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Best Bans by Tier in Each Region (Patch 6.8): A Statistical Analysis - Taric Edition

Aqua Dragon·4/26/2016, 6:02:37 PM·74 votes·7,343 views

The way people choose bans is based heavily in frustration, popular opinion, and potential power. But these often lead to inaccurate choices to maximize the chances of winning.

So Jonnyy9, warwickofwallst, and I decided to make www.bestbans.com to calculate a ban list for each tier solely based on winrate, pickrate, and banrate which is partially added to pickrate.

Nothing else.

As a rule of thumb, optimal ban strategy i.e. the strategy that maximizes your probability of winning is to ban champions that are both high win rate and high play rate. In reality, ban rate is not only a function of win rate and play rate, but also of perception of power, transparency of power, frustration, and risk-aversion. A few months ago when LeBlanc held the title of most banned, she was a suboptimal ban outside of Master/Challenger. Janna, statistically one of the best bans in the game, was banned in less than 1% of games."

> ~Riot Jules

The pictures are data from North America, Ranked. Data for any region may be found at the Best Bans website, and adjusted at the top right corner.

####These are what should be banned, not what are being banned.

####Ban rate is taken into account.

####Always look at your team's pre-picks when deciding a ban; some compositions handle particular champions better.

> Bronze

> Silver

> Gold

> Platinum

> Diamond

Full table of champions on www.bestbans.com

These pictures are only for NA. Data for most regions found on the site.

#Observations

Ekko was super dominant the previous patch. Ekko is still super dominant, being within the top 3 in four different tiers. But don't be fooled; the nerf hit hard. Ekko fell from having an Influence rating of 400 down to a much more reasonable (if overtuned) 150 Influence. Their adjusted pickrate was as high as 99% in Bronze, and now it's only 60%.

Taric meanwhile looks like they're the star hitter for this patch analysis. Taric takes a two two spot in three tiers, though Taric's overall influence begins to fall as elo increases. One problem may be in simply understanding what's happening; their particle effects are so shiny even I have trouble telling the ult is going out, let alone someone who may not scour every patch note. Taric has some incoming nerfs on the PBE so this won't last too long.

Soraka is among the top 4 champions of four tiers, making them continue their multi-patch streak of being one of the most consistent champions in the game. Soraka has PBE nerfs as well, doubly so because Grievous Wounds will be changed in the next patch which disappoints me since I hate GW from a design point. But disregard my grievances; it will likely tank Soraka's influence.

Fizz isn't quite in the top bans, but we're starting to see them appear among the top 12 in most tiers. With the Mage Rework right around the corner (MALZAHAR MAH BOI), all of whom are still extremely weak to close-range assassination, we may see Fizz take the top spot in the following patch.

Kindred isn't picked too much, but their winrate is extremely high, hovering around 55% when picked in Diamond. Interestingly, Kindred is a champion whose consistency scales very linearly with elo, or at least that was the case until recently. If the PBE Kindred nerfs go through, we may see their overall influence in every tier fall.

Zed meanwhile suffers the brunt of the banning when Fizz is likely more deserving. Zed's influence has only been falling and falling, being the least consistent champion in Bronze with a measly 46% winrate, and barely reaching 40 influence in Diamond. Despite this, their banrate is an enormous 50%. When Fizz inevitably rises, people will switch bans pretty fast.

Master Yi is still banned fairly often, but they don't even appear in the top 12 in any tier except once in Diamond. It takes people a while to catch up it seems.

Blitzcrank's ban rate continues to hover around 12% but has otherwise stopped rising. This might be because Soraka is banned in 57% of games anyway, which Blitzcrank rose up to handle. When the nerfs on Sorak hit, Blitz will likely go to a more dormant banrate again (sadly).

Malphite, Graves, Udyr, Maokai, Darius, and Nidalee all have banrates above 10%. Some of these were terrors in earlier patches, but some are notably interesting like Darius, who is unexpected.

The list is what should be banned, not what is being banned.

Because the list is based on averages, the list is most useful when you know very little about either team or know little about compositions. Influence is defined as: How many times you will lose to a champion per 10,000 games compared to the average.

As with any bans, you only get the true benefit by making sure your team isn't intending to play the banned champion. Otherwise, you are denying the enemy team AND your team the chance of playing a consistent power.

The list does not show what is good, strong, or overpowered. It is an evaluation of which champions are the most consistent. To be consistent is different from being strong or good. It means a champion has both a good winrate and a good pickrate so that, on average, you will lose to the champion more often than you win against them.

Many champions are considered strong because their potential power is very high (Azir) but if people can't tap into that strength, then even a strong champ is inconsistent.

