Can we talk about the pick & bans system?

Ramaman·10/4/2014, 8:23:29 PM·9 votes·1,819 views

I know there are a lot of posts about having more bans and such but I wanted to ask:

Have you considered changing the bans system? Do we need more bans for draft mode? Which problems would it bring to the health of the game if we had more bans? Are there any benefits from having, lets say... 8 bans?

The problems I can think off the top of my head could be:

-Champions never seeing play (some permabaned in solo q, pro players seeing their champion pools denied). -Long waiting times for the pick and ban fase.

I'd suggest to implement something like the Captain's Mode (Dota 2).

20 Comments

MrRado10/5/2014, 12:42:25 AM4 votes

The best response to this was from a Riot employee, whom I don't remember at the moment.

What it summed up to was that when you look at the number of bans, you have to consider the potential offensive use of them versus another player in competitive play after the initial bans based on side/comp strat.

Many pro players you see have a heavy preference to 2-3 champs. What happens is that the extra bans become less tactical decisions and would likely be used to target against a single player.

The negative result here is two-fold. For one, it really dampens the ability for a great player to shine if all of his/her champs are banned out and likely makes the game much less fun for them. Secondly, EVERY e-sport fan loves seeing great plays by people playing their best champs, and adding more bans reduces the chance of getting to see those types of plays.

Eawaf10/6/2014, 7:47:04 PM4 votes

The fact that there is a Tier list is the reason i would not only welcome an increase in the ban pool to 8, i would actually want to increase it to 10 champions banned total. Year after year the same champions and synergies seem to be abused over and over again. I'm getting really tired of the 'meta'. The number of champions that can be banned has not increased yet the number of champions in LoL has increased. To me this is an indication that while the game has changed for us(the common folk) over the years, the competitive team comps have stagnated and have not changed along with us. Just my opinion.

ValyrianBlade10/4/2014, 8:53:46 PM3 votes

Would take too long to establish a game, would raise the required number of champions to 20, and would make having last pick even worse than it is already is (don't like role and lose access to extra champions in that role). I see nothing wrong with 6 total bans...

JevelFaithful10/6/2014, 2:29:33 AM2 votes

I'll just say I've liked dota's pick/ban system since I saw it. But it's less needed in league as lanes are less about counters than in dota. I'm not sure it would really be a solution to the "it's too long" problem. At least not for the last pick who still has to wait for 3 pick and at least 6 basn.

Sailor Mint10/6/2014, 1:28:33 PM2 votes

If it ain't broken, don't fix it. Global champion pool has increased, the number of "meta" champions has not. And the definition of "OP" champions has gotten really silly. It used to be reserved for game warping champions, now it's used to describe any Tier 1 champions.

Spitemaster10/8/2014, 12:25:51 PM1 votes

I think that a good change for solo queue would be to have a 'blind ban' phase - each player bans a champion, the other team can't see what's being banned, and it ends up being up to 10 total bans. It would even be faster than the current banning system, everyone would feel like they're a part of the ban phase, and it would fulfill the goal of bans in solo queue better than the current system. The ranked teams bans should stay as they are, though.