• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 07:17
CEST 13:17
KST 20:17
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
TL.net Map Contest #22 - Voting & Ladder Map Selection2Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO8 Preview5[ASL21] Finals Preview: Two Legacies21Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO12 Preview2herO wins GSL Code S Season 1 (2026)7
Community News
[BSL22] Non-Korean Championship from 13 to 28 June0Weekly Cups (May 25-31): Clem doubles, 2v2 circuit heads toward finale0StarCraft II 5.0.16 PTR Patch Notes may 26th149Weekly Cups (May 18-24): MaxPax wins doubles0Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League5
StarCraft 2
General
StarCraft II 5.0.16 PTR Patch Notes may 26th The Death of Cheese: From a Professional Cheeser My starcraft 2 changes Oliveira Would Have Returned If EWC Continued SC2 Parody - "Somebody That I Used to Troll"
Tourneys
Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule ! GSL Code S Season 2 (2026) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament RSL Revival: Season 5 - Qualifiers and Main Event Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
[D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3 [A] Nemrods 1/4 players
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 528 Infection Detected Welcome to the External Content forum Mutation # 527 Hell Train
Brood War
General
Tesagi Viewer - A new era of replay watching Data analysis on 70 million replays BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ FlaShFTW vs A.Alm Grudge Match Event [BSL22] Non-Korean Championship from 13 to 28 June
Tourneys
[ASL21] Grand Finals [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 2 [BSL22] WB Final & LB Semis - Saturday 21:00 CEST
Strategy
Why doesn't anyone use restoration? Any training maps people recommend? Muta micro map competition [G] Hydra ZvZ: An Introduction
Other Games
General Games
Path of Exile Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread ZeroSpace Megathread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia
Community
General
Russo-Ukrainian War Thread US Politics Mega-thread How cold is too cold to be outdoors? Dating: How's your luck? Trading/Investing Thread
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread McBoner: A hockey love story TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Facing Challenges in Mobile App Development
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Esportsmanship: How to NOT B…
TrAiDoS
Why RTS gamers make better f…
gosubay
ramps on octagon
StaticNine
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 4599 users

The Case for More Bans

Blogs > aboxcar
Post a Reply
aboxcar
Profile Blog Joined May 2013
United States447 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-09-12 07:00:34
September 12 2015 06:59 GMT
#1
Proponents of fewer bans typically argue that this increases hero diversity. If there are more bans, they say, too many heroes will never be seen. But what this really means is too many imbalanced heroes will not be seen. What about the lesser powered heroes? Why don't people advocate for them? Few bans means a small pool of overly powerful heroes will always be ban-picked, and drafting strategy will necessarily revolve around them.

More bans will actually increase hero diversity and allow more strategies to be played.

- With more bans to remove overpowered heroes, there is more flexibility to play other strategies. Teams can develop their own style.

- More bans will give more leeway for respect bans. While this may be unpopular with the fans to see a player's heroes banned out, this actually forces a larger strategy pool and thus more diversity.

- If a strong strategy shows up in a tournament, instead of other teams struggling to adapt to the meta of the tournament, they can use targeted bans. Again, this means more varied preparation is required, not just preparing strong heroes.

Icefrog, please consider bringing back the six bans at the start!
everything that rises must converge
TechSc2
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
Netherlands554 Posts
September 12 2015 09:39 GMT
#2
More bans means a lesser team can ban out the strong meta hero's and win with a cheesy strategy. More bans doesn't equal better games, it usually means less quality games because you can never practise all hero's equally, so you have to focus on 3-4 hero's max per role to be able to stay competative.

With more bans there is also no strategy in your pick/bans, since your opponent doesn't have to choose between a good ban against the picks, or respect bans, he can just do both.

NO, pick/bans are good as they are now.
Twitch.tv/TechGTV / Twitter.com/TechGTV
TRAP[yoo]
Profile Joined December 2009
Hungary6026 Posts
September 12 2015 09:55 GMT
#3
On September 12 2015 18:39 TechSc2 wrote:
More bans means a lesser team can ban out the strong meta hero's and win with a cheesy strategy. More bans doesn't equal better games, it usually means less quality games because you can never practise all hero's equally, so you have to focus on 3-4 hero's max per role to be able to stay competative.

