Has Fearless Draft actually improved champion diversity in League of Legends?

The League of Legends professional circuit used to have a drafting drawback, however has Fearless Draft truly modified that?

Prior to now, you may end sport 1 of a best-of-five, load into sport 2, and see half of the identical champions once more. Possibly they swapped sides or banned a precedence choose, however as a rule, you’re mainly watching one other model of the identical draft.

Even at Worlds, issues might get stale by the point we reached the knockout stage. Groups find yourself handshaking drafts, and out of the blue, we’re watching the identical boring Corki vs. Azir matchup in mid lane time and again. Fearless Draft was supposed to alter that.

On paper, the format inevitably creates selection. If a best-of-five collection reaches sport 5, 40 champions have already been eliminated by way of the earlier picks earlier than the common bans even start. However that raises a extra fascinating query:

Has Fearless Draft created genuinely completely different methods, or are groups merely being compelled to make use of weaker variations of the identical compositions?

Fearless Draft — at the very least in its present format – is described by Riot as “an evolution of the standard choose/ban system.” It follows one easy rule: as soon as a champion is picked by both workforce, it can’t be picked once more for the remainder of the collection.

Riot standardized the format throughout its tier 1 leagues in 2025, following earlier experiments with completely different variations of the format. In a Mar. 16 weblog publish, Riot stated they wished to create larger game-to-game selection whereas giving gamers extra alternatives to display deeper and extra uncommon champion swimming pools.

To look at the numbers, we in contrast how drafts performed out within the final three Mid-Season Invitationals (MSI).

These tournaments are notably helpful as a result of they bring about collectively completely different groups and meta tendencies from each main area. They had been additionally comparable sufficient in measurement to permit for an affordable comparability.

MSI 2024 was performed earlier than Riot rolled out Fearless Draft, recording 78 video games and 86 distinctive champions. MSI 2025 was roughly the identical measurement with 80 video games, however Fearless Draft was energetic, and the variety of distinctive champions grew to 107. At MSI 2026, solely 71 video games had been performed, but groups nonetheless picked 101 distinctive champions.

The rise from 86 champions in 2024 to 107 in 2025 means 21 further champions appeared, reflecting roughly a 24% enhance, regardless of the match having solely two extra video games. Even MSI 2026, with seven fewer video games than 2024, nonetheless featured 15 extra distinctive champions.

Importantly, this isn’t a superbly managed comparability.

Stability patches, new champion releases, collaborating groups, and the broader match meta can all have an effect on champion range. However, seeing the identical sample throughout consecutive worldwide tournaments makes it troublesome to argue that Fearless Draft hasn’t had an impact.

Nonetheless, whereas having extra distinctive champion picks is a transparent indicator of extra various video games, which may not be probably the most fascinating metric.

Wanting once more at MSI 2024, Ok’Sante was picked 51 occasions in 78 video games. Which means he appeared in round 65% of the video games performed on the match. Equally, Kalista and Senna each had a 91% choose/ban presence, whereas Ok’Sante was contested in 80.8% of video games.

Now, let’s examine that to the Fearless Draft period.

At MSI 2025, the most-picked champion was Rell with simply 18 picks throughout 80 video games, which means she appeared in 22.5% of video games. At MSI 2026, Ryze topped the checklist with 19 picks in 71 video games, which works out to a few 26.8% choose price.

So the most-picked champion at MSI went from showing in 65.4% of video games to 22.5% and 26.8%, respectively — and that is the place Fearless actually wins.

A few of that decline is an unavoidable consequence of the principles, as even a near-universal precedence choose can not accumulate something near Ok’Sante’s 51 appearances in 2024. However that’s exactly the purpose.

Groups can place monumental worth on the identical champions, however viewers not have to observe them seem repeatedly all through the collection.

So, it’s not nearly getting some random champion performed as soon as throughout sport 5 and growing the full variety of distinctive picks. The larger change is that viewers not see the identical six or seven champions each sport, even when these champions stay central to the broader draft technique.

And we now have a very good instance of why this issues from the LEC.

The 2024 LEC Winter Playoffs recorded 59 distinctive champions throughout 40 video games. By comparability, the 2025 Winter Playoffs, utilizing Fearless Draft, had 39 video games and… 59 champions performed once more.

