In Season 3 we’re making some exciting renovations to ranked play. At the heart of the update is a new league system that provides more challenges for competitive players and a greater sense of progression for newcomers. You’ll find an overview of how they work in the infographic below. You can also join us for the reddit AMA on Wednesday, 1/16 at 12:01 PM PST and ask your questions live.
Winning ranked games earns you League Points that help you move up the rankings in your league. As you acquire more points you’ll have the opportunity to fight your way into the next division, or even into a new league at the next tier of competition. Each triumph brings on new challenges and tougher opponents, as well as rewards at the end of the season. Top 5v5 ranked teams that reach the Challenger tier even have the opportunity to go pro in Season 3.
We’re looking forward to beginning a new era in competitive League of Legends and seeing who will rise to the Challenger tier. If you still have questions about leagues check out the following FAQ or leave us a comment on the forums.
FAQ
Why are we creating a new league system?
We decided to move to the new league system for a few reasons. For starters, having a single ladder with all ranked players doesn't provide a lot of incentive for advancement. When you’re ranked 290,000 and have 289,999 opponents left to pass on the way up, that process can seem meaningless and interminable. Tiers and divisions also provide milestones and manageable goals you can strive to achieve at your skill level. Through leagues we can move away from focusing on a single number as the core indicator of a player’s skill, and instead move toward something more compelling: competition on a small ladder with a relatable number of opponents.
What happens if I lose a ranked match in the league system?
Losing a ranked game in the league system will cost some of your League Points. If you’re already at the bottom of your division, this may mean falling back to the previous division . Once you’ve earned a skill tier, however, you can never be demoted to the previous tier unless you stop playing for a prolonged period of time.
In other words, losing can never cause you to fall below 0 League Points in the lowest division of your league.
Once I’m placed in a league, what happens to my Elo?
Our matchmaking system still matches you by skill level, but this “rating” is no longer visible and does not have any bearing on your seasonal rewards or ladder standing. Your standing in your league is now determined by your tier, division and League Points, not your matchmaking rating.
How does my ranked Elo determine my league placement?
If you’ve played at least five ranked team games or 10 solo/duo games in the preseason, a combination of your current and top Elo rating will determine the tier of the league you initially earn.
How will I be placed into a league if I didn’t play ranked during the preseason?
If you haven’t played enough ranked matches in the preseason, you’ll first complete a series of placement matches before being sorted into a league. How you perform in these matches will determine the tier of the league you initially earn.
Will I only be matched against opponents in my league?
No. Matchmaking isn’t affected by your league, and you’ll still be competing against all opponents of your skill level in the League of Legends community. Your league measures your progress against a set of opponents of similar skill level, but doesn’t restrict competition solely to those players.
What if I want to see how I measure up against my friends?
The league system will always try to place you in a league with summoners on your friends list first, provided they’re in the same skill tier you are. If you want to check your ranking against a friend in another league, you can compare your tier, division, and league points to get a general idea of who's closer to the top.
Do I have to duo queue with summoners from my League?
No. In ranked solo/duo you can still queue with any summoner you choose, regardless of the tier, division, or league in which they’re placed.
Will I have the opportunity to go pro if I reach the top of the ranked 3v3 or solo/duo Challenger tier?
Although there are no League of Legends Championship Series events for 3v3 or solo/duo competitors, reaching the Challenger tier in these rankings will help you find other top notch summoners to play with. If you’re interested in making a run at the Championship Series, try messaging some fellow Challenger tier competitors who aren’t attached to a current 5v5 ranked team. You’ll probably find you have plenty of potential comrades to help you pursue your dream.
Can you walk me though an example of how the league system works?
Sure. For the sake of illustration, let’s take the hypothetical (and non-existent) player Steve McQueen. Steve completes his placement matches and falls into division three of the Silver tier. He’s then placed into a league with up to 250 other Silver tier players. Based on their skill level, these players are evenly distributed across the five Silver tier divisions, so Steve’s league contains around 50 players in each division. When Steve acquires 100 League Points by winning ranked games, he’ll have the opportunity to play a Division Series to move up. If he were already in division one, he’d get to play a Promotion Series to break into a new league in the Gold tier.