With more bans there is also no strategy in your pick/bans, since your opponent doesn't have to choose between a good ban against the picks, or respect bans, he can just do both.

NO, pick/bans are good as they are now.

you make it sound like every team has 20 bans and can do whatever they want...
i wouldnt mind 1 or 2 additional bans for every team to see a more diverse heropool
FTD
LennX
Profile Joined October 2010
4568 Posts
September 12 2015 10:45 GMT
#4
I don't mind seeing an additional ban in the first phase. Overall we will have 6 bans, 5 picks which is still ok
Mute user function on TL; http://www.liquiddota.com/blogs/491245-mute-annoying-users-in-lr-threads
Mafe
Profile Joined February 2011
Germany5966 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-09-12 11:51:39
September 12 2015 11:51 GMT
#5
The number of bans is just one factor. The order of picks/bans also matters.
On September 12 2015 15:59 aboxcar wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +
Proponents of fewer bans typically argue that this increases hero diversity. If there are more bans, they say, too many heroes will never be seen. But what this really means is too many imbalanced heroes will not be seen. What about the lesser powered heroes? Why don't people advocate for them? Few bans means a small pool of overly powerful heroes will always be ban-picked, and drafting strategy will necessarily revolve around them.

More bans will actually increase hero diversity and allow more strategies to be played.

- With more bans to remove overpowered heroes, there is more flexibility to play other strategies. Teams can develop their own style.

- More bans will give more leeway for respect bans. While this may be unpopular with the fans to see a player's heroes banned out, this actually forces a larger strategy pool and thus more diversity.

- If a strong strategy shows up in a tournament, instead of other teams struggling to adapt to the meta of the tournament, they can use targeted bans. Again, this means more varied preparation is required, not just preparing strong heroes.

+ Show Spoiler +
Icefrog, please consider bringing back the six bans at the start!

This point is just as much right as it is wrong: It would devalue the strategic aspects of dota, but value the ability to play different heroes higher. Preparation should be more than just preparing to play certain heroes. I would argue that pro teams should be able to play 80%+ of all heroes reasonably well so that they can pick then even without much preparation. What's the point of finding new (pocket) strategies if they can be counted by something as simple as 2-3 bans, which would still be available after the "imba" heroes are banned?
In my opinion, if a team analyzes dota better than others and finds good strategies which (all) the other teams dont see, then this team deserves to have a big, and not just a small, advantage.
Reson
Profile Joined July 2014
530 Posts
September 12 2015 18:36 GMT
#6
On September 12 2015 18:39 TechSc2 wrote:
More bans means a lesser team can ban out the strong meta hero's and win with a cheesy strategy. More bans doesn't equal better games, it usually means less quality games because you can never practise all hero's equally, so you have to focus on 3-4 hero's max per role to be able to stay competative.

With more bans there is also no strategy in your pick/bans, since your opponent doesn't have to choose between a good ban against the picks, or respect bans, he can just do both.

NO, pick/bans are good as they are now.


There will always be strategy even if we go back to 3 bans first phase (still 5 bans total) but it won't be as single strategy dominant. Alliance may have still won TI3 (first year the after the ban change), but if we had 3 bans first phase we would have gotten to see More Stuff out of them. They won't have won more than one time against a team with that "cheese" strat if the team had 3 bans.

The current pick/ban order opens up the top heroes and favours using bans to respond to picks.

The previous pick/ban order sets the stage for what can be picked and each team has to respond to opponents picks with picks.

Post TI2, Dota became a lot more strategy dominant and play/execution made the difference mainly when teams were able to break even strategically. Pre-pick/ban change, play/execution was the critical factor while strategy was what gave teams that were even with each other a slight edge.

TI4 VG is another example of a team riding one strategy to success. Again, they may have had other things prepared but by the time they were forced to show it by a team that understood their strategy well, they were already heavily outmatched by Newbee.


