Drafting Gem Grab
Control the mine, count to ten, survive the countdown.
The objective
A gem mine in the center of the map spits out gems, and the first team to hold ten of them long enough for the victory countdown to finish wins. Gems drop where you die, which makes Gem Grab a control mode wearing an economy mode's clothes: the team that owns the middle of the map owns the gems, and the team that panics at nine gems hands them back.
Most Gem Grab losses aren't lost at the mine — they're lost when the gem carrier gets caught somewhere they had no business being.
How to draft it
01Pick a real mid
One brawler will spend the game contesting the mine, and they have to actually win that job on this map's geometry. On open mines that's usually a long-range damage dealer who controls the sightlines; on walled or bushy mines it's a controller or thrower who makes the area unlivable. A comp where nobody can hold mid is a comp that plays from behind for the whole match.
02Decide who carries — and protect them
Gems pile up on one player, and that player becomes the win condition. Good carriers have an escape, sustain, or the range to hold gems from safety. The rest of the draft should include peel for them: healing, knockback, or a body between the carrier and the enemy assassin. Three selfish lane brawlers with no way to protect a ten-gem carrier is a classic losing draft that looks fine on paper.
03Win one wing
Gem Grab is usually decided 2-1: hold the mine, win one side lane, and collapse from the winning side. Lane bullies who beat their matchup create constant pressure — every time the enemy sends help to a losing lane, the mine gets cheaper to hold. When you're picking last, look at which lane is weakest and pick the brawler that cracks it.
Who to ban
Ban the brawler that would take the mine for free. On open-mine maps that means the dominant marksmen and artillery of the patch; on walled mines it's the meta throwers, who contest without ever being hittable. If the current meta has an oppressive support that makes enemy carriers unkillable, that's the other ban worth considering.
The ban phase runs from Diamond upward — below that, drafts go straight to picks. Bans are also the most patch-sensitive call in the draft: for today’s data-backed ban suggestions on a specific map, use the draft board.
The Gem Grab maps
The pool splits into open mines, where sightlines rule and range wins; walled mines, where throwers and tanks thrive because the mine can't be watched from distance; and hybrid maps where the mine is contestable but the side lanes decide who gets to keep it. Check the per-map stats on the draft board before locking a comp that assumes one archetype.
- Afterparty
- Ancestral Roots
- Atlas
- Crystal Arcade
- Deathcap Trap
- Double Swoosh
- Extreme Nonchalance
- Fortress Fall
- Gem Fort
- Hard Rock Mine
- Lilygear Lake
- Local Restaurants
- On A Roll
- Open Space
- Picturesque
- Railroad Robbery
- Rustic Arcade
- Satomi Springs
- Snake Pit
- Storage Sector
- Undermine
- Whisper Vale
All 22 competitive Gem Grab maps — Ranked rotates a handful of these each season, and the draft board’s map picker tracks the live rotation, with per-map win rates, synergies, and counters for each.