It seems there is confusion or a lack of clarity about how bans and map selection will work. Having watched several videos from spotlight (sick and in bed so lots of free time) I thought it might be helpful to write out my understanding of how these things will work. Let me know if I got anything wrong.
At the start of the game the sequence will be
- offered 3 maps
- each player chooses 1 map
- map is selected (see below for details)
- offered 3 hero bans per player - player can choose 0-3 heroes in priority order
- each ban is allocated points based on ranks and points totalled per hero
- each team bans 2 heroes with highest points from that team (see below for details)
- only now do you see who is on the other team (so it can’t influence which heroes are banned)
MAP SELECT
3 maps offered.
Each player chooses a map.
Map choices totalled.
The number of choices for a map is the % of the total votes they have a chance to be the map picked
As an example, the maps offered and their votes are
Havana: 1
King’s Row: 7
Paraiso: 2
They will then generate a random number from 1-10 (or 0-9 more likely).
They then map that to the map votes.
From above, if the rng is 1 then it is havana, 2-8 is KR and 9-10 is Paraiso.
This may not be the exact implementation, but does have the same probabilities as their implementation.
A simple rule is that the chance of map being picked is (10 x votes)% if everyone votes.
The reasoning here, with the rng, is that if anyone wants to play a map then there should be a chance that map is selected. Otherwise maps like Havana might never be played even though some of the player base enjoys that map.
(interesting note: map choice is not completely random currently. Once the players for a game are selected, the MM looks at the least played maps of each player and tries to find a best-match map which is least played across the players in the game).
HERO BANS
Rules
- 0-3 choices per player, ordered by preference
- max 2 heroes per role can be banned
A short period to select 3 heroes by each player. The order they are chosen is important.
Each priority has a number of points (let’s say 5 for first choice, 3 for 2nd and 1 for 3rd).
Points are tallied and ordered for each team independently.
If both teams ban the same hero, then the team with the higher number of points for that hero is the one that banned it. The 3rd choice of the other team will then be used.
When multiple heroes have the same points and that number of points is enough for the hero to be banned (imagine 10x1 vote - everyone chose a different hero) then there is some tie-break used to decide (rng I guess).
Example
Players vote with (made up numbers, not calculated to be within limits)
Team1
Widow: 19 points
Sombra: 12 points
Ana: 11 points
Zarya: 1 point
Zen: 1 point
Team2
Widow: 16 points
Ana: 14 points
Hog: 3 points
Zarya: 3 points
Mercy: 1 point
We see that Widow appears on both lists and so do Ana and Zarya. From the points, team1 gets the Widow choice and team2 gets the Ana and Zarya choices.
Now they look at team1 and see widow is most picked. Widow is banned.
Now team2 and see that Ana is top (as Widow went to team1). Ana is banned.
Now team2 again and see that Hog and Zarya or on 3 points. Tie-break (may take into account team1 chose zarya too). Zarya is banned.
Back to team1 and Sombra is next: Sombra is banned.
There are no details on how the tie-break works. Also no details on whether ties may take into account whether the other team also voted for a hero in the tie.