Bans turn on at Gold III, not before
The single most misread rule in ranked: hero bans are not tied to your personal rank, they are tied to the whole lobby. Every player must be Gold III or higher for a ban phase to exist. One Silver II in the game and there is no draft at all — you go straight to hero select.
Below Gold III, stop thinking about bans entirely. Above it, the draft is real and the order is fixed.
The draft runs 1-2-2-1
Once bans are live, the teams alternate instead of banning at the same time:
- Team A bans 1
- Team B bans 2
- Team A bans 2
- Team B bans 1
Three bans per team, six total. Alternating removed the old double-ban problem — both teams can no longer delete the same hero, so a character only leaves the pool once. Team B sets the early tone with its pair; Team A gets the last word with its final two.
The practical habit: ban your hardest counter first, then react. If you are Team A, your single opening ban should remove the hero that most punishes your comp before Team B can bait it.
Who to ban: read your role, not the tier list
The hero at the top of a tier list is not always the hero that beats your pick. Ban the hero type that threatens the role you are playing.
- You are a Vanguard → ban sustained ranged poke that out-values your frontline from angles your shield does not cover: Hela, Hawkeye, Iron Man.
- You are a Duelist → ban mobile dive that collapses your backline and removes your sustain mid-fight: Spider-Man, Black Panther, Magik.
- You are a Strategist → ban the same divers, because your kit is keeping that backline alive and those heroes exist to reach it.
This role-based frame is the reasoning behind the ban assistant, which maps it to your inputs.
The snapshot ban-rate leaders
These were the highest ban rates tracked in November 2026. They move every season, so treat them as “who is currently oppressive,” not “who to always ban”:
| Hero | Ban rate (Nov 2026) |
|---|---|
| Devil Dinosaur | 42.84% |
| Phoenix | 32.65% |
| Gambit | 16.93% |
If one of these is on the enemy’s likely roster and fits your role threat above, it is a safe early ban. If it does not fit your role, let the enemy waste a ban on it.
If-then: should you even ban this game?
- Your comp has no counter to a specific oppressive hero → ban that hero first, regardless of tier.
- Your comp answers everything the enemy could run → ban the current snapshot leader to deny value.
- You are below Gold III → no draft exists; spend the time on hero select, not ban planning.
The ranked guide covers where Gold III sits on the ladder and why the ban line is the clearest marker between low and mid rank.