League of Legends’ ARAM mode has been getting a lot of attention recently with game mode-specific buffs affecting the game’s champions along with new, experimental items that have been tested. Some of those features stuck around while others were removed, and one of the features that didn’t make the cut was the ability to ban champions in ARAM. Banning away ARAM’s most oppressive or unfun champions seemed like an idea many players were on board with, but Riot Games ultimately decided to nix the feature.
The removal of bans was of course met with questions from players, questions that Riot Games answered in a new post on the League Nexus which covered the ARAM changes. Riot said the decision to remove bans from ARAM was a tough one and acknowledged that before the mode’s balance changes were implemented, bans would’ve been much more useful to get rid of the most offensive outliers.
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But there were also players who didn’t want bans in ARAM for a variety of reasons, some of which include the fact that the game’s supposed to be a more casual experience and by the very nature of its name should be completely random. Having bans meant casual players never got the chance to roll an “overpowered” champion since they were never available. It also added time to what’s often used as a quick game mode.
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“For players who just wanted to reroll for those champs, and didn’t care about having a perfectly balanced experience, it now felt like they were never available,” Riot Games said. “Our goal isn’t to change what ARAM is to most players, and the bans almost took away the whole purpose of it to them. Finally it also adds another 30 seconds to ‘getting into game’ time, which is something we want to keep quick for this mode.”
A graph showed how champion diversity changed when the bans were implemented with the more obvious offenders like Lux and Veigar constantly banned. Riot said that with the bans now removed, it hopes players can try out these champions and others now with the balance changes implemented to get a feel for the characters. Another look at bans in ARAM may come from Riot after seeing long-term effects of the balance changes.
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