Riot wanted to change some things in League of Legends in 2025. This wasn’t just about gameplay changes; the eSport needed adjustments too. One of the most important changes is the Fearless Draft. However, it is more controversial within the community than one might think.
What is the Fearless Draft? The draft in LoL generally has two stages in eSports: bans and picks. This stays the same in the Fearless Draft in the first match.
- 1. Both teams ban 3 champions each and then pick 3
- 2. Both teams ban 2 champions each and then pick the remaining 2
This process was then repeated for each match depending on the format. However, the problem, depending on the meta, was that the same champions were constantly being banned or picked, leading to little variation.
The aim is to counter this with the Fearless Draft and make eSport more entertaining. In a Best-of-3
or Best-of-5
, each champion can only be played once. This ensures that professional players must have multiple champions in their repertoire and must react to multiple champions from their opponents.
For viewers, this seems like an exciting change, but a current reddit thread shows that the Fearless Draft is more controversial than one might think.
The Fearless Draft is Loved and Hated
How is the community reacting to the Fearless Draft so far? In a recent reddit thread, the user Spacerock678 calls the Fearless Draft the best thing that has happened to LoL eSports. He believes that the matches are much more fun to watch now. Currently, the thread has over 3700 upvotes and almost 460 comments, not all of which entirely agree with this view.
Users like Cybonics agree with the thread creator (via reddit). He finds the games in the Chinese league LPL particularly good. User Nichoova (via reddit) writes that he enjoys the Fearless Draft, but does not believe it will help eSports grow.
Other users are much more critical:
- benthecarmen (via reddit) criticizes:
I really hate it because it doesn’t bring about new choices and removes all interesting aspects of the draft.
- CanadianODST2 (via reddit) writes:
I hate it tbh. I want to see them at their best, not diversity for the sake of it.
- Aschentei (via reddit) sees pros and cons:
It is nice for viewers, but must be a nightmare for coaches, especially in bo5. For professional players, it reveals those with small champ pools.
Even Riot itself has commented on the difficulties with balancing as more champions need to be taken into account.
Is the criticism legitimate? Riot wants eSports to become more attractive for viewers. With something like the Fearless Draft, this is possible. The skill with one champion can be exciting, but for casual viewers, it’s also interesting to see new champions regularly played at a high level.
At the Worlds 2024, one could already see how rigid a meta can be. Champions like Aurora or Yone were banned almost every match, and other champions like Skarner or Jax were almost always present. Many viewers criticized this at the time as well. Other innovations are also drawing criticism: Fans of League of Legends criticize Riot for its greed, expressing concern over the LoL MMORPG
