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The last time the draft format changed was more than 3 years ago. In that time we have seen the introduction of a quarter of the current pool of champs, and the last quarter has been both the most mobile and the most viable of the pool. While the available number of picks has increased steadily, the actual number of viable picks has trended downwards with every new release and balance patch. My personal belief is that the draft phase is one of the factors, with Riot’s aggressive control of “non-meta” champions, and overused champions through excessive nerfs that go beyond balancing, simply removing the champion from the competitive pool entirely, and the reluctance to attempt to add unused champions back into competitive play without a full rework, or simply a new release making up the trifecta of issues.
First, let’s take a look at actual champ variety. In NA LCS summer split, we see that 60 picks have been used in 72 games . This includes the fact that there have been patches throughout the split which has seen buffs and nerfs and even reworks to various champions in the pool, and even then we have only hit 50% of the champion pool seeing professional play. Khazix for example saw huge amounts of play early on in the split, before getting hit by the nerfbat. For a better idea of what the actual viable pool at any given point in time is, the pick and ban statistics for Superweek (Week 7) of both EU and NA LCS will be listed. With 32 games played, not every viable champion will have been picked, but I feel confident in saying that at least 80% of the potential picks will have been shown.
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From here we see only 45 unique picks, and 37 who have been picked or banned more than once. Less than a third of the champion pool is anything more than just a signature or one off pick. Compare these statistics to TI4, where 76 heroes were picked in 36 games on the first day . While some of this is due to the more cross-regional play (all regions vs. NA/EU only), and a few picks due to the four extra games, by and large there is some other factor that is causing the much greater variety in picks. At the start of the ban phase, there are alternating bans, followed by first pick and two picks from the other side. In the current state of the game, there are only three types of bans.
1. Banning out an OP champion 2. Banning out a signature champion 3. Banning a common pick to leave several OP’s open
This ban phase leaves much to be desired as it doesn't allow for strategic depth or pick protection, and this is where the comparison to Dota 2’s draft phase begins. For those unfamiliar with it, dota2 competitve draft is
The staggered draft with only 2 initial bans early leaves much more room for an OP pick, in addition to allowing a team to both protect a pick with bans (eg. removing Renekton if you get a Jax pick in the last pick of first phase). It also allows you to remove stuff that you simply cannot handle. For example, let’s say you want to run an Irelia. Under normal circumstances, if you ban renekton and jax, it’s fairly obvious that you want to go for an Irelia pick. But if in the second ban phase, you ban jax and then renekton, the other team has no direct counter to the Irelia pick, and needs to employ something other than an easy counter. You can also ban out picks that make your strategy more resilient to a certain pick.
While I don’t believe that this system is the best fit for league due to the excessive draft time(7 more draft stages than the current system), there are several alternatives that are improvements over the current system. Below are two proposals.
Option 1. 4 bans (8 total)
This first option is the most simple, but is relatively ineffective. Adding an extra ban early on would be unlikely to significantly increase the number of picks because there are more than 5 viable picks in each role. There are no strategic options added either, it’s simply an extra ban to prevent a contested/signature/OP pick from slipping through. Even then though, this is the best option for soloq due to the limited scope of strategy, fixed meta, FOTM champions, and even the mood of the drafter.
Option 2. Adapted draft phase, based on the current Dota 2 draft.
This draft phase is a simplified version of the dota draft, which retains the best elements while having a significantly reduced draft time. Two of the bans(selected), can be removed to allow for more champions in the pool or to reduce the total draft time. The result of this pick phase is adding a staggered ban phase and an extra ban, with only 3 more draft stages than the baseline. While this option is possible for soloq, the effect of the second ban phase is minimal at best, aside from being able to target ban remaining positions, and in my opinion would not contribute meaningfully to soloq.
It is my opinion that front loaded bans to prevent picks from coming out are more important for soloq than having the ability to reactively ban. Therefore, for the first time since league’s inception, competitive, and ranked 5’s play should have a different draft phase than soloq, in order to account for the differences in draft importance, and team composition goals.
