The head coach of three time League of Legends world champion SK Telecom T1, Choi “L.i.E.S” Byung-hoon shared his thoughts on Riot Games’ new 10-ban system for the upcoming season in an interview with Daily eSports’ Nam Yun-seong.
“Rather than thinking (simply more bans) is significant, I see that how Riot Games patches champions will have a larger impact on the outcome of games,” he said. “If champions are massively buffed because of increased bans or if champions are massively nerfed to balance the overall game, that would be the true game changer.”
After numerous reports about a possible increased number of bans, Riot Games announced Jan. 5 that the new season will see 10 bans, up from the previous number of six. The goal was to increase champion diversity and strategic depth in professional play, and fans attention is on just how effective Riot’s new ban system will be. The pick and ban phase will be similar to Dota 2, with picks going in between bans, not afterward.
Jeong “NoFe” No-chul, former coach of the ROX Tigers and current coach of EDward Gaming publicly shared his thoughts in October about the topic, saying that he found a simple increase of bans would actually kill strategies.
Cover photo courtesy of Riot Games