Design or DIE! : Game here. Create a "Standard Format" for League.

Let's suppose that Riot hires you to be their new balance director and they throw you into an electrical chair, and give you this ultimatum:

Choose twenty champions to give away to all new players. Free. They have to be a well balanced group, they have to cover all the bases, and all 5 common roles have to be equally represented. (so, 4 adc, 4 support, 4 jungle, etc. champs with dual roles are fine)

But also, you have to shave the roster down to 100 champions. You have to pick 36 old champions who get rotated out of standard and can't be played in the upcoming season. New (and reworked) champs get added to the roster and you don't have to worry about them. (we're counting the new pair of champs as part of the roster, they have to stay) [there would obviously be a "vintage" or "open" format where they'd be playable but ranked and the LCS and such would use standard play roster]

You have one post to give your list of the 20 free roster champs, and the 35 champions other than Ryze who get rotated out. C'mon, it was a given he'd be on the list.

Phreak has his hand on the switch, if Rito is displeased, well, it was nice knowing you. GO.

(since I'm first by the rules of all threads of this type, I gotta put my list down)

For the twenty champs that would be free:

ADC: Sivir - phenomenal waveclear and a great utility ult for group fights, great for new players to learn how to contribute to a team strategy Lucian - lots of mobility, to show new players how much it matters. Caitlyn - long range poke and some ability to ward bushes with traps, new players need to learn how to play around that Ashe - well rounded champ with powerful engage and kiting abilities but lacking mobility.

Mage: Veigar - a great intro to infinitely stacking abilities and a strong mage duelist. Has been a strong flex pick. Annie - very easy to pick up and play but also a powerful flex pick - new players could use a primer in that category. Karthus - A very tempting ultimate that has a lot of counters - something you need to learn about. Strong and relevant, if just shy of competitive. Katarina - An assassin to round out the mid candidates. Shows the power of being able to escape after ganking. Very high skill cap (now).

Top: Maokai - Strong AP based tank, nearly always relevant even in pro play due to his useful kit. Encourages enemies to split up - easily exploitable! Sion - Strong AD based tank, not as strong now but very close to pro level. Powerful cross map engage, passive punishes foes who stick around to gloat. Fiora - Strong AD based carry, powerful duelist, very different top lane experience. Lissandra - Strong AP carry, powerful engage/disengage, decent waveclear. Flex pick for mid.

Jungle: Hecarim - Strong AD based carry jungler, great early game, introduces a build around me concept for a stat new players might not understand the value of. Gragas - Strong AP based carry/tank jungler, can be frontline with engage or a powerful assassin. very flexible jungle pick, can even flex lanes too. Elise - built from the ground up to be a Jungler assassin. powerful engage and gank and disengage. One of the transformers (starts with R). Can be tanky. Diana - Can be AD or AP but stronger as AP. At her best when building to assassinate. Very focused on damage. Simple and elegant.

Support: Soraka - Powerful heals, clearly focused toward support and challenging to manage health bars for new players but a great if simple learning experience. Taric - Fabulously flashy ultimate shows the value of timing and grouping and his abilities are great for teaching positioning. Sona - Very simple and easy to learn and play kit, shows the value of knowing when to spam and harshly punishes bad positioning, for you and them. Blitzcrank - The right hook at the right time wins games. Greatly encourages coordination, the most valuable support skill.

For the 36 champs to rotate out: Ryze, Tryndamere, Olaf, Nunu, Teemo, Volibear, Xin Zhao, Lux, Amumu, Azir, Evelynn (though post rework she'd be back), Draven, Irelia, Heimerdinger, Jax, Kalista, Karma, Kassadin, Kayle, Lee Sin, Malphite, Mordekaiser, Nasus, ...damn this is getting hard... Shen, Singed, Taliyah, Twisted Fate, Urgot, Udyr, Vayne, Yasuo, Zac, Anivia, Zilean.

Random sampling of explanations: Ryze - always broken. Either a must ban or a troll pick. Never balanced, after 4 reworks, seriously just put him out of his misery. Lee Sin - too generic of a pick, always relevant in every teamcomp, no commitment at all to a team strategy. literally the standard, default champion. has no counter because he counters nothing. Taliyah - very recent but either a must ban or a troll pick. has definite early onset Ryze syndrome. Kalista - I love her but she was too disruptive on release to the meta and you nerfed her into oblivion. she'd only work if the entire roster was shifted away from the standard meta. Vayne - either a must play must ban or nerfed into oblivion (currently as such). invisibility and a stun on a champ that's supposed to build sustained damage? what's with the huge crits? either too strong or too weak because otherwise she'd be too strong. too razor thin an edge to balance, debatably no edge at all. Most champs in this list are only guilty of me liking them least, I love nearly every champ in this game. I'm probably guilty of carving too many champs out of a lane.

I had originally considered splitting this into two games, but I think it's more challenging with both in one.

How bad did I do in your opinion? What's your verdict? Do I get electrocuted, or does Rito hand me another challenge and throw me back in the chair tomorrow?