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On July 23 2014 06:58 Amui wrote:It is my opinion that front loaded bans to prevent picks from coming out are more important for soloq than having the ability to reactively ban. Therefore, for the first time since league’s inception, competitive, and ranked 5’s play should have a different draft phase than soloq, in order to account for the differences in draft importance, and team composition goals.
This is the crux of it all, Riot don't seem to want SoloQ ranked to differ from pro play, whether it's to make people feel like special flowers because they are playing the same "game" as pros or because they think we are idiots and can't handle the disconnect between SoloQ 3bans and pro play interwoven bans.
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So why not just spread out the banning burden some? I don't think it's totally unreasonable to have the first and third players on a team do the banning in the style above, which lets ranked maintain its pick order and everything while mixing up the ban style. I hope that's an option Riot looks at in the future, at least.
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I think it's going to be really hard to find someone who disagrees with changing the drafting phase, especially at pro level. The trouble is the people that DO disagree are Riot. I like Eiii's idea of spreading the bans amongst the team, rather than having first pick do it all. Also, if some sort of simultaneous, or even pre game ban could be worked out (super unlikely, would be a nightmare logistically), that'd help.
As an aside, I'm am not familiar with Dota, but what's the deal with the pool of extra time during picking and banning?
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On July 23 2014 08:43 miicah wrote:Show nested quote +On July 23 2014 06:58 Amui wrote:It is my opinion that front loaded bans to prevent picks from coming out are more important for soloq than having the ability to reactively ban. Therefore, for the first time since league’s inception, competitive, and ranked 5’s play should have a different draft phase than soloq, in order to account for the differences in draft importance, and team composition goals.
This is the crux of it all, Riot don't seem to want SoloQ ranked to differ from pro play, whether it's to make people feel like special flowers because they are playing the same "game" as pros or because they think we are idiots and can't handle the disconnect between SoloQ 3bans and pro play interwoven bans. Sadly that mentality is prevalent among the upper brass at Riot, which absolutely sucks for pro play.
On July 23 2014 16:43 JazzVortical wrote: I think it's going to be really hard to find someone who disagrees with changing the drafting phase, especially at pro level. The trouble is the people that DO disagree are Riot. I like Eiii's idea of spreading the bans amongst the team, rather than having first pick do it all. Also, if some sort of simultaneous, or even pre game ban could be worked out (super unlikely, would be a nightmare logistically), that'd help.
As an aside, I'm am not familiar with Dota, but what's the deal with the pool of extra time during picking and banning? The bonus time is just that, extra time that gets used if you run out of "normal" draft time. This time can be used to think more at any stage of the draft.
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How is that beating a dead horse ? Pick recurrence is clearly an issue in pro play, and it doesn't seem to be talked that much or at least riot doesn't seem to be actively looking for solutions (other than nerfing OPs and therefore rotating the small champion pool of op champs).
I like lulu but seeing her every game mid or top or sometimes, god forbid, SUPPORT (what she should be) is getting tiring.
Seeing new champs plays a huge part in making games interesting, seeing new strategies is also fun because creativity/things you never saw IS fun AND it should be part of a team strength to be able to bring new things to the table, the game should not just be about playing perfectly a gragas/orianna/lucian/thresh/leesin comp.
IMO, riot shoud add not one but two bans per teams or try the dota draft alternative. There are about 120 champs in the game right now and we need to see more of them .
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It's beating a dead horse because we've had this discussion a thousand times and never had any real disagreement. It's even popped up on reddit before a few times. For better or for worse riot doesn't think drafting is part of the game and won't change unless some major personal or philosophy changes happen
Edit: posting on phone is hard. Let me clarify what that philosophy means. They only want in game decisions to effect the end result of the match. By saying drafting is not part of the game they mean they don't want it to influence the end result. Obviously there are flaws with this logic but going over them is just pointless
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On July 23 2014 18:35 Numy wrote: It's beating a dead horse beca we've had this discussion a thousand times and never had any real disagreement. It's even popped up on reddit before a few tines. For better or for worse riot doesn't think drafting is part of the game and won't change unless some major personal or philosophy changes happen
Exactly.
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This new ban phase is not approved yet. It still has to undergo behavioral analysis.
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