Following the long-awaited First Stand tournament, Riot Games announced some very exciting news regarding the competitive League of Legends scene for the remainder of 2025. Not only was this change met with positive feedback at the start of the year, but it seems it may have increased the engagement from fans all over the world, prompting viewers to ask for the new format to stay indefinitely.
With that being said, we will go over the recent announcement for Fearless Draft in LoL Esports and what that might mean for the future of the competitive world.
Advertisement
Fearless Draft in 2025
After an exciting debut in Split 1 and the First Stand Tournament, Fearless Draft is here to stay! Following overwhelmingly positive feedback from fans and discussions with teams across all regions, LoL Esports is extending Fearless Draft for the remainder of the 2025 season, starting in Split 2.
Right from the get-go, it is incredible to see Riot Games promoting change in its Esports to not only enhance the viewing experience for fans, but also give teams new way to compete and enjoy the game.
Not only that, but it seems shaking things up in such a fashion might even prove crucial to sustaining the current viewership and interest, possibly even increasing it more, further cementing League of Legends as one of the lead Esports that could foster in a more entertaining era for the competitive aspect of games.
Advertisement
What is Fearless Draft?
Fearless Draft is an evolution of the traditional pick/ban system that challenges teams to adapt and innovate in every series. In this format, champions picked in previous games of a best-of-series become unavailable for both teams in subsequent games. This creates a progressively shrinking champion pool, forcing teams to showcase deeper champion mastery, experiment with new strategies, and bring out unexpected picks.
It goes without saying that Fearless Draft is incredibly fun to watch, given how teams are forced into playing champions that rarely get the chance to shine, and seeing all of the different strategies and pocket picks from teams from all regions, makes it even more challenging to prepare for best-of-three (Bo3) and best-of-five (Bo5) matches.
Although there are some caveats concerning the fairness of Fearless Draft when taking into account the Blue Side advantages in regard to champion bans, it is interesting to see how the League of Legends developers will balance the meta picks so that teams have a better chance at showing their game knowledge and skills, without being forced to permaban specific overpowered champions, thus resulting in less options when it comes to planning out their draft.
Ultimately, Fearless Draft is a very positive change in the long run, as it will add even more hype to international tournament, and even give a slight edge to underperforming regions to finally defeat the LCK and LPL rosters that have been infamous for their sheer dominance over almost the entirety of LoL Esports. In the meantime, you can check out the entire announcement, here.
Advertisement
