Original Post — Direct link

Yesterday my midlaner wanted to first time Gwen and our jungler banned the champion to avoid this. As a result the midlaner said he would run it down and first time Qiyana instead, because his champion was banned. I checked his game history, he played Gwen before that and did less damage than enemy's support in that game.

I understand the motivation to learn newly released champions but people should not do this in ranked and cause other people to lose LP as a reault. Play the champion in normals, learn it, get used to it and THEN queue for ranked.

I know Dota has this rule, and I'm pretty sure some other games as well. It's such an obvious solution to avoid conflicts and griefing just because people for some reason want to first time champions in ranked. That's the only reason I always dread new champions, because this happens every time one gets released. Just make it so you can't pick the champion in ranked for a week or two, so people would have an opportunity to practice it in normals first.

External link →
almost 4 years ago - /u/RiotRayYonggi - Direct link

Early ranked data is important for evaluating the balance of a champion. If a champion releases and on day 0 or day 1 they are 46%+ that usually means they are OP and could use a micropatch. Also we use "launch win-rate growth" as a metric to evaluate accessibility and mastery curve. Overall invaluable information as balancing using draft/blind pick is not reliable.