"Draft pick" redirects here. For the Normal game queue on Summoner's Rift, see Draft Pick.

Team drafting refers to the process by which players are assigned individual roles and champions to form a team before the game begins. Drafting takes place over two stages, with the first being in the pre-game lobby, and the second being in the champion selection screen (champion select or champ select for short). In the pre-game lobby, drafting may be facilitated by each player selecting their preferred positions before entering the matchmaking queue.

Drafting involves choosing a champion to play and/or banning any number of champions from a selection pool that usually (but not necessarily) consists of all playable characters that exist in League of Legends. The combination of picks and bans in choice and order determines the various drafting types.

Lobby[]

Drafting begins in the lobby, where any number of players, at least 1, form a party. A party of more than 1 player is also called a pre-made party.

Role Selection[]

In organized/professional play as well as many matchmade queues, it is required to select a role that facilitates drafting and gameplay. A team whose players are assigned these roles is called a "drafted team".

In matchmade queues where there is no role selection available, roles are either implied or fully decided by the players (e.g. through chat) instead of by matchmaking assigning their roles.

Players choose their primary and secondary roles by clicking on the role buttons at the bottom of the screen: the first dial corresponds to the primary role, and the second dial corresponds to the secondary role. Certain queues may have restrictions for roles in parties larger than 1. In a party size equal to the maximum for that queue, players can only select one role, which is guaranteed to be assigned to them.

Different maps and game modes present different contexts for roles, for example:

• In the Normal and Ranked Solo/Duo and Flex queues on Summoner's Rift, the selectable roles are Top, Mid, Bot (or Bot/carry), Support (or Bot/support), Jungle, and Fill (with 1 toplaner, 1 midlaner, 1 jungler, 1 botlane carry and 1 support foreseen per match by matchmaking).
  • Despite the implication, the two botlane roles are not class-restricted; "Bot" refers to the person who wants to actively earn the major share of the available map resources (experience and gold from minion and champion kills, bounties, etc.) whereas "Support" refers to the person who will passively generate their own significant gold while being given a minor share of the available map resources and influencing the game in other ways.
• In Howling Abyss ARAM, there is no role selection.
  • This means that team drafting solely depends on the champions' composition.
• In Nexus Blitz, the available roles are Lane, Jungle, and Fill (with 3 laners and 2 junglers foreseen per match by matchmaking).
  • On the mode's current map, this grouping evidently leaves players to decide which lane they will occupy on their own, as only two exist in total: meaning one lane must be occupied by two laners.

"Fill" and "filling" refer to being assigned a role that other players on the team have not selected yet; in other words, taking the highest availability role.

Champion Selection[]

When all players successfully pass the 'Ready' check, they enter the champion select screen. In Quickplay specifically, champion select is determined before players enter the queue, so it is skipped entirely.

General[]

Upon entering champion select, players are notified of their assigned role and team/side of the map they will play on. The side is randomly decided. Every ally may view other allies' assigned roles.

Opponents' summoner names and assigned roles are hidden until the game begins.

• In the Ranked Solo/Duo queue exclusively, allies' summoner names are additionally hidden (dubbed Champion Selection anonymity). Allies' summoner names are substituted with aliases, from positions 1 through 5 top-to-bottom and in this order, with the names: "Gromp, Murk Wolf, Raptor, Krug, Scuttle Crab". Duos' names are still visible to each other.

The order that players are initially assigned to can be random (independent of the lobby) or determined in the lobby before champion select, differing by queue. For example:

• In the Normal and Ranked queues on Summoner's Rift, the order is random.
• In ARAM, the order is random.
• In Clash, the team captain is always first.
• In Arena, the order is 1-to-1 for players that queue together as a team of 2 in the lobby, and random for players that queue alone in a team.
• In Custom and tournament games, the order is strictly one-to-one with the order shown in the lobby.

Picks and Bans[]

"Pick" refers to champions that players choose to play for the match. Gameplay in League of Legends revolves around the champion that a player selects.

"Ban" refers to champions that players choose to remove from play for the match.

Different queues may have a different paradigm for picks:

• Whether there is choice freedom or champions are pre-selected
• Whether there are multiple pick phases
• Whether all picks take place simultaneously or in turns
• The moment at which enemy team picks are revealed, which may range from after locking a selection, to after the game has already started
• The size of the available champion selection pool

As well as a different paradigm for bans:

• Whether banning is available
• Whether there are multiple ban phases
• Whether all bans take place simultaneously or in turns
• The maximum number of bans that may be issued
• Which team member issues the bans

Typically, the maximum number of bans allowed is one for each player in the game. This is true for the premier queues and most newer Featured game modes, but it is not a strict rule for drafting types that include bans.

