If we can ban maps, why can't we ban civs?

I’m not even asking for a lot of civ bans. Just one civ ban, like they do in pro tournaments. Sick of playing against the same civs and same strats. It’s not a case of “git gud” either. Even if you beat these one-dimensional low skill cheese strats, the games are not fun, they’re just messy and unsatisfying. You have to abandon your entire build order and all the momentum is in favour of the cheese player. And no, I’m not advocating for going back to the stale knight / crossbow meta. We just need one civ ban, it’s not a lot to ask and it won’t destroy the balance of the game.

Edit: I’m talking about 1v1 games only. Team games matchmaking would obviously be impossible with 4 to 8 different civ bans.

3 Likes

I wonder how it should be implemented. Give a random civilization?

Just have a backup civ as a 2nd choice if your matched opponent has banned your 1st choice.

optimistic answer: banning maps is a way to agree on a map with your opponent. this is a situation where a compromise with your opponent is required. with civs this is not the case, you can play whatever civ you want, and so can your opponent
cynic answer: if you can ban civs, what’s the purpose of buying new dlc. your opponent can just ban out civs you like

personal opinion: if I want to practice with a particular civ, what right do you have to ban it from me?

1 Like

Under my proposal, you can only ban one civ. So no, you can’t just ban all the civs you don’t like. And the alternative to a backup civ system would be to simply not match with players who have picked your banned civ. Just like it won’t match you with players on Arena if you’ve banned that map.

1 Like

how does this work in team games?
and it doesn’t change the argument. Say I buy the new DLC because I want to play Georgians, and then i can’t because my opponent bans them.

a) this would require a complete overhaul of the matchmaking system. atm you get matched with an opponent based soley on elo. then a map is picked based on the bans. Also this doesnt make sense because you probably want to ban a different civ on arabia than on arena or nomad.
b) that’s not a correct comparison. you still get matched with people who ban Arena

1 Like

It wouldn’t be an option in Team Games. 1v1 only.

I ban Arena 1v1 and I never have to play that map.

I’m not banning you from playing that civ, I’m just banning the civ. You can keep picking that civ as much as you want and the system will just match you with another player who hasn’t banned that civ.

1 Like

I think the actual reason is that the devs want to sell OP DLC civs and this kind of a ban would stop that real quick. Now that being said, I think that this would be a good idea not just for 1v1s, but also for team games. This will also work as a metric to identify which civs players don’t want to play against, and thus require changes.

2 Likes

Civs from the most recent DLC could just be excluded from the ban pool until the next DLC comes out.