LoL pro play’s swap to Fearless Draft has the balance team stressed out

Riot confirmed the introduction of the First Stand tournament at LoL Worlds 2024, with the new competition set to take advantage of the Fearless Draft.

For those who don’t know, the Fearless Draft is a pick/ban format in League of Legends where a champion can’t be used twice in a given series. This applies universally, so once one team has used a champion, neither is able to use it again.

This draft system is used during the LCK Cup and it’s a regular feature in China’s secondary division, the LDL, but it’s the first time that players and fans have seen it at the international level.

At Worlds 2024, Dexerto spoke to Lead Gameplay Designer Matthew Leung-Harrison about the unique challenges that the Fearless Draft presents.

“We’ve been planning it for quite a while. I would say it’s been a pretty exciting thing for the dev team, actually, because one thing that Fearless Draft opens up for us is that we don’t need to balance pro play as tightly,” he said.

“For example, let’s say Ryze just played in game one, he doesn’t get played in game two. That reduces a lot of the stress on balance, but it also increases stress in other places, which I would argue is a good thing, right?”

“We should make sure that as many champions are viable as possible, and make sure that we’re paying a lot of attention to that. That’s kind of forcing function for us to, quote-unquote, ‘do our jobs well,’ you know? Not that we don’t do our jobs well currently, but it’s an extra thing to keep us in check.”

Riot Games

As part of that, Leung-Harrison also makes the point that it will drive pro players outside of their comfort zones. This will then likely lead to a much more varied approach to more standard draft formats from competing teams.

“I think there has historically been issues with pro players wanting to take that leap. Only the top teams are able to take an L in the draft and use it to innovate with a new champion or something like that. Their back has to be up against the wall. If you’re fighting to keep your spot in the LEC, then you’re not really going to be like ‘let me bring out my Karthus Jungle.’

“You’re just gonna get flamed and inted on stage, and then you’re probably out of a job for the next season. So it allows us to have that type of effect without the psychological and incentive risks that pro players are subject to.”

The First Stand tournament is set to take place between March 10 – March 16, in Seoul, South Korea. Each region will take one team to the tournament, with the LCK, LPL, LTA, LEC and LCP all represented. In the LTA’s case, only the very best team from with conference will get to represent the region.