Why is there no punishment for banning your teams pick?

zaptheimpaler·Jun 25, 2018·3 votes·2,016 views

I just played with a d***head who banned my pick (and I was first pick!). When i asked him why throughout champ select and the game, he did not respond at all. In fact, my team started blaming me for being a crybaby!!

I've seen this happen multiple times. Why isn't Riot clearer about the fact that this is a reportable offence? It doesn't even show up in the list of reasons to report someone, and it seems like players will happily blame the victim instead of the offender because of that.

There is NO recourse to being screwed over in this way. No reports, its your fault if you dodge, etc etc.. No punishment for the offender. WTF??

So what is Riots policy on this? Why is intentionally screwing your teammate not punished? If it is punished, it should be clarified so people know its not something you can get away with.

23 Comments

ModThe DjinnJun 25, 20188 votes

Banning your team's pick is NOT a reportable offense, because they had to pick a side, and both sides have downsides.

If you CAN'T ban a teammate's pick, you can troll by giving priority picks to the enemy team. This is potentially really detrimental if there's one or two characters who are super hotly contested.
If you CAN ban a teammate's pick, you can troll by banning their pick (obviously).

The reason they settled on the latter model being preferable, in my opinion, is that the former also creates a situation where someone could end up forced to play against their least favorite match-up, or with their least-favorite allied champion, whereas in the latter case a player still gets to play their number TWO choice. Going from #1 to #2 seems much preferable to making someone play with or against their LEAST favorite option.

zaptheimpalerJun 25, 20181 votes

[{quoted}](name=The Djinn,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=EmrXhNgn,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2018-06-25T18:37:40.813+0000)

Banning your team's pick is NOT a reportable offense, because they had to pick a side, and both sides have downsides.

If you CAN'T ban a teammate's pick, you can troll by giving priority picks to the enemy team. This is potentially really detrimental if there's one or two characters who are super hotly contested.

If you CAN ban a teammate's pick, you can troll by banning their pick (obviously).

The reason they settled on the latter model being preferable, in my opinion, is that the former also creates a situation where someone could end up forced to play against their least favorite match-up, or with their least-favorite allied champion, whereas in the latter case a player still gets to play their number TWO choice. Going from #1 to #2 seems much preferable to making someone play with or against their LEAST favorite option.

Option 1 seems a whole lot better to me.

First of all, there are plenty of priority picks in every meta and banning or not banning ONE is not going to make huge difference. Especially given you're shooting in the dark, you have no idea who the other team considers priority picks.

Versus banning your teammates picks, which could potentially be the only champion they know how to play well can destroy your team.

I mean by your logic, every time I see someone choose to ban "None", I should report them for "trolling" and not banning a priority pick or counter?

ModThe DjinnJun 25, 20184 votes

{quoted}Option 1 seems a whole lot better to me.

Option 1 seems better to some people, option 2 seems better to others. There are good arguments for both, and I promise you Riot looked through all the reasons before deciding on one.

I mean by your logic, every time I see someone choose to ban "None", I should report them for "trolling" and not banning a priority pick or counter?

Nope. Banning isn't something you HAVE to do, just like declaring a pick isn't something you have to do. It's a way to let players decide something they don't want to have in their in-game experience, that comes at the downside of having something that CAN be used to troll your allies -- but the alternative could ALSO be used to troll your allies, so really it's just the solution Riot picked from two non-ideal options.

zaptheimpalerJun 25, 20181 votes

Thank you for responding. I can understand that both options can be used to troll your team, and Riot had to pick one.

But in this specific case, because I was first pick, and I picked Nocturne (priority pick this meta), there is no question that it was used to troll me. It feels shitty to have you telling me its still my fault.

ModThe DjinnJun 25, 20183 votes

{quoted}But in this specific case, because I was first pick, and I picked Nocturne (priority pick this meta), there is no question that it was used to troll me. It feels shitty to have you telling me its still my fault.

I'm not saying it's your fault at all, and I'm not sure where that's coming from. All I'm saying is that he's allowed to ban what he wants, and that it's a frustrating reality that sometimes people use the system to be jerks. That sort of person will find a way to troll no matter what the system is.

AneirinJun 25, 20181 votes

Nowhere in either of his posts has he said anything is your fault.

