Banning Your Team's Preselected Champion

KatarinaStory·Jan 21, 2018·10 votes·3,729 views

Unfortunately, this event has happened more and more recently, and its to the point where I am losing interest in the game. This is frustrating because:

1.) I enjoy the game in my downtime, and is my primary means of relaxation while I work full-time and complete my masters; and 2.) I've spent well north of $1k on the game since I started playing, and while I'm fine with that as long as I'm playing, if I leave the game it becomes a wasted investment;

In the pregame lobby, multiple times, I will preselect a champ. Then, a teammate will ban it for whatever reason. I'm not sure why this is allowed, and is not a punishable offense. This mechanic essentially is the equivalent to letting someone else control my gaming experience.

Now, this is not a criticism of the banning mechanic in general. I appreciate it as I believe it adds variability to the game. Also, as Riot is constantly adjusting gameplay, the banning system helps keep in check the unavoidable occurrence where some champions will become too powerful as a result of changes. Again, I think it's great that Riot maintains the game this way, and am more than happy to see the benefits it provides.

My frustrations are the direct result of how **being able to ban your own team's preselected champion allows for negative players to negatively impact the game. **

Now, it is never good to fight fire with fire, nor am I saying my actions are justified. But just the other day I purchased the new vayne skin and wanted to play her. 2x back to back my own team banned her after I preselected her. I got to play one match with her after those 2, then again my own team banned her after I preselected her. So, I got upset and started asking why, and complaining to everyone else in hopes to have that player reported. Instead, I was reported and punished with a chat ban, as well as losing my honor.

So, a mechanic that allows people with malicious intentions to harass other players is ruining my gaming experience consistently enough to where I'm considering leaving League until it is dealt with.

My other option is to exit queue. One exit is a 5 min penalty, with the next 30 minutes. Since each match takes roughly an hour and change, considering the time to find the match and choose champions, I am faced with the two following options when my own team bans my champ:

-Play anyway, despite the fact that someone is actively and visible harassing me -Exit queue and take a penalty that becomes 30 minutes the second time it happens in (24 hours?) a specific time frame.

RESOLUTION

I think an excellent way to address this is by removing the ability for my own team to ban my preselected champ. If the opponent bans it, that is fine. It's part of the game. However, any time my own team bans my preselected champ, it is done in order to harass, troll, and cause a negative gaming experience.

COUNTER-ARGUMENTS

What if I don't want to play against a champ even IF my teammate selects it? By taking away my ability to ban my own teams champs, I would be forced to possibly have the enemy team get the pick before my team, and have to play against the champ anyway.

While I can understand this concern, I don't think the organic reason to having bans supports this argument enough to warrant the problem it allows (i.e. for trolls to harass others).

10 Comments

MatthewRT2Jan 21, 20182 votes

I'm sorry but unless you are first pick i'm banning any champ i dont want to deal with like zoe or vayne

KatarinaStoryJan 21, 20183 votes

So you would rather actively ban the champ your teammate has selected, which is a certain 100% thing, than possibly encounter a champ on the other team?

DarthNocturnisJan 21, 20181 votes

Sometimes.... As an example, when a new champ comes out. In that case, unless the new champ player is first pick, I would definitely ban.

FOR JUSTICEJan 21, 20181 votes

actually yeah. in the event of overtuned people running around, if you aren't first pick, you shouldn't expect to play such a high demand champ

Butt ΡlugJan 21, 20182 votes

Well, the fact that one of your ally can ban it is part of the game too, maybe you're last pick, nobody can pick your champ for you and someone is afraid that the enemy team might pick it. ( for something like Vayne atm i might consider doing it in this situation, it's a perfectly valid strategy. )

Something like Zoe for example was nearly banned every time when she was released, even if someone declared her, because people didn't want unexperienced zoe players in ranked.

Just don't declare your champion if you wanna avoid trolls, why are you declaring it in the first place ? I mean often people just don't declare their champ and it's fine. ( because it's often way more effective to pick something as a counter pick rather than just wanna play X champion from the start )

It shouldn't be that big of a deal usually it's a good idea to be comfortable on about 3 champions per roles.

DeathboundFeb 20, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Well, the fact that one of your ally can ban it is part of the game too, maybe you're last pick, nobody can pick your champ for you and someone is afraid that the enemy team might pick it. ( for something like Vayne atm i might consider doing it in this situation, it's a perfectly valid strategy. )

Something like Zoe for example was nearly banned every time when she was released, even if someone declared her, because people didn't want unexperienced zoe players in ranked.

Just don't declare your champion if you wanna avoid trolls, why are you declaring it in the first place ? I mean often people just don't declare their champ and it's fine. ( because it's often way more effective to pick something as a counter pick rather than just wanna play X champion from the start )

It shouldn't be that big of a deal usually it's a good idea to be comfortable on about 3 champions per roles.

Completely agree with OP, it's stupid that you can ban your teammates, and even more stupid that I have to sit in timeout for 5m, because if it was intentional, then that player is probably a dbag or troll, and if it was an accident, they're probably an idiot, either way I don't want to play with them, let alone being tilted by not getting to play the champion I wanted to, because some blue falcon on my team banned it, before the match even starts. I can sort of understand it with a pick or ban champion and they aren't first pick. But some idiot on my team just banned my Annivia, and hardly anyone even plays her, claimed it was an accident, which I doubt, since she is rarely played, and even more rarely banned, and I had her pre-selected. As for not declaring, I can't fathom you are even asking why...Team comps are hugely important, that's why pre-selection exists, so the team can try to synergize. And more often than not counter pick isn't an option, because I almost never seem to get last, or even 2nd to last pick. Simple fix would be to remove ability to ban champions your team has pre-selected, seems like a no-brainer to me.

HerFeatherKnightApr 19, 20182 votes

I agree with the OP, one strategy a lot of people have for scaling out of bronze is one-tricking a champion (Professor Akali).

The problem with not hovering your one-trick in a ranked game, is that some players on your team might ban that champion, unaware that you wanted to play it.

The problem with hovering it, is that sometimes you'll have douche bags ban your champion BECAUSE you selected it.

If someone is trying to play an off meta pick for a lane, I think a teammate banning it is fine. But it really is griefing at some point if you're banning a legit champ for that lane for no valid reason.

VageneAndBøbsJan 19, 20192 votes

Just got some dickheads screwing us over and costing us the match by banning our adc/sup champs. (They where pre-mades) Should just remove to ban champs ur own team selects they want to play.

(Just saw post date, sorry for Necro)