League of Legends: How Fearless Draft Works
Fearless Draft is set to debut in every single region heading into 2025 as the competitive League of Legends landscape is set to completely change.
Popularized this year in the League of Legends Pro League in China, Fearless Draft was a concept that quickly caught the attention of many fans because it forces teams to flex their champion pool and opt for more unique picks. Given the new changes to competitive League of Legends, notably the creation of the new LoL Americas League, some fans of the game may have trouble identifying what a Fearless Draft exactly is. This would especially hold true for certain regions that didn't use it in the 2024 competitive season.
Here is your guide towards understanding what Fearless Draft is in League of Legends, the different variations, and when you will be able to see it in the LTA.
What is Fearless Draft?
Fearless Draft is a system where teams cannot play the same set of champions twice in a row. So if team one plays Sylas in game one, they will be unable to use him in the next game while their opponent is free to choose Sylas if they would like. Additionally, teams will have bans available to them in most scenarios as Fearless Draft forces teams to be more flexible in draft by expanding the pool of champions.
As a result, Fearless Draft is not available in a best-of-one format and is primarily used in best-of-three and best-of-five series. However, the exact rules for Fearless Draft go much deeper as there are two types of Fearless Drafting: Soft and Hard.
What is a Soft Fearless Draft?
A Soft Fearless Draft follows the initial concept of a Fearless Draft. Teams are unable to select champions picked in the previous game while their opponent is free to use any champion used by their opponent and vice versa. Additionally, teams can only select a champion once for the rest of the series, but they are still free to use any champions that their opponents may have already used which expands the competitive champion pool, but does not fully force teams to play 50 unique champions in a five-game series.
What is a Hard Fearless Draft?
A Hard Fearless Draft is very different from the Soft Fearless Draft, as teams can only play a champion once in the series. So, in the previous scenario, teams were allowed to reuse champions picked by their opponents as long as they did not play it themselves in the series. In Hard Fearless Draft, both teams are essentially picking from the pool of all League of Legends champions. When one champion is selected, they are unable to be chosen by either team for the rest of the series, meaning that you would always be guaranteed 50 unique champions if a series went the full five games.
When does the LoL Americas Season begin?
The LoL Americas Season will begin onJanuary 25, 2024.
Fans will have to wait a few months to watch Fearless Draft continue as competitive LoL is officially in the offseason. With a number of high-profile players switching regions and teams, it will be interesting to see how Fearless Draft can shift the competitive landscape moving forward. Additionally, it will be interesting to see if teams can adapt to the new Fearless Draft format and possibly stop the T1 dynasty from winning their third consecutive world championship.
League of Legends esports fans looking to understand the new format for the 2025 LEC season should be sure to check out our guide detailing everything you need to know about the upcoming season.
Sage got his start in esports as a volunteer writer in 2016 for esports organization, Dignitas. Since then, he has continued to work on his craft as a journalist and reporter for a number of established esports publications, such as esports.gg, Unikrn, Akshon Esports, Howla, The Player’s Lobby, Nerd Street Gamers, and most recently Dot Esports. Now, as a member of Esports Illustrated’s content team, Sage’s primary duties are centered around creating groundbreaking written and video content about the esports industry that impacts the community in a meaningful way. Sage graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology and Informatics. There, he was a member of the Rutgers Esports Executive Board, both as the head of the fighting game community and a videographer/photographer for the Content team.