Making Picks and Bans Interesting

by Jerrod "Thousand Eyes" Steis

The first four weeks of the LCS are under wraps and this season has shown a huge improvement in the pick/ban phase from both the perspective of teams and from the overall balance of the game. Where we used to see the same bans and consequently the same picks throughout the season, we’re now seeing some mind games being played, leaving strong picks open in order to counter them. We’re also seeing a few stylistic choices being made depending on the team.

First off, if we want to look at how things have changed we have to make sure we understand where we came from. If we look at the statistics Kassadin was a permabanned champion in both NA and EU during the 2014 season. He was picked or banned in 92.2% and 98.2% of games respectively. Far and away he was the most feared champion all of Season 4. People just didn't know how to beat him. He could be shut down in lane and still scale incredibly well into the late game. In fact the closest champs to him in bans had 53 in NA (compared to 90) and 41 in EU (compared to 101).

Another group of consistent picks or bans was the trio of Evelynn, Elise and Lee Sin in jungle. Lee Sin was easily the number one jungle pick/ban, but while NA was more adamant about Elise, EU focused more on Evelynn. Regardless, no other jungler was even above 21% in either region. Meaning you saw one, or most likely two, of these three in almost every single game in Season 4. Other notable champions with high pick/ban ratios were Ziggs, Lucian, Thresh and Morgana.

When you look at the ADC position, Lucian was the clear dominant champion throughout the season. He was picked or banned in over 60% of games in both leagues. No other ADC stood the test of time like he did. Outside of Lucian we saw the other ADCs all get some time in the spotlight with Twitch and Kog’Maw getting the most of it.

Overall, if we look at the top 16 champions from both regions, enough to cover an entire pick/ban phase, we can see that these 16 champs were all selected in over 40% of the games over the entire season.

NA Pick/Ban

Champion	Bans	Picks	Wins	Losses	Win %	Picked/Banned in % of Games	Primary Role	Secondary Role
Elise	28	78	45	33	57.7	94.6	Jung
Kassadin	90	14	7	7	50	92.9	Mid	Top
Lulu	53	51	28	23	54.9	92.9	Mid	Top
Lee Sin	46	52	30	22	57.7	87.5	Jung
Thresh	15	60	30	30	50	67	Support
Braum	28	46	29	17	63	66.1	Support
Morgana	16	57	25	32	43.9	65.2	Support
Lucian	15	54	30	24	55.6	61.6	ADC
Yasuo	42	26	16	10	61.5	60.7	Mid
Evelynn	28	31	15	16	48.4	52.7	Jung
Kog'Maw	19	36	17	19	47.2	49.1	ADC
Ziggs	32	22	9	13	40.9	48.2	Mid
Jax	29	25	9	16	36	48.2	Top
Tristana	17	33	20	13	60.6	44.6	ADC	Mid
Twitch	20	27	13	14	48.1	42	ADC
Orianna	6	40	16	24	40	41.1	Mid

EU Pick/Ban

Champion	Bans	Picks	Wins	Losses	Win %	Picked/Banned in % of Games	Primary Role	Secondary Role
Kassadin	101	9	7	2	77.8	98.2	Mid	Top
Lee Sin	28	69	34	35	49.3	86.6	Jung
Evelynn	38	47	24	23	51.1	75.9	Jung
Lucian	5	74	38	36	51.4	70.5	ADC
Elise	16	59	32	27	54.2	67	Jung
Ziggs	39	34	16	18	47.1	65.2	Mid
Thresh	11	61	33	28	54.1	64.3	Support
Morgana	16	49	32	17	65.3	58	Support
Jax	41	24	9	15	37.5	58	Top
Twisted Fate	40	23	11	12	47.8	56.3	Mid
Lulu	19	38	20	18	52.6	50.9	Mid	Top
Kayle	38	19	13	6	68.4	50.9	Top	Mid
Twitch	32	24	14	10	58.3	50	ADC
Yasuo	37	17	7	10	41.2	48.2	Mid
Orianna	25	23	10	13	43.5	42.9	Mid
Braum	14	31	14	17	45.2	40.2	Support

Combine this with the fact that both regions only had 2 of these 16 spots taken by champions unique to that region (Kog’Maw and Tristana in NA replaced by Twisted Fate and Kayle in EU). Throughout all of the meta changes that we saw covering the entire season, these 16 champs dominated the scene.

Now looking at this season, NA drops below 40% pick/ban at the 17th champion mark, Azir. This is already an improvement. Keep in mind this is before we see any large meta shifts to bring in other champions. It gets even better when you look at EU. To break below our 40% threshold we would have to go down to the 21st champion in the list which is Lulu.

Another stat to look at is the total number of champs played in both years. In the 2014 Summer Split we had 67 champions selected in the pick/ban phase. In the 2015 Spring Split we've already hit 49 in NA and 51 in EU. Diversity is most definitely up this year.

What I’d really love to go into more depth with, though, is the process of picks and bans and how that’s changed this year.

Last year we saw Kassadin permabanned through the entire season. This almost felt like one team was almost always down a ban, because you just could not let him through. He would be first picked by the blue side team immediately. Following that we would usually see bans go out towards the flavor of the month champions with no regard to personal preference. These champions were just strong in anyone’s hands.

Bans, in Riot’s mind for the professional scene, should be more used to handle champions that are strong in an individual player’s hands. We’ve actually seen this more often this split with champs like Rumble and Leblanc being banned out. These are champs that, while strong, are only ban worthy threats in the right hands. We’ve also, in relation to this, seen different opinions on what should be first picked when it is left open.

Extremely strong champions like Ahri, Maokai and Lissandra have ways to play around them through lane swaps or early ganks. Outside of maybe Gnar, almost every champ has some kind of a strategy or counterpick against them. Lissandra can get rocked by Kassadin or Irelia. Kassadin and Jax have a hard time dealing with lane swaps because they get starved out of gold and experience. The amount of, god forbid I use the buzzword, strategic diversity is really great this season compared to last and while things aren’t perfect Riot should be commended for what they have done.

It will be very interesting to see where things go from here once we get a strong meta shift. Now that there isn't a champion that is so strong they have to take a long overdue look at them (Kassadin), bans are much more wide open. Teams play around leaving things open like Gnar in order to try and counter them. They also focus bans more on champions that each team has shown strength with rather than overly powerful champs. Once J4 is brought back into line, or other junglers are brought up to his level, and Gnar is toned down as well, bans will function a lot more in Riot’s idea. Things are never going to be perfect, but we have seen a lot of more unique champions this season than we did four weeks into Season 4.

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 by Jerrod "Thousand Eyes" Steis