at same time (first/second team, second phase)
so basically you get two picks blind, then the other team gets two picks blind to counter. If first team doesnt ban OPs in first rotation, the enemy can counter and ban them, themselves, or risk them either being double banned/getting through in second phase where both teams ban 3 on each side at the same time blind.
This is still faster than current ban phase, but not overly short at the expense of stale metas developing like the upcoming 10 bans will be if left unchanged.