T1 Superstar Makes “Harsh” Comments on Fearless Draft
Since the beginning of the 2025 season, the Fearless Draft mode has been widely implemented across major and minor professional League of Legends tournaments. According to information from Riot, this mechanism will be applied in the upcoming MSI 2025, and shortly after, the Esports World Cup 2025 will also follow suit. However, according to T1 superstar Gumayusi, Fearless Draft has not yet lived up to expectations. The explanations from the 2002-born AD Carry align with the sentiments of many viewers, with the root cause stemming from Riot.
According to Gumayusi’s comments on his stream, at least in the LCK, even with Fearless Draft, the team compositions still consist of very predictable bans and picks. “When the meta is established, only champions within the meta are chosen,” Gumayusi shared.
In reality, the player’s observations are completely valid. After several matches stretching to a BO5, changes are only seen later on, while BO3 matches still predominantly feature easily predictable champions. The Top Lane still showcases champions suitable for team fights or pure tanks (Sion, Yorick, Rumble, Gwen, Jayce), while the Mid Lane continues to revolve around Azir, Ahri, Taliyah, and Viktor. Other lanes are quite similar, and if a match only revolves around 2 games, viewers hardly see the impact of Fearless Draft.
In fact, Riot is responsible for this issue because clearly, many champions still dominate over others. For example, in Gumayusi’s Bottom Lane, players still prioritize names like Jhin, Varus, Miss Fortune, and Ezreal over rarely seen champions like Draven or Jinx. Even a champion that was once very strong, Zeri, has only appeared 18 times in bans and picks—far too low compared to Ezreal (54 times).
Fearless Draft May Only Shine in BO5 Matches
At the BO5 matches in the LCK Cup 2025, the Fearless Draft feature has excited many viewers with the appearance of unique picks like Aurelion Sol (a champion that has fallen out of the meta) or Viego in the Mid Lane. However, waiting until the BO5 for such changes is too long. And if a BO5 match ends after just 3 games, nothing changes.
Thus, Fearless Draft fundamentally does not bring any change unless the teams themselves want to experiment. However, in crucial matches, the inclination to experiment diminishes, and at that point, everything remains the same as it was before the implementation of Fearless Draft.