Should you solely checked out distinctive picks, you may say Fearless completed completely nothing. However Azir, the most-played champion throughout these two playoff samples, went from 23 picks in 2024 to solely 13 in 2025. Each playoffs contained 14 collection — that’s a drop of roughly 43%.

Fearless doesn’t out of the blue make all champions in League equally robust, both. At MSI 2025, Varus nonetheless had a 68.8% choose/ban presence, recording 14 picks and 41 bans, whereas Twisted Destiny was sitting at round 66.3%. At this 12 months’s MSI, Vi had a 71.8% presence, together with 38 bans, whereas Jayce reached 67.6%.

So groups nonetheless clearly agree that some champions are stronger than others. The distinction is what occurs after a kind of champions lastly will get by way of a draft.

Let’s say Varus is taken into account utterly damaged. Underneath the outdated system, he can nonetheless get picked in sport 1 and, except someone bans him, picked once more in the remainder of the collection. Underneath Fearless Draft, as soon as you employ him, that’s it. From that time on, it’s essential discover one other reply.

And if the collection retains going, ultimately, each groups will attain deeper into their champion swimming pools.

That is the important thing distinction. The out there information exhibits conclusively that Fearless has diversified the champions showing on Summoner’s Rift. It doesn’t essentially present that groups have stopped agreeing on which champions are strongest or that the underlying composition archetypes have develop into equally assorted.

As a lot as followers like Fearless Draft in League, there’s a truthful criticism of the format: it takes some time earlier than it actually turns into Fearless.

Nick ‘LS’ De Cesare, a outstanding League analyst, co-streamer, and former coach, has been one of many format’s most vocal critics. Though he considers Fearless an enchancment over the outdated system, he believes its affect is overstated as a result of uncommon drafts usually don’t arrive till video games 4 and 5 — and plenty of collection by no means attain that stage.

Earlier than Fearless Draft grew to become the usual, LS complained about conventional drafts repeatedly biking by way of acquainted compositions, saying:

That sentiment stays a part of his criticism of the draft system at this time. In best-of-threes, particularly, groups can nonetheless cycle by way of the identical small group of meta champions.

His resolution is one thing referred to as “Ironman Draft,” which takes the fundamentals of Fearless Draft and makes it rather more excessive. Picks nonetheless disappear after being performed, however bans additionally carry over between video games.

As an alternative of eradicating 40 champions earlier than the sport 5 draft, Ironman would take away 80 (40 picked, 40 banned). League has greater than 170 playable champions, in order that would go away roughly half of the roster out there earlier than the common sport 5 bans.

On the identical time, the variety of competitively viable champions inside every function can be significantly smaller.

One other drawback is that you may additionally find yourself with range for the sake of range. By sport 5, groups won’t be deciding on champions as a result of they’ve discovered some genius counter or artistic composition. They could merely be taking part in the seventh-best choice as a result of all the things else has been eliminated.

I believe the reply is fairly clearly sure, but it surely depends upon what we imply by “range.”

The MSI numbers present that the general champion pool has certainly widened. We went from 86 distinctive champions in 2024 to 107 in 2025 and 101 in 2026. Extra importantly, the most-picked champion went from showing in nearly two-thirds of all video games at MSI 2024 to roughly 1 / 4 of video games within the Fearless period.

That’s the half that issues most.

Fearless Draft hasn’t eradicated the meta, nor does this information show that groups are producing fully completely different composition archetypes. In some instances, they could merely be changing an unavailable meta champion with the next-best various.

What the format has unquestionably modified, although, is the quantity of repetition viewers expertise per collection.

It might have some flaws, and a drafting format alone can not manufacture one other all-time nice second like ROX Tigers pulling out Miss Fortune help towards SKT in 2016. Nonetheless, the upsides of Fearless Draft clearly outweigh the downsides. There’s nonetheless room to push the thought additional, however for now, Fearless has solved one in every of professional League’s most boring habits.

Editor’s be aware: All match and champion statistics had been sourced from Video games of Legends and are correct as of Aug. 25, 2026.