The Fearless Draft Mode Will Still Be Hard to Implement Widely in Current League of Legends
In fact, Fearless Draft was implemented in the LPL since 2024, but it only gained significant attention and buzz when the LCK and the APAC region used an entire tournament to test this mode. Immediately, Fearless Draft became the “true love” that the League of Legends community greatly “revered” for its excitement and the diversity of champions that powerful teams could use.
Specifically, in the matches between T1 – HLE and HLE – Gen.G, there have been around 60 champions appearing (in both banning and picking). Notably, some “strange” picks were also applied, such as Support Camille or Top Lane Lee Sin. In summary, the League of Legends community is urging Riot to soon implement Fearless Draft in all remaining tournaments this year. However, this seems currently impossible.
Firstly, Fearless Draft will force teams to expand their champion pool. For some players like ShowMaker or Chovy, this is completely normal. But for Faker, it will be a major issue. Mel and Aurora of his are not very effective when used. In fact, Faker’s Mel even had a “self-destruct” moment because he couldn’t grasp the mechanics of the Reflective Mirror.
Of course, the overall benefit will outweigh the benefit of a few individual players. However, this raises the issue of Riot’s champion balance. Currently, most champions do not seem overly dominant. But if Riot continues to create more champions like K’Sante or Mel in the future, Fearless Draft will immediately face balance issues, and certain champions will be continuously banned.
Not to mention, players will face tremendous pressure to expand their champion pool in a short time. For instance, Smash is believed to have a good handle on 3 “specialized” champions of Gumayusi but does not perform the champion quality of the preferred picks of his senior, such as Draven, Jinx, or Jhin. Or when Ruler is forced to choose a champion for the weak side, he immediately becomes “harmless and gets taken down” – according to comments from LPL fans.
Professional League of Legends May Implement Fearless Draft Fully, But Not Yet
Of course, League of Legends may also apply Fearless Draft for the entire tournament in the future. But that will be when players are accustomed to expanding their champion pool beyond the meta, and when Riot no longer creates overly powerful “200-year” champions compared to the rest, which could cause the game to become unbalanced.