The 2 ban first phase (among other things) may have led to more heroes being picked overall but it reduced the incentive for hero diversity within a team. The same applies to strategy. This dilutes the strategic depth of the game. Strategic creativity is more evident when there is an established norm to go outside the box on.
synapse
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
China13814 Posts
September 12 2015 19:36 GMT
#7
are we adding the extra bans to the first ban phase or third phase?
:)
makmeatt
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
2024 Posts
September 12 2015 19:55 GMT
#8
On September 13 2015 04:36 synapse wrote:
are we adding the extra bans to the first ban phase or third phase?

I think from box's case it should be the first one, so that some heroes can get sort of an auto ban.
"Silver Edge can't break my hope" - Kryptt 2016 || "Chrono is not a debuff, you just get rekt" - Guru 2016
TheYango
Profile Joined September 2008
United States47024 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-09-13 08:55:54
September 13 2015 08:54 GMT
#9
On September 13 2015 04:55 makmeatt wrote:
I think from box's case it should be the first one, so that some heroes can get sort of an auto ban.

Strategically, first-phase bans are the least interesting. Since they don't interact with any picks already made by the opposing team, they can only really be used to ban powerful meta heroes, and don't really directly interact with the opponent's draft.

If bans were to be added, I don't think first phase is where they should go. "Too many OP heroes to ban" is a balance problem that can be corrected through better hero balance. Ban phase design should be focused around adding strategic depth to drafting, not around being a safety net for poor balance.
Moderator
aboxcar
Profile Blog Joined May 2013
United States447 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-09-13 17:02:47
September 13 2015 16:58 GMT
#10
On September 13 2015 17:54 TheYango wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 13 2015 04:55 makmeatt wrote:
I think from box's case it should be the first one, so that some heroes can get sort of an auto ban.

Strategically, first-phase bans are the least interesting. Since they don't interact with any picks already made by the opposing team, they can only really be used to ban powerful meta heroes, and don't really directly interact with the opponent's draft.

If bans were to be added, I don't think first phase is where they should go. "Too many OP heroes to ban" is a balance problem that can be corrected through better hero balance. Ban phase design should be focused around adding strategic depth to drafting, not around being a safety net for poor balance.


1) First phase non-interaction is only superficially true, but actually the opening of a dota game is much more the first bans than the first picks.

In the most familiar and simple case where the opening is banning heroes everyone considers overpowered, this directly dictates the first picks. What to let through and what to steal; what not to pick, what to bait.

Consider old metas where there were few viable offlanes. In today's game, this might be banning Clockwerk and Darkseer and stealing Earthshaker, leaving nothing good for the opponent.

The notion that first phase bans are not strategically interesting is quite callow. Mostly likely we are only under this illusion because of the current sorry state of first-phase banning (and first phase picking). First phase bans have the power to open and close the rest of the game to a far greater extent than the first picks. Consider the extreme case of Captain's Draft mode.

2) While in an ideal world, balance is more even and also quickly applied, this is not realistic or practical. There are many, many heroes in Dota and the distribution of power is naturally fickle and untameable. This is exacerbated by Icefrog's tendency towards hard counters instead of soft ones (the merits of which are a separate topic). Furthermore, due to the frequent nature of tournaments, it's not easy to haphazardly push balance patches.

Pragmatically, more bans is the elegant solution.
everything that rises must converge
BluemoonSC
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
SoCal8913 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-09-13 18:49:07
September 13 2015 18:45 GMT
#11
On September 13 2015 17:54 TheYango wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 13 2015 04:55 makmeatt wrote:
I think from box's case it should be the first one, so that some heroes can get sort of an auto ban.

Strategically, first-phase bans are the least interesting. Since they don't interact with any picks already made by the opposing team, they can only really be used to ban powerful meta heroes, and don't really directly interact with the opponent's draft.

