Draft Pick

This article is about the queue. For information on draft types, see Team drafting.

Draft Pick (sometimes Normal Draft or colloquially shortened to "Draft") is a PvP queue for Classic 5v5 Summoner's Rift that provides players with a casual environment to participate in the primary team drafting process in League of Legends (of the same name). Draft Pick is exclusively a Normal game queue.

The player must be at least summoner level 10 in order to enter the Normal Draft Pick queue. They must also have access to at least 20 champions, the free weekly champion rotation included.

In some regions, the Normal Draft Pick queue has lower or no availability:

• In the Korean server, Normal Draft Pick is indefinitely unavailable.
• In select SEA regional servers, Normal Draft Pick is available only during certain times of the day where queues are considered by Riot to be sufficiently populated.

The "Draft Pick process" or "Draft Pick design" is meant to be the premier, seamless and integrated competitive experience, which includes first being drafted into roles after picking them in the lobby, then completing a Draft team formation in champion select.

History

Draft Pick's design was originally introduced in the Season One start patch with three Ranked modes: Ranked Solo 5v5 ( Summoner's Rift), Ranked Teams 5v5 ( Summoner's Rift), and Ranked Teams 3v3 ( Twisted Treeline). On September 20, 2011, two new non-ranked queues that used the style became available: one for Summoner's Rift Classic, which has been known as "the Normal Draft Pick queue" or simply "Draft Pick" ever since, and the second for Crystal Scar Dominion (a game mode that was removed shortly before V6.4).

Due to low queue participation at the time, Draft Pick was removed in certain servers as a test with the start of Preseason Seven. For the South Korea (KR) server, this choice has persisted throughout the years until today due to Korea's competitive nature.

Lobby

In the lobby, players simply select their primary and secondary role. The number of unique roles chosen must be at least one more than the number of players in the party, and players cannot pick the same primary role.

The selectable roles are Top, Mid, Bot (or Bot/carry), Support (or Bot/support), Jungle, and Fill.

• 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.), while "Support" refers to the person who will passively gain their own significant gold while being given a minor share of the available map resources, but influencing the game in other ways.
• Players queueing "Fill" may be assigned the role that is currently in highest demand for that queue.

Champion Select

Draft Pick is named after and uses the Draft pick drafting type (see article for more details).

Each of the 10 players can choose to ban a champion of their preference, in order to prevent any player from picking it in the match. Enemy bans are revealed after everyone has issued them or at the end of the phase. Afterwards, players may select a champion that has not been banned, in this order:

1. One team "first-picks" one champion. The Blue team always has the right to pick first, displayed in the top corner with "First Pick".
2. The second team picks two champions
3. The first team picks two champions
4. The second team picks two champions
5. The first team picks two champions
6. The second team "last-picks" one champion

Before locking in their pick, players can also choose to swap their pick order. This can be done either:

• For the player who is picking earlier, to be able to secure a strong (meta) pick earlier during champ select, either because they are good at it, or in order to prevent the enemy team from picking a strong champion themselves.
• For the player who is picking later, to be able to otherwise secure a counter-pick that can potentially improve the odds of winning if played right.

After everyone has picked their champion, there is also the option to swap those selections with each other.

Media

• Screenshots
• Music

		"Time doesn't heal all wounds." This article is outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. These screenshots are old (Season Six) and do not reflect the current client and Draft Pick process. Please archive them and add new ones in. This article was last edited by Dannenheim on 17-Mar-2024 09:54.

• Assemble Your Team - Invite friends or queue up on your own. Each player must select two positions from a selection of Top, Mid, Bot, Support, Jungle and Fill, or may select Fill exclusively. Once everyone is selected - the host can hit Queue Up.
• You are now in Match Making.
• Ready to play? You are matched with allied players that complete your team based on your preferences, with an attempt to accommodate all primary preferences. Unlike Team Builder, duos/trios can be matched with duos/trios.
• You are informed of the position the system has assigned you, based on your preferences.
• In a Blind Pick, each of you must now choose a provisional champion. While there is no formal swapping system, you can use this time to discuss your picks and potentially trade positions. The team you're on is represented in the map. 35 seconds
• The Third, Fourth and Fifth Summoner of each team now take turns banning. Bans now require confirmation and failing to ban will result in a dodge. 40 seconds each
• Banning from the observer's perspective.
• Choose your champion. You are still encouraged to grab priority champions for your allies - trading champions is still a feature. 40 seconds each
• Picking from an observer's perspective. The arrow beneath this option will open-up Skin Selection.
• Skin selection.
• Use this time to make any adjustments or trade champions. The arrow beneath this option will open-up Skin Selection. 40 seconds
• Draft Pick lobby circa 2018

1/12

Draft Mode - Old Champion Select Music

(version 1)

Draft Mode - Old Champion Select Music

(version 2)

References

Game Modes