No-Ban in Champion Select? But Why?

Lately, there's been a new trend of clicking "no ban" in ranked solo queue. Popular professional league players like Faker subscribe by the model, and have for seasons done throw-away bans like Aatrox every game (the first champion on the list). With the ability to select the true "no-ban" in champion select, players are picking up on the trend this season. But why?

Introduction

Lately, there's been a new trend of clicking "no ban" in ranked solo queue. Popular professional league players like Faker subscribe by the model, and have for seasons done throw-away bans like Aatrox every game (the first champion on the list). With the ability to select the true "no-ban" in champion select, players are picking up on the trend this season.

But why?

Why Ban?

Banning a champion removes it from the game, meaning nobody can play that champion on both teams.

Generally, you want to ban out a champion that:

1. Both teams want to first pick but your team doesn't have first pick; or
2. Your team doesn't intend on playing, but can dominate your team; or
3. You're afraid someone on your team is going to play and perform horribly on (not the best reason).

Why Not ban?

Players that don't ban cite a variety of reasons including:

1. A desire to play against any and all champions; or
2. Don't want to be held responsible for banning out a teammate's champion; or
3. Want all champions available for a counter-pick and think all champions can be countered.

Out of these, only the first reason really has any meaning. Some players really do want to be challenged and take on anything Riot has to throw at them.

Meanwhile, if you really don't want to be responsible for banning out a team mate's champion, you could always look them up in the pre-game lobby to figure out what they're probably going to pick. Or...you could ask them!

Lastly, there are always other champions that you don't intend on countering in your own lane, but will screw over a one trick pony on your team. If you don't want to use your ban for yourself, then use it for your team mate instead!

What About All Five Bans on Faker?

Faker's own bans were never the interesting part. The bans aimed at him are. At MSI 2024, Bilibili Gaming met T1 in the lower bracket final and opened every one of the five games by banning Azir and Orianna. Both are mid laners, and so is Faker.

Game two went furthest. BLG spent four of their five bans on mid laners (Azir, Orianna, LeBlanc and Twisted Fate) and the fifth on Senna. Faker locked in Akali, and T1 won that game in 29 minutes.

BLG still took the series 3-2 and knocked T1 out of the tournament. That draft is the no-ban taken to its opposite extreme: a team so worried about one player that nearly every ban it had went into his champion pool, and it still lost the game.

Conclusions

The only real reason for not banning any champion is for the challenge of playing against every combination possible. Otherwise, any other reason for not banning is pretty much due to laziness and shouldn't be the mindset you have going into a ranked game.

Thoughts on the no-ban? Comment below!