Title says most of it. I tried to pick thresh in 5s duo-queue. He wasn't banned, and he was free this week. When I search for him, typing in "th" or even "t", he doesn't show up. Searched manually and he still wasn't there. Do we have to own him to play him in ranked?
You can only pick champions you own for Ranked games. That's why you need to own 16 champions before you can play Ranked, but the restriction is not there for playing Draft pick.
What cyanide said. Free champs cannot be used in ranked play. you have to have bought/received (own) the champ to use it in ranked.
Um, I'm not even in Ranked and I know this. You can only play owned/bought champions that you have, no free week ones....
Thanks for the expedient replies!
