The Ban-Pick Trap
If you're going to run a ban-pick like this, fire the coach... wait, there is no coach, is there? In VA, the main damage dealer position for ranged dealers hinges on precise distance control and skill shots. Though it's a core role that gets pampered with support from the bottom lane where two players are invested, even this seemingly vital position carries a chronic weakness just like any other: it's excessively passive. A ranged dealer's early-game influence is practically nonexistent, so they suffer more than other roles from team and ban-pick dependency. ...This is one of the fundamental reasons ranged dealers always feel wronged and stay on edge in-game. Above all, for someone like me who always leads operations and strategy, being forced into ADC feels like the absolute worst position assignment, as if someone is saying, "You're bored? Here, go eat some dirt."
"Well... experiencing ADC at least once isn't a bad thing, so I'll try to think positively about it."
Since the assigned position couldn't be changed without team consensus, I decided to accept my fate.
While I was agonizing over what to pick as ADC, the congregation mostly advised me to at least request a swap.
"I can't be bothered to do that."
I had no desire to lower myself by asking someone else for a favor, especially not against someone like Xedion, a regional powerhouse mid laner. So without any position swaps, we moved into the ban-pick phase.
Perhaps because this was the highest tier even among the heavenly realm, and because everyone was genuinely invested in their rank during the early days of the league system, the team chat was having a surprisingly in-depth discussion about the ban-pick.
Both of them seemed like cheerful players from what I remembered, and seeing them speak politely while still preparing seriously made me think the game might actually go smoothly.
"Everyone's really serious about the ban-pick."
Oh, summer league is starting soon already? Time flies.
"The enemy is banning Wraith Knight first."
Anyway, back to the ban-pick—the enemy banned Wraith Knight and responded to our blue-side first-pick Outlaw with a Pirate + Necromancer summoner combination.
Because the Pirate blocked buff effects and the Necromancer blocked healing, Paladin, Priest, and Commander were all effectively banned.
"Ah, wait a second..."
Thinking about the pick order and composition that followed, I could sense we had fallen into a trap.
"There are about five front-line jobs that can hold the line in VA, right? The enemy took two of them, indirectly banned one, and now it's their turn to pick again..."
As expected, the enemy picked Berserker in the fourth pick, completely sealing off all our usable front-line jobs.
"Ah... this is going to be a bit rough."
Even on paper, Berserker has bad matchups against both Necromancer and Pirate, so it wasn't exactly a great pick in this situation. But running a composition with no front line at all would make things even harder unless we had some special way to deal with theirs.
The support seemed to have grasped the situation late, and the top laner quickly suggested the next best option.
"Haha... we got completely wrecked."
When the enemy picked Paladin last and swapped the Berserker they had already picked into mid, they completely dominated the ban-pick. Among warrior classes, Paladin's solid tanking power was like an insurmountable wall for any rogue-type job. With Blade Master and Assassin on our team in top and mid respectively, this was a problem that couldn't be solved even with a swap.
In a scenario where Wraith Knight and Demon Hunter were banned, the red side's ban-pick was close to perfect. If anything, it was the best possible outcome.
"The enemy executed the ban-pick flawlessly. Every single pick was lethal."
If anyone only saw the two teams' ban-picks, ninety-nine out of a hundred people would demand the coach's immediate dismissal over how badly we got destroyed.
And the congregation's concerns became reality.
The game has started!
Team BLUE
TPG Jellybear[87] (Blade Master)
GC Xedion[25] (Assassin)
Saintess (Outlaw)
V4 Fledia[14] (Rune Mage)
Team RED
LF Avellon[9] (Paladin)
ZX Hades[1] (Berserker)
STD CSkiller (Pirate)
KNT Thanatos[4] (Necromancer)
Haha... even so, having 1st, 4th, and 9th place on the enemy team feels a bit shameless, doesn't it? And these weren't just regular solo queue ranks either. Avellon in 9th place was a top-tier top laner I'd spent a long time with in my first life. Thanatos, the likely mastermind behind this insane ban-pick and ranked 4th, was a two-time Worlds-winning jungler and the strategist who led GOD during their prime. And finally, Hades in 1st place was the undisputed greatest mid laner, the one called the GOAT in his first life.
*GOAT: Abbreviation for Greatest Of All Time.
Of course, the chat went into complete chaos. I didn't even know who it was, but after forcing this ridiculous matchup on me and then handing me ADC, I felt like cursing out whoever was responsible.