BD was here, BP is a loser.

As someone who doesn't have four above-average skilled friends to play with daily (or at all), I am often forced to play Matchmaking. In my last article, I talked about why the system was broken. Thankfully, S2 has indeed closed the SMR gap (at least from what I can see, I am now sitting on 1700 SMR) quite nicely as of last week. On that note, I want to mention that although I do like to criticize things S2 does that I don't agree with, I do give credit where credit is due, and from what I can see so far, S2 has (thank god) done a great job in fixing Matchmaking.

That said, why on earth did they switch it back to Banning Pick?


Webcam footage of me reading the patch notes

On that note, I'd like to drop my personal opinion on both modes.

Banning Pick seems to be, for the most part, the competitive standard, leaving no room for any "luck" of heroes being drafted, and less imbalance to the team who gets to ban/pick first. And that's about it, as far as Pros go. One typical argument myself and others like to bring up against Banning Pick is that you always see the same heroes in it. Sure, somewhere down the line, the last two picks of every team are going to have some variation. But you can bet your balls Plague Rider, Accursed, etc are going to be banned every time, and of course, since there aren't enough bans as there are slightly overpowered heroes, the same heroes are usually picked. Sure, sometimes bans vary, sometimes someone wont ban Hellbringer. But what then? You can bet your ass somebody is going to pick him.


Edwin G. Boring, big fan on Banning Pick

What really breaks my back, however, is the fact that in Matchmaking I can not chose what slot I want to take. As already mentioned, the most hero variation happens in the last two or tree slots of every team. In matchmaking, I am literally always the first picker/banner on my team. I realize this is a "personal" problem that not everyone may share with me, but try to put yourself in my shoes. Assuming I want to try my hardest to win each game (which I do), I am literally always playing the same 3-4 heroes. Demented Shaman, Hellbringer, Accursed, etc. Whatever doesn't get banned.

Banning Draft needs no explanation. It's less fair, but it adds more dynamic to the game, and less of the same heroes every game.

As far as I know, Banning Pick is chosen for "fairness" rather than fun. That said, why on earth would S2, in the midst of trying to make Matchmaking more appealing, change it back to Banning Pick?

S2Jason had this to say, last Wednesday: "We are experimenting with it. We started with BP, decided to try BD for a while, now we are back to BP. It could change again, we are just trying to gauge what is best :)"

The danger I am sensing here is that S2 thinks Banning Pick is more fun than Banning Draft based on the deductive logic that more people played Matchmaking when it was Banning Pick. This is of course ignoring the context completely, which, need I remind you, was that Matchmaking was completely busted due to the ridiculous SMR gap in every game.

I for one hope Banning Draft gets put back in. That, or I want to at least be able to set my slot color to Orange/Brown.