If you have reached at least rank Diamond 3 in Competitive mode, congratulations! You now have access to character bans! If every player in a match are also at least Diamond 3 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 1 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 4 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 2 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!
Hulk
Hulk has proven to be one of the best tanks in the game, but that isn't why he is ban-worthy. His Team-Up ability with Iron Man and Doctor Strange makes their existing moves much stronger with Hulk. By banning Hulk, you are effectively taking out a strong tank and eliminating a crucial Team-Up. To keep Hulk but still break up the Team-Up, you would need to ban both Iron Man and Doctor Strange. It just makes more sense to ban one character rather than two.
Luna Snow
Similarly to Hulk, Luna Snow is a good ban because she effectively bans two characters. Her Team-Up with Namor gives him access to a third squid, making him significantly more potent. While you could just ban Namor outright, Luna has one of the "nothing dies for 8 seconds" Ultimate abilities, so you will often ban the support over the DPS characters.
Cloak and Dagger
This is another strategist that you definitely want to see banned, but with a caveat: A significant number of players play Cloak & Dagger because Dagger's shots have a bit of auto-aim, so you don't have to be good at aiming to perform well. If you ban them, you are removing a crutch may players rely on to support their team effectively. Not only that, but you are also removing a potential invincibility ultimate from the match as well.
As for that caveat I mentioned, this has the potential to hurt your own team. If you want to go for this ban, communicate with your team first. If you have a teammate who only plays support as Cloak & Dagger, just let them have their character. It isn't worth crippling yourself in the hopes the enemy team gets crippled worse.
Storm
Since her buff at the start of the season, Storm has been incredibly strong. Her ultimate ability specifically is very quickly to charge and can easily wipe out your backing. You don't want to deal with this, so just ban her to avoid the headache. While you can counter the Ultimate with a counter-Ultimate from a healer, but then you can easily get baited to use the ultimate before the enemy team pushes in. If you plan on running three supports, you may can afford to take the chance on Storm since you have extra healing to "weather the storm". If not, Storm is a safe ban every game.
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
This one may surprise you, but Groot is a must-ban in my opinion for several reasons: First, he can put walls up that can both trap opponents and block all healing sources. Second, his Ultimate ability can team wipe you if combined with another ultimate like Iron Man, Magneto, or Moon Knight. Finally, his walls can literally lock you out of routes or the objective. You can try to shoot them down, but if you are a healer trying to rush back to your team, good luck breaking through. Banning Groot will simply ensure you don't lose because of a single Groot player who understands how to properly play the character.
Squirrel Girl
As the final ban pick, Squirrel Girl is what I would consider to be a good ban if you don't want to ban the other characters. The damage output her basic shots do is extremely deadly for your backline. A couple of shots landing in the same spot can wipe out your healer in a second. Her Squirrel Stampede Ultimate is also highly effective in maps with tight corridors or hallways. It will repeatedly bounce around the room and take out multiple players, all while she continues to shoot. You won't often see Squirrel Girl get picked match to match, but I find her to be a mandatory ban on maps like Midtown.