Similarly, even champions considered manageable or decent (Blitzcrank) can have extreme consistency that makes them worthwhile to ban.

#Why use these suggestions?

It bears repeating that the list isn't intended to replace specific banning, but is rather intended for use in an information vacuum. You should largely follow the list when you have little understanding of compositions or don't know what champions either team is running, a fairly common occurrence.

####Legitimate reasons for circumventing these suggested bans:

  • The enemy can pick a champion that counters a composition your team has planned

  • You know for sure yourself or your team is playing a champion that counters a suggested ban Zed isn't so scary when you know Malzahar is on your team

  • There's a high chance the enemy team has a champion specialist who will be much weaker if their primary champion is banned

####Reasons to circumvent bans that are not legitimate:

  • Because a champion is "overpowered." Bans should not be based on a champion's strength, but on their win consistency. Even if Tahm Kench could theoretically win 100% of the time with perfect play, that situation is so rare that it doesn't change that Kench wins only 46% of the time on average. Winrate reflects consistency, not strength.

  • Because your teammates will be annoyed. Let’s assume that your teammates get ticked off every time Tahm Kench is picked by the enemies. Even with this “buff” caused by annoyed teammates, Kench still only wins 46% of the time. Let your teammates be annoyed; avoiding the ban is still likely the most statistically advantageous chance of success. Reconsider only if it not banning a champion is very likely to put a teammate on extreme tilt.

  • Because a champion is annoying to fight. As annoying as certain champions are, if you're trying to maximize your winrate then it's still not a smart idea to ban them simply for being obnoxious. Most obnoxious champions have crippling weaknesses that cause their winrates and/or pickrates to be fairly low. Only if the frustration a champion causes is significant enough to impact your winrate should it even be a consideration.

  • Because you want to ban champions from your own team. If your teammate pre-picks a champion, you can always look up your own teammates and see if their history on the champion defies the average. If your teammate doesn't pre-pick, then you deny the enemy team the same chance of picking the banned champion which will work in your favor regardless. ...also, the champions you think you should be banning from your own team Yasuo, Vayne, Zed, new champions aren't the right choices anyway.

#Methodology

All information is compiled over a four day average from op.gg. In specific regions, Lolking provides more accurate pickrate data per tier, and data is used from Lolking in those instances. The data is calculated every day around midnight GMT-7.

Influence is defined as: How many times you will lose to a champion per 1000 games compared to the average.

The Influence calculation is done as follows:

10,000 * (WR - 50%) * (PR / (100% - BR)

Thanks for reading! I hope you will find this useful.

107 Comments

kile1474/26/2016, 9:29:41 PM22 votes

The reason Darius is banned is because he is a hard lane counter. If you get countered by Fizz as a Mage you generally can stay way back and soak up some xp and gold. If you get countered by Darius as a melee you can either leave lane or die, and if you die more than twice then jungle coming to help wiil only give him more kills. That doesn't mean he doesn't have some very glaring weaknesses that a team can exploit to beat him, but almost more than any other champ Darius makes the game unplayable for a subset of champs so you have to ban him if you want to play them.

Nekusen4/27/2016, 12:32:39 AM7 votes

who bans Zyra ??!!

SCSU Genius4/26/2016, 8:13:42 PM7 votes

Wow please post more, two incredibly useful and well formatted threads about topics that usually are driven by salt and babyrage. Both this and the post about randomness in the new dragons were fascinating reads, and both were written like professional articles. What a breath of fresh air to read enlightening articles with factual claims supported by reasonable and logical observations and data, as opposed to opinionated claims supported by swear words and bad spelling, all in a block of text that nobody wants to read. +1 [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

thumbnail94/26/2016, 10:11:35 PM6 votes

Hilarious to see amumu grow as it gets closer to bronze.

BestTristMyHaus4/26/2016, 7:56:30 PM5 votes

Interesting to note that in Bronze only 1 of the top 4 is a traditional support (and that one is probably mainly because Taric is recently reworked) but in the range from Silver to Plat, 3 of the top 4 are Supports.

LankPants4/27/2016, 12:32:56 AM5 votes

You know, I'm going to keep banning Zed because I value my sanity, I don't really give a fuck what this guy says. Also Zed has a winrate of around 50% at all ranks, 46% is complete BS.

ARequestOfDeath4/27/2016, 12:01:17 AM5 votes

you that guy who mains ad malzahar jungle?

Kasyrgan4/27/2016, 12:42:19 AM4 votes

So basically... if I want to win in lower ELO, then I have to be a racist homophobe.

OF COURSE!

HOW DID I NOT SEE THIS BEFORE!

Just ban Ekko and Taric from every event and gathering!

