The drafting stage is one of the most essential parts of League of Legends, and Fearless Draft is here to spice up the strategy battles. Standard drafts were on the verge of becoming too stale for many LoL fans, and the Fearless Draft is Riot Games' answer to keep everything fresh.

If you follow the League's competitive scene, you may be familiar with the concept of bans. Most teams use their bans wisely to ice out the most dangerous players on the enemy team, and all these strategy battles can be considered one level harder with the addition of Fearless Draft to LoL.

What does Fearless Draft mean in LoL?

Fearless Draft is a new competitive drafting system that prevents teams from choosing champions they previously picked during a series. There are two types of Fearless Draft, Soft Fearless and Hard Fearless. In both types, the first match of the series takes place with the classic drafting stage, and the fun part starts once teams advance to match two.

In Soft Fearless:

• Team One picks Yasuo in the first game.
• Team Two picks Teemo in the first match.
• With the second match starting, Team One can't pick Yasuo, while Team Two can't pick Teemo again. However, Team Two will be able to choose Yasuo, and Team One will have the option to pick Teemo.

Overall, the champions a team chooses in one match will become unavailable for them in game two in Soft Fearless.

In Hard Fearless:

• Team One picks Zed in the first match.
• Team Two picks Janna in the first match.
• Both Zed and Janna become unavailable for the second match, preventing both teams from choosing them.

Hard Fearless format locks all selected champions in the following matches of a series, meaning it continuously shrinks the available champion pool.

Why did Riot Games add Fearless Draft to League of Legends?

The Fearless rule in League of Legends is an attempt to boost the diversification in competitive play. This drafting mode forces teams to adapt to a shrinking pool of champions as their options will continue to decrease as a series continues.

In a long enough best-of-five, a team can quickly run out of signature champions to play because of Fearless Draft. This mode also requires champions to master even more champions to ensure they always have options in long series.

Luckily, the champion pool continues to grow every year, and Riot adds innovative characters to the game, such as Ambessa and Mel's release in League of Legends.