I absolutely loved how agent bans were implemented. I've worked in Valorant for the last 1.5 yrs and I got the chance to produce the side stream on KnightsArena, and I loved seeing how teams adapted to suddenly not having an agent in their go to comps on certain maps.

Teams had to actually think about what maps they wanted to pick/ban first and then about what agents they wanted to protect/ban. While I now believe that agent p/b should be done on a map to map basis rather than a series basis just like how League does it (it's my only other comparison point in my work), the series implementation also adds a new caveat: that teams have to be more careful as to which maps they pick/ban as they don't know what the other team will throw against them. This was especially obvious in the YFP match against Knights Academy in the Open Qualifier with their targeted ban of Jett. Though they lost to KA, other teams quickly learned to snipe down teams anchor picks and throw them off their usual comps.

That adaptation is key to keeping the game fresh.

I especially like how the protect/bans go both ways, just in how League does it. It further throws a wrench in the plans that while protects go across them both, neither team can pick their bans. Your team wants to target the enemy duelist by removing their Jett? Well, now your own duelist has to deal with no having her as well. Where and how does your team adapt to that?

While some teams did just throwaway their bans, it was a marginal percentage. I haven't completely compiled those stats across the entire tournament just yet, but almost every team was willing to test this system out.

Imagine League of Legends if Faker always had access to his Syndra or if Froggen always had Anivia? That'd be immensely boring. I think it's a fresh change to the same compositions and picks, and really separates the teams that are willing to evolve and adapt rather than one trick the same map over and over.