Picks taking place in turns instead of simultaneously, means that the order of players in champion select from top-to-bottom matters for the drafting process (since one player could pick a champion before another would).

Declaring Intent - Locking[]

When players are allowed to select picks and/or bans freely, they usually follow a process of declaring intent on a selection and then locking it. At any point before and during the player's turn to pick or ban a champion, a drawer with the respective champion pool is available. The ban phase includes all champions that can be played in the game mode. The pick phase includes a subset of those that the player owns, and in some queues, the free champion rotation.

Selecting a champion declares intent for picking or banning and announces it to the ally team. Pressing the button at the bottom of the drawer locks in that selection and confirms it. Pick intent selections are displayed in the main (circular) portrait of the player. Ban intent selections are displayed in a separate square portrait next to it.

Banning a champion is entirely optional, but recommended. Attempting to lock in a ban for an ally's pick intent selection opens a prompt, warning the player of this fact and and deterring them:

• [Player name] has declared intent to play the champion you are about to ban. Do you want to ban anyway?

When all players in their turn have locked in their pick or ban, the next turn or phase will ensue automatically.

Interruption handling[]

If champion selection is disrupted in any way, these rules will apply:

• Failing to select a ban will result in the player automatically banning none.
• Failing to lock in a ban will result in the player automatically banning that selection.
• Failing to lock in a pick will disband champion selection and incur a dodge penalty.
• Exiting the client at any point before the game is confirmed to begin will disband champion selection immediately and also incur a dodge penalty.
• Player disconnections do not disrupt champion selection by themselves, but through the ways mentioned above.

Swapping[]

There are two types of trades available, Pick Order and Champion trades.

• Champion trades are allowed by default.
• Pick Order trades are allowed in only certain matchmade modes. They are strictly unavailable in tournament modes, which includes Clash.

Pick Order trades: These may take place at any point during champion select, before any of the two trading players have locked in their respective pick. Clicking on the large Swap button next to an ally's portrait initiates a pick order trade for 10 seconds. If the trade is accepted, your pick orders will be swapped.

• All in-progress pick order trades will be automatically cancelled when there are 5 seconds left within the current turn of pick phase, and will be temporarily disabled until the next turn ensues.
• The trade does not change any assigned allies' name substitutes offered by Ranked Solo/Duo queue's summoner name anonymity.

Champion trades: These may happen during the Finalization Phase only, after all players have locked in their picks. Clicking on an ally's portrait initiates a champion trade for 30 seconds. Both players must own the champion in order to initiate the trade.

Players cannot initiate trades with other players that are already actively trading with another team mate. If a trade is declined, no trade of the same type can take place between the two players again, for the remainder of champion select.

Draft types[]

The main differentiator between draft types is their pick paradigms.

Bans may either be blind or shown. Blind bans are only revealed after a ban phase ends.

All Random[]

"All Random pick" ("AR") refers to players not being able to choose a champion for themselves, but being randomly assigned one from the selection pool. Each champion may or may not exist more than once per team, depending on the game mode.

Although the point of this draft type is randomness, truly random drafting cannot always work without severe limitations, and the amount of available champions give a very low chance to play each one—a major share of players enjoy playing a handful of champions, not the entire roster. For this reason, there is a middle-ground solution where a number of "re-rolls" are offered to get a different champion.

The most common game mode that uses All Random is ARAM (= All Random All Mid). Refer to this section of its article for its rules around picks and re-rolls. Other modes include All Random Summoner's Rift and All Random U.R.F..

Blind[]

"Blind pick" refers to simultaneous ally and enemy selections which are revealed after a pick phase ends. Each champion may exist once per team at most and may not be picked again in any subsequent pick phase.

• The former normal game queue of the same name is named after this drafting type.

The Blind draft type is used in Quickplay, Co-op vs. AI, and multiple Featured game modes.

This is the simplest form of drafting, and it has existed since the game's original launch.

Draft[]

"Draft pick" refers to alternating picks which are locked in turns from top-to-bottom. Each champion can only exist once in every match.

Draft is the premier drafting type for League of Legends games. As such there exist multiple different styles of it.

• The normal game queue of the same name is named after this drafting type.

Introduced by popular demand in Season Seven. This is used in permanent queues for Summoner's Rift.^[1]

Also known as "Tournament Draft". This is the tournament iteration of Blind-Ban Draft, used in Clash and professional play.^[2]

This style was designed to distribute draft pick power across the team.^[3]

This style was also the sole and original iteration of Draft pick, used from Season One until the end of Season Five in all premier queues including ranked Summoner's Rift and Twisted Treeline as well as in professional play.

