Sorry for the noob question but why are four champions banned at the start of every ranked game?

Doesn't this make the game less competitive since you get to cherry pick against champions that you're bad against? Doesn't being skilled mean being able to adapt to different combinations of teams?

I just don't understand the purpose of this, it seems like it's to pander to noobs who feed Tryn. Can someone explain the reasoning behind this?

1. Helps stop OP champs from ruining games until Riot nerfs them
2. Allows you to ban specific characters that might counter a strategy that you have (eg ban janna if you're running an AoE strat).

Its like the -CM mode in DotA, which was the 'official' Tournament Mode for playing the game.

A little dumb though, since Ram and Shen are unplayable in ranked. I'm pretty disappointed in Ranked frankly.

hah

TF was just OP though, if anyone recalls weee back in the beta, youd gate, toss a wild card and gate before the cards pushed the lane back.. that is broken.

I cry every game i'm in where the captain has the opportunity to ban rammus or shen, and doesn't because 'omg panth/eve/fiddle/kassadin/insert a name' will own us more than a turtle or a ninja!

Then, of course, first pick on the enemy team is them, and the rest of the game is a taunt QQ fest, either ram pulling someone off of or towards a turret, or shen shield/teleport/dash taunting a 3 person gank off the 1 person they found.

Shen is not broken.
Rammus is not broken.

Taunt is broken.

/opinion

I only play Rammus, he is the only champ I forked over money for more than a year ago. I do not play Ranked, because he is always banned. He and his taunt can be crushed easily by anyone who know how to stun him and use magic. However, I would be quite fine if RIOT chose to get rid of Taunt altogether (maybe with a cleanse like spell) just so I could actuallly play ranked games with him. I almost never play against other Rammus in Normal games either... its a shame, I enjoy going head to head with my rolling compadre.

Taunt is kind of broken, if you think about it. They should either rework it, remove it, or call it something else; because what kind of bloody idiot would turn and attack someone *just* because they called them a name? Far as I can tell from the lore there's no magic equivalent, and I know there's no real life equivalent.