How to Ban Yorick and Still Survive Your Team

GG, Rampant is a noob.

**** you, you ****. whyd you let them pick ******* malphite. 

Uninstall you ****. You always ban blitz...

For just being in the Adobe Air client, getting sworn at is kind of a jarring experience. The other day, I decided to play a few games of ranked, and I ended up captaining twice during champion select. And like clockwork, once my bans were done, I ended up being sworn at like I had just woken up in bed with the captain's daughter. It got me to thinking, what is the best way to go about bans? Should I be trying to minimize my team's chances to lose due to chance? Should I be trying to not erode our team's morale before we even locked in our characters? What is the best way to go about banning in solo-queue? 

Well, the first question to ask is, "Why ban so-and-so" and ask why certain characters are banned.

The Dreamkillers - Amumu, Blitzcrank, Shen, Twisted Fate, Malphite

I call these guys the Dreamkillers since they're banned for two reasons. The first is that they each have abilites that have the capability to completely turn the game around, and they can be mostly be hit on blind luck. It doesn't matter if you are 20 kills in front of Blitzcrank when he Rocket Grabs your carry, and if Malphite decides to ult into that bush where you are all hiding for no reason outside he saw one of you go in their, you could be facing down an ace.

While other characters have quite powerful ultimates or even abilities, these five have such an impact on the game state that they can be at times seen as degenerate. Shen and Twisted Fate take quite a bit more skill to pull off, but they similarly have the power to snowball lanes quickly or take control of a game they have no business still being in. 

This game is about to get a bit less comfortable.

And with this ability to turn games around, each of these champions has gained the stigma of "OP". It has become such a morale killer to allow one of these champs through the banning phase that it might cause infighting before the match even starts. Each of these five is in the top 10 Champions banned, with Amumu and Shen being banned in over 50% of all games, and you can really see why. Its the plain fact that while a player knows how to counter a certain character (such as keeping mobile and hiding behind minions against Blitzcrank), he isn't confident in his allies' ability to do the same, and not countering these characters oftentimes leads to loses due to either that lane snowballing or the formerly said lucky hook. So banning the Dreamkillers is good for two reasons.

"But Rampant, good communication easily shuts most of these champs down. Early invades on Amumu, pressure on TF and Malphite, and just warning about Shen really cuts down on their effectiveness."

Well, yes that's true. And if we were talking about Ranked 5v5s, we wouldn't be talking about these characters as all being "must-bans". But the problem with solo queue is that oftentimes, the communication we take for granted on a full team is completely lacking. While the new ping system may have improved it, it hasn't made communication as good as talking to your teammates on Skype, Vent, Teamspeak, or Mumble. 

 

Well The Pros Banned X, So I Should Too - Elise, Kayle

Much like the much maligned Flavor of the Month characters that each professional match brings, each week we see new champions being banned in solo-queue for the sole reason that the professionals ban them. Currently, those two are Elise and Kayle, who are being banned in a remarkable 60 and 70 percent of games respectively. Now, I'm not going to be the guy to say these two champions are bad.

In fact, I play both of them quite a bit, and enjoy the power they bring to your team, but again the reason they're being banned isn't anything outside of the fact they are currently banned constantly in the LCS. Previously, we've had champions like Katarina be banned for the same reason, but that was even more frustrating becuase a team with any sort of reliable CC can shut her down faster than Chi-Chi's was. 

The real issue here isn't that these champions aren't worth the ban, but the reason that these champions are banned so much in the LCS is that they're targeted. The reason Kayle is banned against dignitas isn't that she's broken, but because every player on the team has shown a proficiency with her and she's absolutely frightening in the hands of scarra.  People ban Elise against Voyboy because he's able to use her to the fullest extent when he's playing aggressively. Professional bans tend to be targeted, and while these two champions are very strong, they also take a great degree of skill to pick up.

She's not quite the monster she's been made out to be.

Then again, we have this sort of psychological fear that these champions are utterly overpowered, and their presence on the enemy team saps your team's morale before the game even starts. And champions that are often being banned for this reason do quite well against the current metagame (such as Elise's utterly ignoring the health stacking meta), so they're still reasonable bans.

"Well my teammates will have to learn to play against them eventually."

