Optimal Best Champions Bans At Each Division - Patch 6.14 July List

Hi everyone and welcome to the latest update to the ban list! Zed remains an insanely popular ban at all divisions, as does Vladimir. Although good players can absolutely stomp with these two champions, there are more subpar players at all divisions, resulting in a sub 50% win rate. Probably better to let them through at the moment.

Meanwhile, Sona is absolutely slaughtering the charts but receiving little to no attention. Better watch out for her!

SEASON 6 - PATCH 6.14 BAN LIST

"Problems"

Preface Chatter

Hi everyone and welcome to the latest update to the ban list! Zed remains an insanely popular ban at all divisions, as does Vladimir. Although good players can absolutely stomp with these two champions, there are more subpar players at all divisions, resulting in a sub 50% win rate. Probably better to let them through at the moment.

Meanwhile, Sona is absolutely slaughtering the charts but receiving little to no attention. Better watch out for her!

Be sure to check out the regular ranked queue list, and the FOTM tier list as well!

The purpose of this list is to discover optimal bans, with the knowledge that enemy teams will likely ban the ones at the top of the list.

Banning Thought Process

1. Which champions could the enemy team pick that would really screw my team over?
2. Which champions could the enemy team pick that would really screw ME over?
3. Which of the champions above is the enemy team likely going to pick if it's not banned?
4. Which of the champions above is the enemy team probably going to ban?

After considering these items, it's time to hit the ban phase.

Optimal Bans

 Diamond+

God Tier [Likely/Should Bans]: Hecarim, Irelia, Malzahar
Good Bans [Popular Strong Champions]: Sona, Ashe, Janna, Jhin

Meh Bans [Probable But Unnecessary Bans]: Vladimir, Zed, Ryze, Azir, Viktor

Platinum

God Tier [Likely/Should Bans]: Hecarim, Irelia, Malzahar

Good Bans [Popular Strong Champions]: Sona, Ashe, Gangplank, Soraka, Darius

Meh Bans [Probable But Unnecessary Bans]: Zed, Vladimir, Ryze, Swain, Fizz, Yasuo

Gold

God Tier [Likely/Should Bans]: Hecarim, Irelia, Malzahar, Swain, Darius
Good Bans [Popular Strong Champions]: Yasuo, Sona, Ashe, Jhin

Meh Bans [Probable But Unnecessary Bans]: Zed, Vladimir, Ryze, Fizz, Leblanc

Silver

God Tier [Likely/Should Bans]: Hecarim, Irelia, Darius, Yasuo, Malzahar, Swain
Good Bans [Popular Strong Champions]:  Sona, Ashe

Meh Bans [Probable But Unnecessary Bans]: Zed, Vladimir, Ryze, Fizz, Leblanc

Bronze

God Tier [Likely/Should Bans]: Darius, Hecarim, Yasuo, Irelia
Good Bans [Popular Strong Champions]: Sona, Ashe, Blitzcrank

Meh Bans [Probable But Unnecessary Bans]: Zed, Vladimir, Fizz, Ryze, Malzahar, Swain, Leblanc

Method

To do this list, I first start with whichever statistical compilation site I have available (my personal preference is leagueofgraphs.com). Afterwards, I check the most banned champions and separate them into either "God Tier" or "Meh Bans" based on win rate and popularity, sometimes subjective reasoning (in which case I'd do a write up).

Last I do an analysis of both the win rate and the popularity by division and add in good bans for that division based on such.

Some people may note that most sites don't distinguish between "Platinum Only" and "Platinum and Higher". However, this generally doesn't make much of a difference as a result of the way the overall player distribution is between the ranks. Bronze and Silver make up the highest percentage of error, but generally run similar to each other.

Explanations

• Ashe [Good Ban - All Divisions] - Despite her low ban rate, Ashe is one of the only two of the top five most popular marksmen to have a win rate above 50%. Her laning phase is extremely safe, and her ability to solo carry a game at any division is very high as a result of her self-engaging ultimate.
• Gangplank [Good Ban - Platinum Division] - Platinum division is the division of bot lane spanking, which Gangplank does incredibly well. He's also exceedingly popular at this division for a top laner, and is a decent ban if you want to play a hard-engaging support or marksman.
• Hecarim [God Tier - All Divisions] - It's no secret that Hecarim is incredibly strong right now, and although lower divisions ban him less than Zed, he should still be the #1 priority ban.
• Jhin [Good Ban - Gold Division] - Similar to Ashe, banning out marksmen is not as effective simply because there are so many to choose from. However, at gold divisions you find a lot of one-trick ponies, so banning Jhin once in a while may be a good idea if all the real annoying champions are already banned.
• Malzahar [Meh Ban - Bronze Division] - Although Malzahar has a stellar win rate, he is rarely picked when he is not banned at Bronze division. As a result, leaving him open seems okay, since most players would not normally pick him anyway.
• Ryze [Meh Ban - All Divisions] - For a champion with the lowest win rate in the game, Ryze certainly gets a lot of bans drawn his way. Probably a waste until players start actually getting good with him. If you ban him, you might be doing it more so your own teammates can't play him.
• Sona [Good Ban - All Divisions] - At the highest win rate since Sated Devourer Warwick, Sona is pulling a surprisingly low number of bans right now. However, she should certainly be a top 2 ban, right next to Hecarim.
• Swain [Meh Ban - Bronze Division] - Similar to Malzahar, even when he does not get banned Swain sees relatively little play.
• Zed [Meh Ban - All Divisions] - At a respectable but not overwhelming 47% win rate across all divisions, Zed is a champion where you can take your chances. Players that are particular good with Zed at Bronze through Gold are probably smurfing anyway and can stomp with pretty much any champion. Meanwhile, there are just as many players who play Zed simply because they think he's overpowered, but higher division players learn his weaknesses and exploit them. As you move from Diamond down to Bronze Zed's ban rate steadily increases while his win rate steadily decreases. It's quite an interesting phenomenon.

What do you think about this new list? Agree? Disagree? Comment below!

Click here to check out previous versions of this list!