Pick and Ban: Drafting Your Way to Victory
A look into the drafting phase, why it's important, and how to do it properly.
With the game becoming more team oriented as every season passes by, the importance of drafting a perfect team composition becomes higher and higher each day. But unfortunately most players are still incapable of drafting for the team. By using TSM vs IMT's second game during the last week of the summer split as an example, this article will guide you through how to properly ban and pick your way to an advantage before the game even begins.
The ban phase
The main goal of the banning phase is to prevent your opponent from picking a power pick or bait them into taking a certain pick. In the TSM vs IMT game, both teams did a great job of achieving this. TSM banned Rumble, a strong champion that Huni plays, Rek’Sai, one of the best junglers that Reignover is known for, and Taliyah, which was an attempt to bait Pobelter into picking Malzahar again. Meanwhile IMT opted to ban Shen, one of the top three top laners during that patch which also played a big role in game one, Nidalee, a strong carry jungler that Svenskeren can play very efficiently, and Bard, one of the main causes for IMT’s game one loss. While this game showed that both teams understood each other very well and were able to make precise bans against each other, you should mainly focus on banning the power picks of each patch or eliminating a counter to the champion you hope to play as you lack the same amount of information as the pro players.
First rotation
The first rotation is generally very open in terms of what your plan will be for the game, due to the fact that you’re picking the first champion for your team. The pick will begin setting the win condition for your team composition while setting yourself up for the following rotations to come. In the TSM vs IMT game, this is where the game was lost for IMT. TSM started by picking Hecarim, a strong champion during the meta and a champion that is able to adapt to various team compositions and win conditions. Now this is where IMT screwed up. They decided to pick Malzahar, which was already set up to be a bait pick by TSM, and Sona, which on its own is fine. The real issue from their first rotation is that they entirely played their hand and revealed that their game plan is still the same from the first game. Along with that, they left open the Sivir/Karma bot lane, which at the time was the strongest possible lane. This allows TSM to pick a strong bot lane in the next rotation and still mainly keep their win condition hidden. In your solo queue games, the first rotation is very much similar to first rotation in a professional game. You’re able to pick your champion with mostly no limitations, while you’re also able to take away power picks from the opponent.
Second rotation
The second rotation is when you’re going to start putting the team composition together while building off of the strengths of the champions picked in the first rotation. In the TSM vs IMT game, TSM picked Sivir and Karma due to the reason mentioned in the previous section. IMT then picks Ashe and Gragas in response, two champions that synergize well with their win condition and overall team composition. In solo queue, your goal is to pick in an attempt to synergize with your teammates' first rotation picks.
Final rotation
The final rotation is your chance to clean up any weaknesses in your team’s composition while adding to any aspect of your win condition that may be lacking. In the TSM vs IMT game, TSM finished their team composition off with Zilean and Gnar while IMT finished them off with Tahm Kench. Both teams were able to finish off their team compositions perfectly with their picks. In solo queue, this rotation is the most important pick as you have the ability to make the perfect team composition or simply screw over the team completely. After the final champions have been picked, you should take the time to analyse both team compositions and what it’ll take for your team to win. If we look at the TSM vs IMT game as an example again, it’s clear that TSM’s main goal is to ensure that the Gnar and Hecarim will be able to quickly burst down the back line with assistance from the huge speed boosts provided by Zilean, Sivir and Karma. Meanwhile, IMT’s goal for the game is to keep their distance against TSM and to slowly poke them out until they can have a strong fight and initiate with either Sona or Ashe's ults. During that game that’s exactly what we saw out of both teams but due to the individual strengths of TSM’s champions and their early lead, TSM was able to win this game.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you now understand the importance of the drafting phase and how to properly ban and pick for your team. Since most games are won just from the drafting phase, your understanding of this portion of the game gives you and your team a huge advantage. Now go into solo queue and put this skill to use as you climb the ranks to your goal, good luck!
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