BigBellBruteJun 25, 20185 votes

Because it's allowed and not a reportable offense. Everyone has the right to ban anyone they want. And if you're wanting an op champ to the point of being broken and I see you're pick 5 and you've made no arrangements for a pick and trade, poof. Buh bye op champ. I'm not screwing you by doing it. I'm helping you because unless you've made arrangements for a pick and trade, you're likely not getting it anyway. The other team is.

zaptheimpalerJun 25, 20182 votes

I can see the logic for pick 5, but as I said, I was FIRST pick across all 10 players. Zero chance of that happening.

DrCyanideJun 25, 20183 votes

In your specific case, you're right, you would have gotten it. However, making an exception for 1/10 players doesn't feel like the right course of action.

Quiet DudeJun 25, 20183 votes

{quoted}

I just played with a d***head who banned my pick (and I was first pick!). When i asked him why throughout champ select and the game, he did not respond at all. In fact, my team started blaming me for being a crybaby!!

Bro I wouldn’t have responded to you either. You’re not entitled to a response from your team mates for their ban pick reasonings.

HalcyonDwellerJun 25, 20183 votes

I would have reported them for refusing to communicate. People ought to at least provide a reason when they do something like that, especially when you're first pick and there's no way the opponents could get it.

zPOOPzJun 26, 20182 votes

can you point me to where this mythical "refusing to communicate" report option is? No one is forced to tell you their reasoning since ban > pick is the system we have. It is a courtesy to provide you with a reason, nothing more.

HalcyonDwellerJun 26, 20181 votes

Notice that I didn't say I'd report them for banning a teammate's hover. That's valid, if reasons are given and it's not done to troll the target. I said I'd report them for not communicating.

It's their champion choice. It's basic decency, people deserve to have agency over who they play, if you choose to take that away from them then you owe it to them to give them a reason. If they don't listen to that reason then that's their problem, but you owe them at least that much.

Last I checked, there's a report option for being uncommunicative. You can find it whenever you play after the match, just click report next to someone's name and you can see all the checkable options.

zPOOPzJun 26, 20181 votes

Banning a champ is a personal choice just like picking a champ to play. No one needs to give you a reason for banning or picking a particular champ just like you don't have to give anyone a reason when it is your turn. To think it is even reportable and especially punishable is laughable.

While I can agree providing a reason when asked is a decent thing to do to help with team cohesion, you took it a little too far to think it's reportable/punishable if no reason is given.

HalcyonDwellerJun 26, 20182 votes

Alright fair enough. I guess I feel/felt that way because when no good reason is apparent, teamwork problems are bound to occur. It seems unreasonable to me to go and do something like that when the person would have got the champion and the enemy team wouldn't. I get that I reacted harshly though and I'm sorry for that.

zPOOPzJun 26, 20183 votes

I guess I did overacted myself too and I'm sorry for that as well.

The thing is that to say no reason given is reportable/punishable implied that the reason given must be valid (or you get "because I want to"). Otherwise it would be reportable/punishable. Then we get into what makes a reason valid and how do people lie to make it valid?

HalcyonDwellerJun 26, 20182 votes

Thanks for being so reasonable about the stuff, you helped me to notice my own mistake by not just attacking me for it.

Haha you're right, that's quite the rabbit hole that runs pretty deep. Definitely points worth discussing before passing judgement about such a case.

TotalwanabeJun 25, 20182 votes

learn to play every champion you own with equal skill instead of being a crybaby

AJStarhikerJun 25, 20182 votes

{quoted}

learn to play every champion you own with equal skill instead of being a crybaby

Come back and say that with a straight face when you own more than twenty champions.

TotalwanabeJun 25, 20181 votes

{quoted}

Come back and say that with a straight face when you own more than twenty champions.

sorry can't bypass the cap they would need to add 20 more new champion

mlm olo mlmJun 26, 20182 votes

When the pick intention first came out, people would upvote threads like yours. As time went on, the popularity faded.

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/player-behavior-moderation/rhOj9PwI-so-tired-of-my-champion-being-banned-by-my-own-team-mates

I don't want to get super deep into the subject. However, refusing to be versatile with your champion picks is not creating a positive team environment.