Just a short few days after the ban system was added to League of Legend's All Random All Mid (ARAM) map, Riot Games has removed it in the latest patch (9.8) update. The ban system was put into place when every single game consistently included the most overpowered of champions. Fiddlesticks' silencing crows that bounced from champ to champ seemingly showed up in every match-up, along with Sona's nonstop heals, and Ziggs' endless bomb poke. And the potential for more "random" games had the LoL community singing it's praises. Fans of the ban system definitely seemed to be in the majority on messages boards on Reddit and Facebook. One subreddit poll even claimed that 72% of the 37,000 polled voted yes when asked if they preferred the bans in ARAM, calling it a huge improvement.
So what is behind the sudden reverse? While Riot Games may occasionally explain their decision-making behind the scenes, users are demanding an answer for this one, especially when it was such a popular update. Some theories suggest that users themselves are to blame for the reversal, with their common usage of stacked accounts with ARAM favorite champions. Owning a secondary account with only the strongest champions is surpisingly more common than you would think. This could counteract Riot Games' (possibly misguided) attempt at improving the chance for a truly random game. On this side of the issue, we have users like Treeidot lamenting on League of Legends messages boards about the ban system itself. These players "didn't fall in love with ARAM to be limited in [their] champs of play." They feel strongly that the short-lived system was not necessary in the first place. Being able to play with their strongest players on a regular basis is a huge motivation in choosing this particular map.
Regardless of the reasoning behind it, the majority of users that are not happy about losing what they felt improved game play. It is an impossible task to make everyone happy, but Riot may be wishing they had banned the entire concept all along.
