Riot to disable Banner of Command in ARAM due to whole teams buying the item

The Banner of Command item will soon be removed from the ARAM game mode in League of Legends, according to Riot designer “Mortdog” on Twitter.

Riot doesn’t typically decide to remove items entirely from game modes lightly, so the frustration caused by the Banner in everyone’s favorite single-lane slugfest must have been through the roof. Mortdog plainly said in his tweet that it’s “not really fun” to play against a team full of Banners on the ARAM map, which is much smaller and more chaotic than Summoner’s Rift.

The ARAM game mode, whether it be on Butcher’s Bridge or the Howling Abyss map, is a volatile one. It doesn’t obey the same rules of meta and balance that your typical five-vs-five Summoner’s Rift game does, because, frankly, it feels like a different game entirely.

That’s why, occasionally, an item that was designed and balanced with Summoner’s Rift in mind can get a little out of control. Warmog’s Armor is often thought to be one such item, because it gives tanks the opportunity to bypass the mode’s “no recalling and no healing in base” rule by dishing out massive out-of-combat regeneration.

Related: What Patch 8.11’s massive ARAM changes mean for the future of the League game mode

Well, it turns out that the Banner of Command fills that category. Players were finding that they didn’t need to actually engage with the enemy team early in an ARAM. They could simply pick up a cheap Banner, beef up five minions, and watch them barrel down the lane as the early-game enemies would struggle to stop them. It’s oppressive, extremely difficult to deal with, and Riot’s cutting it out entirely.

Unfortunately for all of the Banner-haters out there, it’s not going anywhere on Summoner’s Rift… yet.