Abyssphere4/26/2016, 6:16:15 PM3 votes

Just curious: why the consistent use of gender-neutral pronouns for every champion? Reading "they" for everyone from Ekko to Soraka is a bit off-putting.

More relevant: Great stuff. I always enjoy getting a reminder of what's wise when reading these, and it's especially good to be reminded that people like Volibear can majorly influence games despite seeming "nooby".

Slythion4/26/2016, 6:31:52 PM3 votes

This is incredible, thank you OP :)

A few things though:

Zed meanwhile suffers the brunt of the banning when Fizz is likely more deserving. Zed's influence has only been falling and falling, being the least consistent champion in Bronze with a measly 46% winrate, and barely reaching 40 influence in Diamond. Despite this, their banrate is an enormous 50%.

Zed's falling consistency can be explained because players can't play him with that enormous ban rate, it's tough to do well on a champion no one gets to play, no matter how hated he is by the community. It will most likely rise for a short time after the qss nerfs (until riot finds a way to compensate) which you should probably mention in the post

Taric meanwhile looks like they're the star hitter for this patch analysis. Taric takes a two two spot in three tiers, though Taric's overall influence begins to fall as elo increases. One problem may be in simply understanding what's happening; their particle effects are so shiny even I have trouble telling the ult is going out, let alone someone who may not scour every patch note. Taric has some incoming nerfs on the PBE so this won't last too long.

As for being a new champion packed full with loads of utility, it's not surprising that he is a top tier pick. It takes time for the community to adjust to reacting to new champions, especially when their strong points comes to utility that requires more foresight than the traditional damage kit from champions. Personally, I think he could use a slight adjustment nerf for fine tuning, but his reliability will likely fall (at least slightly) if given time for the community to learn him. Illaoi is a prime example of this

All information is compiled over a four day average from op.gg. In specific regions, Lolking provides more accurate pickrate data per tier, and data is used from Lolking in those instances.

I'm curious, did you ever consider using champion.gg in stead of lolking? I was always under the impressing that champion.gg was more reliable/accurate than lolking. Or did you mean that you use champion.gg as well as lolking when you said "all information is compiled over a four day average from op.gg".

Also, what are the chances that you could expand the average to be 7 days? I feel like a week-long period would be more accurate as some players can only play on weekends or weekdays and whatnot, that way you are not only getting more data, but more data from a wider range of players.

Edit: May I suggest adding a "worst bans" element to the website to show what champions you have success against as well as the champions you don't have success at. It would provide more utility for your website as well as help with the whole "look at all these champions that you suck against" feeling :3

Overall I love this post man, thanks for providing the website I'm sure I'll be using it more

Handin Out Naps4/27/2016, 1:07:22 AM2 votes

It's funny watching people get triggered the second you mention Zed, but still pretty cool to see you posting on the boards. I usually end up reading most of your posts on reddit, very informative :).

Very Hard Engage4/26/2016, 7:09:52 PM2 votes

"zeds influence" makes no reference to pick rate, win rate, or win percentages against all other midlaners.

Linna Excel4/26/2016, 6:29:07 PM2 votes

I looked at your personalized ban list. It is interesting and I'm not sure what to say about it because it feels like a list of things you need to learn to play against and you shouldn't ban them straight out.

Master Yi is still banned fairly often, but they don't even appear in the top 12 in any tier. It takes people a while to catch up it seems.

I'm surprised he didn't make your bronze list only because he's easy to play and has that hard carry potential.

SeaWyrm4/27/2016, 10:50:48 PM2 votes

Ah! Rigor! You are an awesome person for posting this. Doubly so for explicitly pointing out that the data doesn't take into account someone's specific circumstances/team composition.

Also, I approve of your name.

On the website, however, I found a bug: I have no ranked games. When I tried to get personalized recommendations, (having missed the part that says they're based on ranked history,) I got an ugly error message informing me that it is difficult to find the size of a null object. My first assumption was that the website was just broken. I figured it out eventually, but I might not have. So you probably want to check for that in the code and display a friendlier message.

SSShutTheDuckUp4/27/2016, 3:09:22 PM2 votes

A neat idea, however I play the game for fun, so I ban the champs, who make the game not fun for me coughZed cough.

I am sure, in many cases on paper there would be better bans. And I know, I am biased. But there is something more - the very existence of enemy Zed is irritating, so with him in the game chances are that I will perform worse.

I do not want to sound like a hater. Good work and good luck with your idea.

ItzBongoz4/27/2016, 10:44:11 PM2 votes

Trying to nominate you for the API challenge

Raoul4/26/2016, 7:59:06 PM1 votes

WTF, why is Taric baned so much? He isnt even in the top 5 of support champions...