This is interesting. I'm wondering what happens if you lose your division or promotion series best of three or best of five. Do you lose all your current league points and start over, or is it a relatively quick process to try again? I'm sort of picturing current Elo Hell complaints to be translated into people complaining about bad luck in games that are artificially more important than the rest of the process.
It's not a big deal if you lose a division or promotion series. You'll simply end up back in the ladder rankings with say, 60-90 LP (depending on how the series went) and there's nothing preventing you from qualifying for another series quickly.
What if no one in your "league" is on at 4am... That mean you cant play ranked?
You can still be matched against anyone else who's playing ranked at that time, even if they're in a different league, division, or tier. So you shouldn't have any trouble finding matches at 4 AM. In fact, given my sleep schedule recently, you'll probably have me on your team.
If you cannot drop tiers does that mean you will continue to be matched with the people at the bottom of your tier no matter how many times you lose afterwards? And if so do you have a system implemented in order to resolve elo boosting and/or getting lucky in your placement matches and then continually underperforming in a tier you don't belong in?
Matchmaking will continue to match you based on a hidden MMR (matchmaking rating) that's tracked behind the scenes. If you are continually losing matches at the bottom of Gold tier, you'll start to play against Silver players even though you're in a Gold league.
There are a lot of checks and balances that must be passed before you can move up a tier, so we don't think that it will be common for players to be in this situation (with the exception of something like Elo boosting, which we'll be continuing to address).
We won't be resetting ratings, no. Players and teams will seeding into a league based on a combination of their current and top ratings from the preseason. If you didn't play enough games in the preseason, then you'll be placed into a league when you finish your tenth game (or fifth game for a team).
This seems interesting, however I'm concerned with how fast we'll win those "League points". I mean, at the moment you get ~100 elo if you win 8-9 times in a row, which would be equivalent to going up one division (actually, since current tiers are divided into 350 elo, one division would be more like 75 but w/e). But I'm getting a feeling that we're going to win far less than 15 points and that as such, going up will take a much bigger number of games, resulting in the contrary of what the OP states, aka "shows your progression in a meaningful way".
We're still doing the final tweaking of the numbers, but it won't be uncommon at all to earn 15 LP from a win. The speed of progression through leagues will feel very similar to the previous system assuming a similar pattern of wins and losses.
When you upgrade divisions will you start with 0 league points or like 50 or something?
I imagine starting with 0 would be frustrating cause you lose one game in that division and youre demoted already and have to re-qualify
You start with 0 LP, yes, but there's a grace period where it's impossible to be demoted for the first few games in the new division, so losing won't really cost you anything. You can look at it as a time to relax for a bit after successfully getting through a division series.
This will promote trolling and non-tryharding play... not good for ranked.
It's still far better to win those matches than to lose them. If you win you gain LP and are that much closer to the next advancement series. Having more LP is always better for you, so players will always want to win a match rather than lose it, even if they won't lose any LP from a loss.
What's the logic behind hiding our ELO, or "match making ranking" from us?
Personally, I LIKE being able to track my ELO, however low it may be. It's my motivation for wading through the B.S and trolls to play ranked games in the first place. I don't think seeing a generic League badge is going to feel nearly as personalized or rewarding.
You're not just earning a "generic league badge". You still have tiers, divisions, and League Points to battle over as you progress through the system. You also get to compete on a ladder with a small grouping of other players, often which will include your friends, rather than being just a cog in a giant wheel of hundreds of thousands of opponents.
Give it a try and give us feedback though! We're aiming to have the league system on the PBE shortly.
I don't think this Red understand the nature of trolling. Did you ever watch the new Batman movie with the Joker?
Some trolls don't care about winning some trolls just want to watch the world burn.
Sure, trolls will be trolls, and this system won't necessarily change that. I was merely pointing out that there won't be a situation where players don't at all care if they win or lose. Which as someone pointed out, could certainly increase ranked trolling. At the end of the day, we have to discourage and prevent trolling through other specific methods, and the Player Behavior team is constantly experimenting and iterating there.
New League System in Ranked
Winning ranked games earns you League Points that help you move up the rankings in your league. As you acquire more points you’ll have the opportunity to fight your way into the next division, or even into a new league at the next tier of competition. Each triumph brings on new challenges and tougher opponents, as well as rewards at the end of the season. Top 5v5 ranked teams that reach the Challenger tier even have the opportunity to go pro in Season 3.
