Jeong “NoFe” No-Chul, head coach for the ROX Tigers isn’t a fan of increasing the number of bans to 10.
NoFe has weighed in on Facebook about Riot Games’ recent stance in increasing the number of bans from six to 10, and gave a string of reasons why 10 bans would be detrimental not only to existing pros, but also have the chance of suppressing new careers.
“With 10 bans, ‘joker picks’ like support Miss Fortune will be hard to develop. (A special pick that was prepared will be banned and with enough bans, it will not matter),” he wrote. “Of course we’ll get to see a wider variety of champions in game, but in order to have a champion pool to match that, amateur players will have a very difficult time surviving under such conditions (since already established pros will not be threatened by target bans), and coaches won’t have any difficulties in creating drafting strategies as strategic battles will all but disappear.”
NoFe clarified that coaches will no longer have to “analyze their opponent’s picks and bans and just prepare their own and ban based on game one.”
As an alternative, NoFe brought forth the idea for eight bans instead of 10, saying that if Riot does indeed change it to have 10, it should “let picks happen in between bans like Dota” in order to solve many of the concerns he raised.
Cover photo courtesy of Riot Games