Strategy[]

• In Draft pick, the Blue team always has "the right to pick first", or more simply "first-pick". In champion select this is displayed at the corner, above the first in order Blue team player.
• In organized- and professional-level play, where teams are familiar with each other, champions that someone on the other team plays exceptionally well are usually banned to try to deter the pick. More regularly however, bans are issued to champions that are widely considered to be overpowered/strong, or are very popular among the playerbase, and are therefore most likely to be picked by the opposite team.
  • Teams may also pick an enemy's potential champion away from them, to deter them from the pick.
• Team champion compositions play a heavy part in drafting successfully. The typical strategy is to follow the standards of champion classes and the interactions between them, and adapt to both your own team's and the enemy team's composition (if the enemy's picks are visible).
• Swapping or trading is an effective way of realizing the best possible draft order among players.
  • In the regular Draft and Tournament Draft styles, trades are often planned in order to either:
    • A) Secure high-demand champions early on, that may be swapped with the intended player. This removes the risk of the other team picking the champion away.
    • B) Delay the pick for a certain role, so that the enemy matchup may be picked and shown first. This increases the odds of counter-picking, or conversely lowers the risk of the other team doing so.
• During Tournament Draft's champion select, it is integral to keep track of the picks and bans that have taken place before each pick phase. For example, in the second ban phase, teams usually ban depending on what roles are left, based on the role that already-picked enemy champions are commonly started.

Trivia[]

• "To draft" normally means "to recruit," as in the player being recruited for a certain role in the team in League of Legends.
• All queues that used Draft pick initially saw three bans per team, for a total of six; in both matchmade and non-matchmade competition, the first-in-order player (the assigned "captain") in the lobby would issue all three for each team. On January 24, 2016, during patch V6.1, elements of Team Builder were implemented in queues that used draft pick, and picks and bans were distributed in priority across players' pick order: the lower three players in each team in pick order were the ones issuing bans, while the first two players on each team still had the right to pick before most players to secure strong champions. The Ranked 3v3 queue for Twisted Treeline—and the respective Flex queue in a select few regions for a limited time—that were introduced alongside the removal of Dynamic queue in V6.23 also used Draft pick (until the map and all its modes were eventually removed in patch V9.23). With the launch of the Season Seven mid-season of competitive, during patch V7.11, Riot found it more compelling and fair to move to a full-ban system: in matchmade queues, each player would simultaneously ban one champion of their preference instead, for a total of 10 bans per game on Summoner's Rift (League of Legends).^[1] The 10-ban system of competitive Summoner's Rift games has been in place since then.
  • Parts of the Draft pick process have been used in many other game modes since its introduction, as the process is preferable and enables a basic level of competitiveness and teamwork for players.
• Along with the game's rising popularity, it became somewhat necessary for Riot to come up with and present assigned roles themselves, based on a perceived optimal gameplay loop for a mode. The earliest case of this was the alpha test of Nexus Blitz in patch V8.16. Regardless of this enforcement, players are ultimately free to form a strategic composition outside of any presented roles so long as the team is aware and accepting of such changes (still, this is practically not possible in matchmade games).
  • The five presently available roles for Summoner's Rift queues had once been decided by players sustaining a meta-game in the earliest versions of the game. More specifically, the team formation of 1/1/1/2 (1 Top laner – 1 Jungler – 1 Mid laner – 2 Bot laners, one being a carry and one a non-carry Support) was assembled during the Season One World Championship^[4], and took at least one more season after the event to flourish and become popular for the general playerbase, while professional players adopted it almost immediately following its massive success.
• The "None" selection for no ban is actually a champion labeled 'None', which does not appear in any other circumstance. Within the champion catalog, as all other champions do, it has an assigned champion ID of -1.
• A 'Random' selection exists in the champion drawer, which gives the player a random champion from their available pool.
• It is possible for multiple players to be assigned the same role in a full pre-made party, unless selections are restricted before queueing.
• Champion select quotes will play upon locking in your own ban and pick, and for you only. If your declared champion is banned by the opposite team, the champion's ban quote also plays for you.
• After locking in a pick, you may select champion skins, chromas and ward skins. The selected skin's splash art is shown on screen.

Media[]

Soundtrack

• Blind pick default champion selection:
  • Standard Blind
• Draft pick default champion selection:
  • Declaration phase
  • Ban phase
  • Pick phase
  • Finalization phase

References