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The Effects of Fearless Draft: Most Picked Champions at MSI 2025
The dust has settled after the storm that was MSI 2025 as Gen.G head back home as back-to-back champions. Now, the time has come to look back at the champions that shaped the tournament.
With Fearless Draft in full effect, let's take a look at who became the most picked champions of MSI, as well as how the new system has affected diversity at the highest level compared to last year's event.
Most Picked Champions at MSI 2025
Rell: 18 picks
Engage supports are still running rampant when it comes to professional League of Legends. A master of hard engage and AoE crowd control, Rell became the single most picked champion at MSI.
Despite her coveted toolkit, though, Rell had a 38.9% win rate throughout MSI; the lowest WR out of the top 15 most picked champions at the tournament.
- Player with the most picks: ON with 4 picks.
Jhin: 17 picks
The ultimate utility ADC. Jhin excels in pro play thanks to his ability to set up plays, as well as his strong laning phase. Perhaps it's precisely for this reason that Jhin held the highest win rate (58.8%) out of any of the top 5 most picked champions at MSI.
Alistar: 17 picks
Like Rell, Alistar is a premium engage option down in the support role. The Minotaur, however, also offers great frontlining thanks to his [R] Unbreakable Will, making him very tough for the opposition to deal with. This led Alistar to be banned more than twice as often as Rell at MSI 2025 (14 bans).
Rumble: 17 picks
There is simply no putting Rumble down. Despite the constant nerfs ahead of MSI 2025, Rumble still became the most picked top laner at the tournament. Surprisingly, the champion still kept his win rate (47.1%) close to the one he put up at First Stand earlier in the year.
- Player with the most picks: Bin with 5 picks.
Vi & Xin Zhao: 17 picks
Vi and Xin Zhao shared the spotlight at MSI when it came to the jungle. Despite the fact that the two champions fulfill slightly different roles, the two champions finished the tournament with the same number of picks (17) AND the exact same win rate (41.2%).
- Player with the most picks (Vi): Beichuan, Canyon, Levi, and SkewMond with 3 picks each.
- Player with the most picks (Xin Zhao): Beichuan with 4 picks.
*Note that this is not a list of highest presence as it does not factor in bans.
The Twisted Fate Phenomenon: Much Ado About Nothing?
Twisted Fate got buffed before MSI 2025, which led to an... interesting result. With easy access to stuns and a global ultimate, The Card Master boasts a kit that was seemingly built for pro play. This, coupled with the buffs, led to Twisted Fate being the single most banned champion at MSI with a whopping 45 total bans.
Neat, right? Except that whenever Twisted Fate managed to get through the draft at the tournament, the champion lost. For all of the fear he instilled in his enemies, Twisted Fate finished MSI with a 0-8 record and a 0% win rate.
Similarly, Kalista also finished the tournament with a winless record (0-10), though she wasn't banned nearly half as much as Twisted Fate was.
The Fearless Diversity?
The addition of Fearless Draft has seen the total number of champions picked at MSI rise from 88 (2024) to 109 (2025). This means that more than 64% of the League of Legends champion pool saw playtime at MSI 2025.
While there's still room for this number to rise even further, Fearless Draft has certainly gone a long way in bringing variety to the highest level of play, especially when it comes to lane matchups. Alas, we don't have to watch Azir and Ahri trade minions in the mid lane for the hundredth time!
Essentially, Fearless has made it so that no champion could have been picked more than 19 times at MSI 2025, as there were 19 total matches at the tournament. With 18 picks, Rell was just one pick away from being picked at every single match at MSI. It was only during the CTBC Flying Oyster vs T1 match in the opening round of the Bracket Stage that, despite the series going to a full 5 games, neither team opted to pick The Iron Maiden.
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Featured image credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
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