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If you have reached at least Level 15 and Gold III rank in Competitive mode, congratulations! You now have access to character bans! If every player in a match are also at least Gold III or higher, you can begin banning characters at the start of each game. This guide will go over this season's best characters to ban and why it's effective.
Quick Ban Overview
At the round start, you and your team can all select one character you would like to see banned for that match. Each vote contributes to a percent chance of getting picked. The more votes a character gets, the higher the chance they get banned. If four players vote to ban Iron Man, but you vote to ban Thor, you still have a 20% chance of Thor getting banned despite a majority voting Iron Man.
Each team will vote to ban two characters each. If both teams ban the same character, you essentially lose out on additional bans. This means each match will have a minimum of 2 total characters banned and a maximum of 4 characters. Now onto the best characters to ban!
Rocket Raccoon
Rocket Raccoon got some major changes with the Season 2 balance update, and it appears to have made him incredibly overpowered. His healing orbs heal more hp with each shot now, and bouncing them gives even more health. If you bounce shots next to teammates, they can get an absurd amount of healing. His new ultimate is also very strong at healing the team and giving a damage boost. With his revive station on top of everything, Rocket has become the newest must ban character in the game.
Emma Frost
While Emma Frost may be the new character for Season 2, there are a couple of good reasons to ban her. First, players will rush to pick her, even if they have no clue how to play her. If you're playing ranked, I'm sure you want to rank up. Banning Emma makes sure you don't get stuck with a teammate who doesn't mind losing a few matches to learn the character.
Secondly, many players are learning how to fight against this tank, so she's especially effective until the meta figures her out. You don't want your team destroyed by an opposing Emma who has already spent a multitude of hours in quick play mastering her.
Namor
Namor is no surprise at this point for veteran players. Those auto-aiming turrets can be devastating to both divers and flying characters. Banning him is a simple, effective way of ensuring you can use those characters safely.
Hulk
If you want to keep Namor around in case you need him, but want to ensure he isn't too strong, just ban Hulk. He got some significant buffs in Season 2, so he's a solid tank to play as is. The Gamma Charge Team-Up gives Iron Man and Namor some solid buffs, so taking Hulk out basically eliminates 3 birds with 1 stone.
Spider-Man
Spider-Man has surged dramatically in play rate. He can single-handedly make or break your team depending on if your Spidey is better than your opponents. Instead of rolling the die on if yours is the better Spidey, just take him off the table completely. Banning him will help keep your back line safe from an unpredictable death.
Magik
Similar to Spider-Man, Magik has shared in popularity and has become a very tough diver to deal with. Thanks to her melee cancels, players have mastered zero to death combos that can take your healers out of commission for most of the match. Her Limbo teleporting makes her really hard to lock in kills on. Her ultimate also makes her often times invulnerable since each hit she connects gives her bonus health. She's not quite as oppressive as Spider-Man can be, but she is still definitely worth banning.
Wolverine
This character is a tank killer. If you have seen a good Wolverine player, you know how much potential he has. You can literally pick up the enemy tank and throw him to your team or away from healers to ensure they can't survive. You can try to counter pick with characters like Venom or Magneto, but then you are changing your team comp to lessen the impact of a strong character. Most players would rather just ban him and ensure your tanks have a fighting chance.
Groot
I called this ban out at the start of Season 1. Groot is arguably the best tank in the game right now. His walls are detrimental to letting healers reach their team. He can constantly trap opponents in a cage while everyone focus-fires on them. The walls also make tanks like Thor and The Thing much harder to use. Banning Groot takes away a enormous asset your team may abuse to separate your team from each other constantly.
Mister Fantastic
As the final ban pick, Mister Fantastic has jumped back into the meta with Season 2. While he may not be a popular ban picks right now, he is my "get ahead of the meta" ban pick for the season. He has just become way too difficult to kill, especially when paired with Invisible Woman. His damage increases at the season start have also made him a lot scarier to fight against. If the meta continues it's trend, Mister Fantastic will soon be a constant pick. Banning him gets ahead of the meta and keeps the problem suppressed, and keeps you climbing ranks early in the season.
