Recently there has been a fair bit of curiosity around Fearless Draft in professional League of Legends. Much of the community’s interest in it peaked after a recent leak speculated that the Chinese League of Legends circuit, or the LPL, will move to the format in the upcoming 2024 Summer Split.
The Fearless Draft format, which is also termed “Fearless” was first introduced in the Chinese League of Legends Academy League (LDL) back in 2022.
The fundamentals of the format revolved around the idea of introducing more experimentation in professional LoL. However, as this was only introduced in a few academy Leagues, there is not much widespread knowledge of how it actually works.
Contents:
- How does Fearless Draft work in League of Legends
- Fearless Draft positive
- Fearless Draft negative
- Fearless Draft expectations
So how does Fearless work in competitive League of Legends?
Here are some of the salient features that a Fearless Draft format will introduce in professional League:
- All the champions that a team has picked in Game 1 cannot be picked by the same team again in Games 2 and 3.
- Champions used in Games 1 and 2 by a team will not be allowed to the same team in Game 3.
- However, champions picked by a team in Game 1 can be picked by the enemy team in Game 2. The same follows for Games 2 and 3.
This is how the Fearless format is currently working in both the LDL as well as the NACL (North American Challengers League). The LPL will likely see certain variations to the ruling if the format is implemented there.
Needless to say, Fearless is a rather drastic draft format to introduce in professional LoL. With the amount of importance that is given to team drafts in pick-and-ban, the community is divided on how they feel about it.
However, there are positives and negatives to the format that we touched on below:
Positives of the Fearless Draft in League of Legends
1) Introduce draft diversity
Watching the same champions being picked every game can get quite boring for fans during the regular season. Now banning away champions that have been picked will help introduce a fair bit of draft diversity. Help prevent the meta from going stale.
2) No more Azir-Corki in every game
Once a professional team gets used to a meta they hardly stray from it and tend to pick the same champions over and over again. The Azir-Corki Mid Lane is one such example of a past meta where teams were only picking these champions into each other.
With the additional champion bans, teams will be forced to introduce a fair bit of draft flexibility.
3) Players will be made to increase their champion pool
Another positive of the Fearless Draft in professional League of Legends will be to make players increase their champion pools. Players usually stick to their comfort picks in games. With this draft, they will be made to pick beyond their comfort zone.
Negatives of the Fearless Draft in League of Legends
1) Affect champion mastery
One of the cons of the Fearless format is that it will affect a player’s champion mastery. Many argue that one of the biggest virtues of the current tournament format is that it allows champion familiarity.
The more adept a player is with a particular champion, the more will it affect the pick-and-ban against the player. The Champion Select Screen is where half the battle is won in a professional game.
Champion familiarity also helps a player know when the pick they are up against is weak and when they hit the proper item power spikes. Getting additional bans and forcing a player to a completely different pick will affect the highest level of play.
2) Negatively impact the highest level of play
The ridiculous outplays that fans have come to enjoy from professional League of Legends players can be credited to champion familiarity. By removing this from Games 2 and 3, teams are forced into unfamiliar matchups.
This can negatively impact play especially if the players do not have a wide enough champion pool to draw from.
Fearless Draft expectations: Will it make its way to all major Leagues and Regions
As Fearless coming to LPL is still speculative at best at the moment, it’s hard to say if it will be making its way to the LEC, LCK, and the LCS. Much of it being implemented in other leagues will depend on the amount of success that it has in the Chinese League of Legends circuit.
