League of Legends: LPL Is Going All-In With Fearless Draft & Other Changes In Summer 2024
The LPL is changing things up in Summer 2024 to make the competition more exciting. Introducing the fearless draft to the big leagues.
The LPL is going to introduce some major changes for their league heading into the 2024 Summer Split. This has been revealed on Weibo, with fans already pretty excited to see what the biggest league in LoL esports will have to offer once the changes go live.
The LPL is going to shake up their tournament structure by introducing the fearless draft, as well as change the overall structure of the competition. So, what can you expect of the LPL in Summer 2024?
League of Legends: The LPL Is Adding Fearless Draft
First of all, what even is the fearless draft system? In the fearless draft, there are specific restrictions when picking champions. If one team plays a champion they are then banned for the rest of the series. For example, if Team A chooses Gwen in game 1 of a best of three, then Team A will not be able to play Gwen for Game 2 or 3. Team B, will still be able to pick Gwen for game 2, but wouldn't be able to choose her for Game 3, since the same ban would apply to them.
This new fearless draft was adopted by the LDL, the LPL's challenger league a few years ago and it seems that it has become popular enough that the LPL will also use this system moving forward, making for more interesting and unique drafts.
Not only is the LPL going to add fearless draft to their system, but the league itself will restructure. The current 17 teams will be split into 4 groups based on the results of Spring 2024. The league will be a double round-robin with best of three games. The last 2 teams in each group will move to a lower bracket, while the remaining 9 will be in the upper bracket.
The bracket stage will feature the traditional draft system and the teams that finish in the top 7 of the upper bracket advance to the playoffs. Meanwhile, the top 4 of the lower bracket and bottom 2 of the upper bracket will play to determine the final 3 teams for the LPL playoffs.
This new format looks crazy and exciting with more draft variation. This system was also been implemented in China for the King Pro League and has seen a lot of success so it'll be interesting to see it be used in League of Legends as well.
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