If bans were to be added, I don't think first phase is where they should go. "Too many OP heroes to ban" is a balance problem that can be corrected through better hero balance. Ban phase design should be focused around adding strategic depth to drafting, not around being a safety net for poor balance.


where do you think they should go, then? i def don't think they should go in the first ban phase. maybe if the 2nd pick/ban phase was spaced out into 2?

so first phase: 2 bans, 2 picks.

2nd phase: 1/2 ban, 1 pick

3rd phase: 1/2 ban, 1 pick

4th phase: 1 ban, 1 pick
LiquidDota Staff@BluemoonGG_
Buckyman
Profile Joined May 2014
1364 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-09-14 05:43:31
September 14 2015 05:37 GMT
#12
Would the extra bans even be worth the extra few minutes they'd add to the pregame? I don't think so.
Elyvilon
Profile Joined August 2008
United States13143 Posts
September 15 2015 20:31 GMT
#13
On September 13 2015 17:54 TheYango wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 13 2015 04:55 makmeatt wrote:
I think from box's case it should be the first one, so that some heroes can get sort of an auto ban.

Strategically, first-phase bans are the least interesting. Since they don't interact with any picks already made by the opposing team, they can only really be used to ban powerful meta heroes, and don't really directly interact with the opponent's draft.

If bans were to be added, I don't think first phase is where they should go. "Too many OP heroes to ban" is a balance problem that can be corrected through better hero balance. Ban phase design should be focused around adding strategic depth to drafting, not around being a safety net for poor balance.

There is no way to balance a game with over 100 characters and not have some be significantly better than others.
Liquipedia
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
WardiTV Spring Champion…
11:00
Group Stage 2 - Group B
WardiTV334
Rex82
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Rex 82
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 11357
Calm 9379
Jaedong 606
actioN 564
Zeus 486
Shuttle 466
Soma 338
BeSt 293
Mini 274
EffOrt 221
[ Show more ]
Pusan 118
ToSsGirL 87
Leta 77
ggaemo 71
Hyun 71
scan(afreeca) 70
Liquid`Ret 62
hero 57
ZerO 54
Sea.KH 42
JYJ 39
Backho 37
Mong 36
Sharp 35
Aegong 35
sSak 34
Sacsri 20
Shinee 17
sorry 17
yabsab 16
Icarus 16
Terrorterran 12
GoRush 11
IntoTheRainbow 11
Shine 10
Movie 9
soO 9
Free 6
Noble 5
Dota 2
Gorgc4714
Dendi439
Fuzer 136
XcaliburYe101
League of Legends
JimRising 346
Counter-Strike
olofmeister2555
shoxiejesuss882
markeloff110
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King112
Other Games
B2W.Neo819
Lowko462
crisheroes255
RuFF_SC225
ZerO(Twitch)17
Organizations
StarCraft: Brood War
Kim Chul Min (afreeca) 1302
UltimateBattle 56
lovetv 7
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• musti20045 31
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 2
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Nemesis2654
Other Games
• WagamamaTV216
Upcoming Events
OSC
1h 43m
Maestros of the Game
4h 13m
Serral vs Percival
SHIN vs ShoWTimE
Replay Cast
12h 43m
Replay Cast
21h 43m
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
1d 3h
Maestros of the Game
1d 4h
Clem vs Lambo
Zoun vs SKillous
Replay Cast
1d 12h
Replay Cast
1d 21h
Solar vs Classic
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
2 days
Grudge Match
2 days
FlaShFTW vs A.Alm
[ Show More ]
OSC
2 days
GSL
2 days
herO vs Rogue
Maru vs Cure
Patches Events
3 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
3 days
BSL
3 days
Monday Night Weeklies
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Kung Fu Cup
5 days
Maestros of the Game
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

KK 2v2 League Season 1
RSL Revival: Season 5
Heroes Pulsing #1

Ongoing

BSL Season 22
IPSL Spring 2026
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
Acropolis #4
CSCL: Masked Kings S4
YSL S3
SCTL 2026 Spring
WardiTV Spring 2026
Maestros of the Game 2
2026 GSL S2
Murky Cup 2026
Heroes Pulsing #2
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026

Upcoming

BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Heroes Pulsing #3
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.