How Does the Pick Order Swap in League of Legends Work?

League of Legends players have always complained about the pick order in which they get places in champion select lobbies. Sometimes when you hope to counter-pick the opponent as a top or mid laner, your pick order might force you to lock in first, robbing you of the opportunity to counter. Riot did let players swap their picks with their teammates. However, this was dependent on whether your teammates had all the champions to swap and if they were up for swapping with you in the first place. To counter trolls and to ensure that the champion select lobby is as smooth sailing as possible, Riot Games introduced the pick order swap in League of Legends, in addition to the champion swap feature.

What is the pick order swap in League of Legends and how does it work?

The pick order swap was one of the highly-requested features by players and was present in Wild Rift before it was introduced to League of Legends. The pick order swap allows players to simply click a button during the draft phase that would send a pick-order swap request to the other teammate and this can either be accepted or declined. 

Let us assume that you are the fifth pick on your team but you want to lock in a meta champion as the first pick, instead of asking the first teammate (champion select lobby order) to swap champions with you. Now you can directly request them to swap places with you in the lobby, enabling you to be moved as the first pick.

Notably, the pick order swap is only offered in matchmade draft modes and will not be available in normal mode. Clicking on the swap button next to an ally's portrait will initiate a pick order trade for 10 seconds. If accepted, your pick orders will be swapped. All in-progress pick order trades will be automatically canceled when there are five seconds left within the current phase of champion selection and will be temporarily disabled until the next phase of champion selection ensues.

Pick order swap may happen at any point during champion selection before any of the two trading players have locked in their respective pick.

On Reddit, one user posted, “I just have to say. Whoever came up with the pick order swap needs a raise. This is honestly one of the best QOL [quality of life] changes ever to come to League.” Another user commented, “It’s wonderful. One of the most annoying things about champ select was when I’m top and I’d get the last pick, but then someone dodges, and then I’d get put onto first pick as top. Now it’s not as annoying because I can simply ask my teammate to swap pick order.”

Talking about top laners having to pick first, another player wrote, “As [an] ADC [attack damage carry] when I'm the last pick, I always try to give top the last pick.”

Additionally, players on social media also lauded Riot Games’ idea of adding rune recommendations to the champion select lobby. While players usually get stressed about choosing the right runes for any given matchup, the new rune loadouts help players big time. One player wrote, “Shout-out to rune loadouts too, I absolutely love it. It's nice not having to look up runes and set up a new page every time I play an unfamiliar champion.”