Fearless Draft

In China's secondary league (the LDL), best of 3 matches will now feature a new drafting style called the Fearless Draft. Despite only being tested in some secondary leagues, this new draft style could be adopted by major regions in the future and have a huge impact on the esports landscape.

Overview

The Fearless Draft limits what champions a team can play. Once a team locks in a champion, it cannot be picked by that team for the rest of the series. However, that champion can still be picked by the enemy team. For example, if team a plays Senna in game 1, they cannot pick it for games 2 or 3. Team b would still be able to pick Senna for either game 2 or 3.

Diversiyfing Drafts

This new drafting style will push teams to come up with a lot more picks for a best of series. Currently, matches with several games can get a little stale as teams pick and ban the same champions that are the best in the meta. If teams are only able to play a champion once, this will force them to play an arsenal of champions, particularly if a match goes to 5 games.

With a lot more champions being played, this could make games even more entertaining for viewers with each game feeling more unique. We could also see a wider range of team comps throughout a series. For example, teams could pivot from comps focusing on team fighting to split pushing.

Player Burnout

On the other hand, forcing pros and coaching staff to prepare even more champions for best-of series could be detrimental to their mental health and performance. League has over 160 champions and making pros play even more may be asking too much, even for those striving to be the best in the world.

Being a League pro is already a 24/7 commitment, and requiring them to master even more champions could lead to burnout and mental health problems. Additionally, it may worsen the quality of professional gameplay if players' time is spread too thin.

From a gameplay perspective, the Fearless Draft would also change how a match evolves over the course of a series. Teams have to adapt to the champions being played and adjust their pick/ban phase accordingly, which is a huge skill that would be lost if champions could only be played once per series.

Summary

There are some really exciting advantages should major regions adopt this drafting style, and being able to see a plethora of new champs being played at the highest level would be incredible for viewers. However, testing it in a secondary league first is a wise idea to examine the impact it has on player performance and mental health.