Yes, but do you really want that game to be the one you're on their team for? Look, one cannot undersetimate the effect tht morale has on a team. A team that goes into the game already playing a funeral dirge is not as strong as a team that is hyped and ready, even if the former has Blitz, Taric, Caitlyn, Gragas, and Jax for level one. You want your team to be active, ready for the game. Picking to ignore characters they're afraid of isn't going to help.

 

This Might Be Potentially Overpowered - Vi

While this sometimes falls into the category of the former category, since 'OP' characters tend to be played at major events, there is something to be said about banning the strongest character in game, for whatever reason. This has been seen in the past with the bannings of Rengar *shudder* and Jayce.

When a character bursts onto the scene and says, "Hey look, everyone wants to pick me!", there might be an issue. Currently, that problem child is Vi. With a non-disengagable engage ability in Assualt and Battery and an incredibly quick jungle time, nobody wants to deal with Vi in ranked right now. Currently, she's being banned in 70% of all games this week, and that shows no sign of slowing down, as she's considered an absolutely killer jungler. 

In the time it took you to read this chart, Vi already killed your carry.

Really, though, banning Vi makes common sense at this point, as we know that our AD Carry is our best bet for winning a game. Vi allows the opposing team to just eliminate this player. Hence, banning out Vi is a quick and easy way to ensure that your AD Carry stays safe(r) this game.

 

Whoops, Misclick - Brand, Shyvana, Teemo, No Ban

I mention the misclick because its happened often enough in games I play in that I figure it is important to explain what such a mistake does to a team. It instantly worries everyone on your team that you are incompetent, since, well... you're incompetent. You really can't argue that point, you just banned Brand. Really what needs to be done is you need to be apologetic about what just happened. Misclicks happen, but arguing that Brand is a wonderful ban isnt going to help team cohesion any.  Don't be snide about it either, since, everyone on your team earned the right to make a sarcastic comment when you banned Brand. 

 

I Just Don't Want To Deal With That - Yorick, Kha'Zix, Ezrael, Alistar, Taric

These are pretty much the most subjective bans, ones that are your choice. There are quite a few choices in this style of ban. Currently, my favorite ban is Yorick, as he is utterly obnoxious to play against. You can't really kill him, and eventually, inevitably, he's going to snowball into something utterly unkillable. Similar bans are Kha'Zix (who has some of the biggest damage output in the game), Ezrael (who is still one of the kings of bottom lane), and Alistar (because two uncleansable CCs is fair). This is in no way a comprehensive list of characters that can be banned for this reason, but just the current most common ones and the one that tends to be my ban.

My hatred for this guy knows almost no bounds.

The problem with these bans is that while you might not want to play against whatever, maybe someone on your team wants to play one of these champs. And even if you ask, you have to remember that communication in solo-queue is less than perfect. Save these bans for your last one, and communicate with your team.

Wait a second, that's far too many bans... How can I ban all of them? This is...

Well, you can't. But the purpose of bans is to put your team in a position in which you're not dealing with champions you as a team aren't comfortable dealing with. Maybe you counter out TF with Viegar or another burst caster, or Shen is taken out by another champion split pusher (Nidalee) or someone with hard CC to stop Stand United (Jayce, Garen). Perhaps you need to first pick one of these champs to deny the opposing team.

Communicate With Your Team.

Don't just insta-lock Blitz, Malphite, Shen as your bans and say "Top". Talk to your teammates, make up a composition plan. Too often do teams not talk about their comp before the teams are locked in, and that is a tragedy that erodes a degree of complexity from the game. If someone had a bad experience with a champ last game, they're going to want him ban. Do it. Don't let someone's last bad game influence this one.  Not only does this shutter any chance of this guy's previous game having a jarring impact on the rest of you, you have helped build some of that much-coveted solo-queue communication for the rest of the game. Be friendly, talk to everyone, and try to set up as much as you can for the first few levels of the game before the loading screen appears.

Be Aware.

Don't claim you're gonna first pick Blitz and then look at your roster and whoops, you don't own Blitz. Again, it goes back to you being incompetent. We don't want that. It erodes the communication we just set up by banning Vayne for your teammate in the last step.

In The End, Its Your Choice.

However, don't feel utterly constrained by these. If your team wants you to ban Sejuani, let your common sense make the decision for you. You are the team's captain, by virtue of your MMR, so you need to put your foot down eventually and make a decision.

I hope this helps you understand the banning process a bit more. If you want more from me, feel free to follow me @rampant_idiocy.