If you have watched League of Legends esports since 2025, you have heard casters say a champion is gone because it was played in game one. That is Fearless Draft.
In every best of three and best of five series in pro League of Legends, a champion picked in an earlier game cannot be picked again by either team for the rest of that series. Riot rolled it out across regional leagues and international events in 2025 and confirmed it would stay for 2026.
This guide explains the exact rules, what does and does not carry over between games, how quickly the champion pool shrinks, how it works alongside the newer First Selection rule, and when it does not apply at all.
As of November 3, 2026, Worlds 2026 is about to start its quarterfinals in Allen, Texas, and every knockout match from here to the final in Brooklyn is a best of five, which is exactly where Fearless shapes the most drafts.
At the end, you will also find a simple way to borrow the same idea to widen your own champion pool for ranked.
Fearless Draft explained: the three rules that matter
Rule one: once a champion is picked in a game of a series, it is locked for both teams in every later game of that series. If the blue side plays Lee Sin and the red side plays Ezreal in game one, neither team can pick Lee Sin or Ezreal in games two through five. Rule two: bans do not carry over.
Each game still has the normal ten bans, five per team, made fresh at the start of that game, and the locked picks from earlier games are added on top. Riot's own explanation puts it at 20 unavailable champions in game two and 50 in game five.
A champion that was only banned in game one is free to pick in game two. Rule three: everything resets when the series ends, so the next opponent starts with the full roster again. People often call this version hard Fearless.
A softer version, where only the team that played a champion loses it, was tested in China's LPL during part of the 2024 summer season, but the rule Riot has used across its leagues since 2025 locks champions for both sides.
Because Fearless only works inside a series, it never applies to best of one games. Since Worlds 2025, Riot has kept single games in the Swiss stage on the standard draft and used Fearless for every best of three and best of five.
Standard draft vs Fearless Draft at a glance
| Rule | Standard tournament draft | Fearless Draft |
|---|---|---|
| Where it is used | Single games (Bo1). At Worlds 2026: Swiss rounds 1 and 2 and other single games | Every Bo3 and Bo5 series. At Worlds 2026: Swiss Bo3 matches, quarterfinals, semifinals and the final |
| Bans | 10 per game, 5 per team | Still 10 per game, made fresh each game; bans never carry over |
| Champions picked in earlier games | Available again in the next game | Locked for both teams until the series ends |
| Unavailable in game 2 | 10 banned | 10 banned plus 10 picked in game 1, so 20 |
| Unavailable in game 5 | 10 banned | 10 banned plus 40 picked in games 1 to 4, so 50 |
| Side and pick order (2026 regional leagues) | The team with First Selection takes either the side or first or second pick, and the other team gets the remaining choice | Same; First Selection applies together with Fearless |
| What viewers see | The strongest meta picks can repeat every game | New champions and compositions appear as the series goes on, and player pools get tested |
What to watch for in a Fearless series at Worlds or in the LCK
- Game one priority: does a team play the strongest meta champion right away or save it for later? Playing it also takes it away from the opponent, so using a pick is a way to deny it.
- Track the locked list: write down the ten champions picked after each game and you can see which comfort picks each side still has in reserve.
- First Selection in regional leagues: since the 2026 season, leagues such as the LCK give the team with First Selection either the side or the draft order, not both. Which one it takes shows what that team values more in that game.
- Games four and five: earlier picks alone lock 30 champions by game four and 40 by game five, before bans. The picks you see then show how deep each player's pool really is.
- Worlds 2026 knockout schedule: quarterfinals November 3 to 6 and semifinals November 7 and 8, all at 4 p.m. CST in Allen, Texas, then the final on November 14 at 2 p.m. ET at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. All are best of five (as of November 3, 2026).
How to run your own Fearless practice in five steps
- 1Pick three champions for your roleWrite down a main you trust, a second champion with a similar job, and a counter pick for awkward matchups. A pro who goes to game five needs five different champions in one role; in solo queue, a short list keeps you calm when your main is banned or taken first.
- 2Set a no repeat ruleTreat one evening of games as a series and do not pick the same champion twice that day. Normal games or custom games with friends are a low pressure place to start. With friends, keep a note of the champions already played and agree that neither side can pick them again.
- 3Record every gameA new champion moves your usual mistakes to new moments. With DOR running, League is detected when it launches and the whole match is recorded, so every champion you practice leaves footage in My Clips.
- 4Compare the same moments across championsChoose fixed checkpoints such as the first five minutes of lane, your first death and the first teamfight, then compare them champion by champion. If a call that works on your main falls apart on your second pick, you have not yet learned that champion's range and cooldowns.
- 5Fill the gaps in your poolIf the comparison shows you have no answer to a certain comp, add one more champion for that job. For using Blue Essence and building a pool without spending money, see how to buy champions in LoL.
Champion pool is skill: record the champions you practice
Ask pros what Fearless changed and most of them say the same thing: champion pool. In solo queue, the fastest way to widen yours is to rewatch your games on new champions, and that only works if those games are saved.
DOR is a free Windows app that detects League of Legends when you launch it, records the whole match, and saves kills, multikills and objectives as automatic clips. Everything lands in My Clips, so you can open a game on your main next to a game on your second pick and compare the same moment.
League replays count too: when you play a .rofl replay in the client, DOR records it, so you can capture an old game again from a different camera angle. Trim the parts worth keeping in the app as 16:9, 9:16 or 1:1, or send a dor.gg link that plays right in a phone browser.
For the full routine of turning recordings into a feedback loop, read how to get better at League of Legends, and for reviewing replays and your own footage side by side, see how to VOD review your League games. Record your first game on a champion you saw at Worlds, and a few games later you can see on video how much more comfortable you have become.