We’re looking forward to beginning a new era in competitive League of Legends and seeing who will rise to the Challenger tier. If you still have questions about leagues check out the following FAQ or leave us a comment on the forums.
FAQ
Why are we creating a new league system?
We decided to move to the new league system for a few reasons. For starters, having a single ladder with all ranked players doesn't provide a lot of incentive for advancement. When you’re ranked 290,000 and have 289,999 opponents left to pass on the way up, that process can seem meaningless and interminable. Tiers and divisions also provide milestones and manageable goals you can strive to achieve at your skill level. Through leagues we can move away from focusing on a single number as the core indicator of a player’s skill, and instead move toward something more compelling: competition on a small ladder with a relatable number of opponents.
What happens if I lose a ranked match in the league system?
Losing a ranked game in the league system will cost some of your League Points. If you’re already at the bottom of your division, this may mean falling back to the previous division . Once you’ve earned a skill tier, however, you can never be demoted to the previous tier unless you stop playing for a prolonged period of time.
In other words, losing can never cause you to fall below 0 League Points in the lowest division of your league.
Once I’m placed in a league, what happens to my Elo?
Our matchmaking system still matches you by skill level, but this “rating” is no longer visible and does not have any bearing on your seasonal rewards or ladder standing. Your standing in your league is now determined by your tier, division and League Points, not your matchmaking rating.
How does my ranked Elo determine my league placement?
If you’ve played at least five ranked team games or 10 solo/duo games in the preseason, a combination of your current and top Elo rating will determine the tier of the league you initially earn.
How will I be placed into a league if I didn’t play ranked during the preseason?
If you haven’t played enough ranked matches in the preseason, you’ll first complete a series of placement matches before being sorted into a league. How you perform in these matches will determine the tier of the league you initially earn.
Will I only be matched against opponents in my league?
No. Matchmaking isn’t affected by your league, and you’ll still be competing against all opponents of your skill level in the League of Legends community. Your league measures your progress against a set of opponents of similar skill level, but doesn’t restrict competition solely to those players.
What if I want to see how I measure up against my friends?
The league system will always try to place you in a league with summoners on your friends list first, provided they’re in the same skill tier you are. If you want to check your ranking against a friend in another league, you can compare your tier, division, and league points to get a general idea of who's closer to the top.
Do I have to duo queue with summoners from my League?
No. In ranked solo/duo you can still queue with any summoner you choose, regardless of the tier, division, or league in which they’re placed.
Will I have the opportunity to go pro if I reach the top of the ranked 3v3 or solo/duo Challenger tier?
Although there are no League of Legends Championship Series events for 3v3 or solo/duo competitors, reaching the Challenger tier in these rankings will help you find other top notch summoners to play with. If you’re interested in making a run at the Championship Series, try messaging some fellow Challenger tier competitors who aren’t attached to a current 5v5 ranked team. You’ll probably find you have plenty of potential comrades to help you pursue your dream.
Can you walk me though an example of how the league system works?
Sure. For the sake of illustration, let’s take the hypothetical (and non-existent) player Steve McQueen. Steve completes his placement matches and falls into division three of the Silver tier. He’s then placed into a league with up to 250 other Silver tier players. Based on their skill level, these players are evenly distributed across the five Silver tier divisions, so Steve’s league contains around 50 players in each division. When Steve acquires 100 League Points by winning ranked games, he’ll have the opportunity to play a Division Series to move up. If he were already in division one, he’d get to play a Promotion Series to break into a new league in the Gold tier.
There are a lot of checks and balances that must be passed before you can move up a tier, so we don't think that it will be common for players to be in this situation (with the exception of something like Elo boosting, which we'll be continuing to address).
I imagine starting with 0 would be frustrating cause you lose one game in that division and youre demoted already and have to re-qualify
Personally, I LIKE being able to track my ELO, however low it may be. It's my motivation for wading through the B.S and trolls to play ranked games in the first place. I don't think seeing a generic League badge is going to feel nearly as personalized or rewarding.
Give it a try and give us feedback though! We're aiming to have the league system on the PBE shortly.
Some trolls don't care about winning some trolls just want to watch the world burn.