State of Ryze: A Solution

-Ryze has the lowest overall win rate in the game. (42% from op.gg, 7 day average, all skill brackets) https://imgur.com/a/1dt79vI -Plat: 44% win rate -Diamond: 47% win rate -Even the pro's don't do well with him. 131 wins/164 losses = 44.3% win rate https://www.reddit.com/r/RyzeMains/comments/8kf2e8/ryze_as_of_right_now_in_pro_play/

It seems that champion balance is failing on 2 fronts. 1: Pro play still lacks champion diversity. On any given patch its usually the same champions played over and over and the other ~100 champs are mostly ignored. 2: Due to Riot balancing around the pro's (i.e. nerfing Ryze/Kalista/Azir into the ground) in an attempt to get diversity at the pro scene they create large imbalance for regular players.

It seems that Riot is trying the same thing they've been trying (buffs/nerfs & flattening of skill curves to minimize gap between regular players & pros). After 8 seasons of this not working well I think it's time to try something new.

Would Riot consider a variable number of lockout/bans for pro play? For example in a pro best-of series in the 1st game they get 10 bans but by the 5th game they get 50 bans (40 previous bans + 10 new). Or lockout champs that were previously played in the best-of series (possibly only for the winning team)? Doing something like this would force champion diversity on the pro’s (which I believe is the end goal of the attempts at pro play champion balance). Then you would be free to balance for us regular players without having to give champions the Ryze/Azir/Kalista treatment due to the pro's :P https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/general-discussion/EfZgmjKi-riot-an-idea-for-pro-play-champion-diversity-balance

I think it would be interesting. You'd get to see many more champions played. Crazy things may happen in later games after many lockouts/bans. Maybe all ADC's being banned out and you see mages or bruisers bot lane? Or peeling supports are banned and assassins run wild. Or all strong tanks are banned and bruisers take over. Maybe Teemo shows up in the LCS? Who knows... but I think we can all admit it would be more interesting than another game of vs.