Riot speaks on whether it will add more bans to champ select

William Davis Published 26/02/2021

Getting more bans in champion select is in high demand among some League of Legends players as the game grows bigger, and Riot has decided to address the matter.

In a recent Ask Riot blog, Riot gave an answer to why there hasn’t been added even more bans to champion select and why it’s unlikely that players will see it in the near future. Riot previously changed the champion select from six to 10 bans in total, but it’s not looking like the game creator will go any further than that. The reason is simple, as more bans will bring more negatives than positives to the game experience, according to game design director Mark “Scruffy” Yetter.

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Will Riot add more bans to LoL champion select?

For Riot to change the ban phase in champion select once again, they are looking at the pros and cons. As the game is right now, it seems that Riot is seeing “more overall drawbacks than gains.” To elaborate further, Riot provided a list of pros and cons.

While there were a few upsides such as giving more agency and control over bad matchups and adding more strategy to building a team’s composition, the list of apparent downsides was bigger.

For the downsides, Scruffy pointed out that the complexity and duration of the champion select would see a significant increase. This would only add to the already long draft phase in the game, making players wait longer to hit Summoner’s Rift every time they queue up.

The next big worry about increasing the bans would be the effect on new players. New players often find comfort in a select few champions, which could be punished more heavily with more bans. There would be situations where specific champions would end up in a permanently banned state because they’re considered annoying to play against. Riot wants to keep the banning phase reserved for the strongest champions in the games.

Last but not least, Scuffy explained that specific positions or champion classes could be completely banned out in some cases. It’s clear that it would be bad for the game if a specific class gets heavily banned out during champion select.

Looking at Riot’s answer, it seems very unlikely that fans will see more bans being added to the champion select in the near future, even though Riot will continue to evaluate the matter.

“Increasing the number of bans in League today feels more heavily weighted towards the negatives,” Scuffy said. “But like everything, we will continue to reevaluate and our opinion may change in the future.”

LoL champion select

What is champion select in LoL?

The champion select in League of Legends is where players lock in their champion for the game, choose Summoner Spells, and set up runes. Champion select is essentially the start of every game since a lot can be won or lost during it. Picking and banning the right champions can be crucial for the outcome of the game, because this is where the team composition is built.

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