The imminent release of the wave 2 heroes has prompted us to publish official rules for draft mode, what we normally call "competing pick & ban". Draft mode describes the process where each player selects, or drafts, the heroes in their Warband from a central pool, taking turns to pick and ban heroes until they have enough heroes to play in the selected game type, i.e. 5 or 3. Draft mode mirrors what happens in traditional MOBA games, the genre from which Judgement draws its inspiration from. 

We have put together draft mode sequences for both the 3v3 and 5v5 game types, and each is able to be adapted depending on the number of heroes you have available in your draft pool. Each Ban entry in the sequence has a hero criteria which means it only gets executed if your pool starting size satisfies the criteria. 

The Initial Roll

Like all game modes both players roll a D6 to kick off the game. The winner of the initial roll off chooses whether:

• to have 1st or 2nd turn, and the table side they want to play from

OR

• being player 1 or player 2 in the draft

The loser gets to choose whatever their opponent (the winner) does not select.

3v3 (12 heroes Minimum)

Note: for a 3v3 draft you need a minimum of 12 unique heroes in your draft pool.

Player 1 Ban (12+ Heroes)
Player 2 Ban (12+ Heroes)
Player 1 Ban (20+ Heroes)
Player 2 Ban (20+ Heroes)

Player 1 Pick
Player 2 Pick

Player 1 Ban (14+ Heroes)
Player 2 Ban (14+ Heroes)
Player 1 Ban (16+ Heroes)
Player 2 Ban (16+ Heroes) 

Player 2 Pick
Player 1 Pick

Player 2 Ban (12+ Heroes)
Player 1 Ban (12+ Heroes)
Player 1 Ban (18+ Heroes)
Player 2 Ban (18+ Heroes) 

Player 1 Pick
Player 2 Pick

Leaves 2 heroes when you have 12, 14, 16, 18 or 20 heroes
Leaves 4 heroes when you have 22
Leaves 6 heroes when you have 24
Leaves 8 heroes when you have 26
Leaves 10 heroes when you have 28

Example - 14 hero draft pool

In the example below we look at the sequence if we had 14 heroes in the draft pool, therefore we have removed the ban entries that are no applicable for our hero pool size.

Player 1 Ban
Player 2 Ban

Player 1 Pick
Player 2 Pick

Player 1 Ban
Player 2 Ban 

Player 2 Pick
Player 1 Pick

Player 2 Ban
Player 1 Ban

Player 1 Pick
Player 2 Pick

Leaves 2 heroes remaining

5v5 (16 heroes Minimum)

Note: for a 5v5 draft you need a minimum of 16 unique heroes in your draft pool.

Player 1 Ban (16+ Heroes)
Player 2 Ban (16+ Heroes)

Player 1 Pick
Player 2 Pick

Player 1 Ban (18+ Heroes)
Player 2 Ban (18+ Heroes)
Player 1 Ban (26+ Heroes)
Player 2 Ban (26+ Heroes)
 
Player 2 Pick
Player 1 Pick
 
Player 2 Ban (16+ Heroes)
Player 1 Ban (16+ Heroes)
 
Player 1 Pick
Player 2 Pick
 
Player 2 Ban (20+ Heroes)
Player 1 Ban (20+ Heroes)
Player 1 Ban (28+ Heroes)
Player 2 Ban (28+ Heroes)
 
Player 2 Pick
Player 1 Pick

Player 1 Ban (22+ Heroes)
Player 2 Ban (22+ Heroes)

Player 1 Pick
Player 2 Pick

Leaves 2 heroes when you have 16, 18, 20 or 22 heroes
Leaves 4 heroes when you have 24, 26 or 28 heroes

Example - 24 hero draft pool

In the example below we look at the sequence if we had 24 heroes in the draft pool, therefore we have removed the ban entries that are no applicable for our hero pool size.

Player 1 Ban (16+ Heroes)
Player 2 Ban (16+ Heroes)

Player 1 Pick
Player 2 Pick

Player 1 Ban (18+ Heroes)
Player 2 Ban (18+ Heroes)
 
Player 2 Pick
Player 1 Pick
 
Player 2 Ban (16+ Heroes)
Player 1 Ban (16+ Heroes)
 
Player 1 Pick
Player 2 Pick
 
Player 2 Ban (20+ Heroes)
Player 1 Ban (20+ Heroes) 
 
Player 2 Pick
Player 1 Pick

Player 1 Ban (22+ Heroes)
Player 2 Ban (22+ Heroes)

Player 1 Pick
Player 2 Pick

Leaves 4 heroes remaining

Demonstrated on Stream

Jeff and I will be talking through this on tomorrow night's stream as well as playing a 5v5 game with 18 heroes using the draft mode. The stream will kick off @ 8pm Sydney time however the video will also be uploaded to our YouTube channel a few days later.