League of Legends is one of the most competitive E-Sports titles. While some people play this game to enjoy and have a good time with their friends, others play only to win. By winning, they gain League Points, or LP for short. They need this as a prerequisite to jump to a higher rank in League of Legends.
With so many ranks with different names, it becomes confusing for new players to figure out which ranks are the best and which contain the lowly squabble. Moreover, the ranking system is locked for beginners until certain requirements are fulfilled.
So how do you unlock ranked matches and which ranks are good? That’s exactly what we will talk about in this article.
To sum it up, a good rank is the one in which you can get the right to brag, without having to put too much effort into attaining it. Gold I and II are the perfect contenders as they put you in the top 20% of League of Legend players. The ranks beyond Gold get very difficult to achieve, and maintaining a high rank requires a lot of time and energy.
Ranking In League Of Legends
There are multiple play modes in League of Legends. But not all game modes contribute to the ranking system. Regardless of how many matches you win or lose in ARAM, your rank will not be affected in the least. For you to gain a rank, you need to take part in Ranked matches.
To join ranked matches and win LP, you need to hit at least level 30. There are a lot of methods to level up fast, but the best and most obvious way is to play a lot of matches and complete in-game missions. Once you reach level 30, the Ranked mode will unlock, and you will be able to play your first placement match.
When you start winning ranked matches, you will gain LP and your Rank will increase. But keep in mind that losing a match will lower your LP and can lead to you dropping down a rank. This is what brings a competitive aspect to this game.
How Many Ranks Are In League Of Legends?
Currently, there are a total of 9 ranks in League of Legends. These tiers indicate the skill level of a player and give them bragging rights if they are placed in a higher tier. The ranks are as follows:
- Iron
- Bronze
- Silver
- Gold
- Platinum
- Diamond
- Master
- Grandmaster
- Challenger
The Iron rank is the lowest and is made up of rookies with low skill levels. Challenger, on the other hand, comprises the creme de la creme of the League of Legends community. These players are the best in their class and compete in world-class competitions.
These ranks are further broken into four Divisions, indicated by roman numerals. One indicates the highest Division within the rank while four is the lowest. This means that a player will have to ascend 4 tiers to reach the next rank. And they’ll be placed in tier 4 of the new rank. The Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger ranks, however, don’t have any further divisions within them.
How Do You Unlock Ranked Matches In League Of Legends?
You may have noticed that initially, ranked matches are locked. The only matches you can partake in are the ones that don’t have any effect on ranks, like normal or ARAM. To unlock Ranked matches, Riot Games requires you to invest more time in the game and improve yourself.
This system aims to keep rookies and people with a non-serious attitude away from ruining ranked matches for others. As League of Legends is highly team-based, having a weaker or a non-invested player can lead to the entire team losing the match. This leads to players losing their LP and eventually dropping in the ranks.
To unlock ranked matches, a player must reach level 30. This will make sure they know the basic as well as some of the advanced mechanics of the game. Not just that, you must also have unlocked 20 or more champions. After having a taste of so many champions, a player will have settled with a few of their favorite ones and will have understood how they work.
How Do You Climb Ranks?
Once you unlock the ranked matches, you’ll want to make sure you know how the ranking system works in League of Legends. In simple terms, the more matches you win, the faster will you be able to climb the ladder towards Challenger. If you lose a match, you’ll lose some precious LP that will slow your progress. But there is much more to this system.
The MMR System
This daunting abbreviation stands for Matchmaking Rating. This is a secret number that measures the skill level of a team compared to others. When matchmaking, the server matches two teams with a similar MMR number to keep the game fair. But even then, one team can have a higher MMR value than the other. This has its pros and cons.
If a team has to face another team with a higher MMR value, their chances of winning will be slimmer. However, if they manage to defeat the stronger team, they’ll be awarded a higher number of LP as well as XP. On the other hand, when facing a team with a lower LLP means easy winnings, but if you end up losing, the LP loss will be much higher in comparison.
If your team wins multiple matches in a row, their MMR is boosted to a much higher value. This can even lead to being matched with other players who are ranked 3-4 divisions higher than you. This keeps the matchmaking system fair, independent of the ranks, and keeps smurfing at bay.
Climbing A Rank Division
As mentioned above, a player needs to climb all four divisions to jump up a rank. And to climb a division, League Points must be won.
A total of 100 LP is needed to advance to the next division. Similarly, if a player loses 100 LP, they will drop down into the division below their current one. How much LP you win from a single match highly varies, and is directly linked to your MMR value. The higher your MMR, the more LP you’ll receive per match.
As a general rule of thumb, winning a match can get you anywhere from 10-20 LLP. You lose the same amount when you lose a game. According to this, you will need to consecutively win anywhere from 5-10 matches to gain a division.
Season Reset
A typical League of Legends season lasts almost an entire year, or 10 months to be exact. As the season ends, the preseason instantly kicks off. However, when the new season starts, players automatically lose a rank as well as a division. For a player in Gold II, this translates to Silver III at the start of a new season.
This process is called a Soft Reset. It affects more than just your rank. As a new season starts, players will notice a drop in their MMR value as well as their win rate. This isn’t essentially a bad thing, as it allows you to match up with players that have a lower MMR value, and instantly build up a winning streak.
Despite a seasonal reset, the preseason stats are important for a player. Having good stats will set them up for a successful next season, and vice versa. This falls primarily to the placement matches that come with every new season. A player with a good preseason rank will have a greater chance of being placed in a higher rank after the placement matches.
Player Distribution In Ranks
The player distribution in every rank gives us a rough indication of how difficult it is to get into higher ranks. Essentially, as the rank increases, the number of players in that rank decreases. The distribution is as follows:
- Iron: 8%
- Bronze: 18%
- Silver: 36%
- Gold: 29%
- Platinum: 11%
- Diamond:4%
- Master: 12%
- Grandmaster: 026%
- Challenger:011%
According to this distribution, the majority of League of Legends players fall in the Silver and Gold Rank. The Iron rank has a surprisingly low number of players. This indicates that going into the Bronze league from Iron I is very easy.
The ten-times drop in the number of players when coming from Platinum to Diamond is a sign of how difficult it is to ascend a rank from Platinum. On the other hand, The Grandmaster and Challenger ranks comprise only a handful of Esports players who are at the top of the food chain.
What Is A Good Rank In League Of Legends?
Hence, we finally return to our original question. A more philosophical answer to this question would be that any rank that falls right above your current one, is a good rank. This will compel you to always improve yourself and keep gaining LP and climbing ranks until you find yourself among the Challengers.
But there is a permanent answer to this question. A good rank for a normal player would be Gold I or Gold II. This would make them better than almost 70% of players in the world. With close to 29% of the total League of Legends players in the Gold, it is a fairly easy rank to get into.
To further increase your rank beyond Gold, you would have to spend a lot more time and energy. It is difficult to maintain the higher ranks, and the return on investment is not worth it. Hence, you can consider Gold a good rank, as it will give you bragging rights without asking much in return.
Conclusion
With almost 13 years behind it, League of Legends still has a very large player base. Hundreds of new players jump into the game every week. These new players need to know how simple systems such as Ranking work in League of Legends.
In this article, we talked about all the different ranks and the player distribution within them. We also discussed how to gain ranks and the factors that affect the amount of LP you gain. Thank you for reading.
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