LOL RANKED: WHAT DOES IT MEAN, AND HOW DO I REACH IT?

Posted by MichealH Alexander on September 11th, 2019

In today’s article, we will talk about League of Legends ranked, and break down all of the different parts of the system in order for you, the reader, to have a clearer grasp of how LoL ranks work.

Ranked in League of Legends is one of the many “Modes” you can choose when queuing up for a game. It is a queue type where players are ranked based on their hidden “Matchmaking Rating”, or “MMR”. The MMR is always hidden, and it is impossible to know it accurately, but it can be estimated as a range. As a player who hasn’t played Ranked before, your MMR is equivalent to the average player’s MMR for your server. When you win games, the system raises your MMR, and when you lose games, it drops it. You play some games and are placed into a “League”, which consists of a “Tier” and a “Division”, and you also have a specific amount of “League Points”, or “LP”. There are 9 Tiers in LoL, namely Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master, Grandmaster & the elusive Challenger. In each of these ranks, except Master+, there are 4 divisions, the lowest being division 4 and the highest being division 1. You are granted LP when you win and have LP deducted from you when you lose, & you can have an LP value between 0 and 100. Whenever you reach 0 LP, you are at risk of demoting to the division below your current one if you continue to lose, and if you reach 100 LP, you enter a promotion series, where you have to win 2 out of your next 3 games (3 out of 5 in case of Division 1 promotion series, which will promote you to division 4 of the next Tier). The amount of LP you gain/lose per win/loss is determined by many factors, but mainly your MMR and the difference between it and the average MMR of the game you were playing - Ergo, if you are (for whatever reason) placed into a game with an average MMR which is significantly lower than your own MMR, your gained LP will be low and your lost LP will be high for winning/losing this game respectively, since LoL deduces that you are supposed to win this game since it is overall lower than your level as a player, and the exact opposite happens if you are placed in a game with a significantly higher average MMR than your MMR. Now we will explain each point in this LoL ranked article, so keep on reading!

What is ranked in League of Legends?

The competitive mode in League of Legends, which matches two teams of five players against each other, is called Ranked.

You can only access Ranked in LoL if you are at least level 30 and own a minimum of 20 champions.

The first time you play ranked, you will be playing 10 initial “placement” games, which will decide your starting rank, and therefore your placement on the ladder. The more you win, the higher your initial placement on the ladder will be.

After you play your first placement game, you will be given a provisional rank. You will be able to see this provisional rank gradually increasing as you win more of the remaining placement games, so you will have a decent idea of where you will land once all games are done. You will also be able to see your provisional LP, which is considered a recent addition to the system.

When you win more games, you climb higher and higher on the LoL ranked ladder, which is a good indicator of your ability and skills as a player.

What are the main deciding factors that go into my rank in League of Legends?

Your rank is decided solely by your MMR. If you are winning games, you will go up the ladder, and if you are losing games, the opposite will happen and you will be demoted down the ladder. The rate at which you climb/fall depends on the difference between your current MMR and the average MMR of each game that you win/lose, as was mentioned earlier.

What is MMR and what is it affected by?

MMR is short for “Matchmaking Rating”. It is the value that League of Legends' ranked system uses in order to place you with and against players as close as possible to your own skill level, as accurately as possible. It is only affected by wins and losses, and the rate at which it is increasing/decreasing per win/loss depends on the difference between your current MMR and the average MMR of each game that you win/lose. Clearly, this is a recurring theme.

What do I earn from being in each rank at the end of the season?

Iron, Bronze Ranks:

Iron/Bronze Rank Summoner Icon + Iron/Bronze Rank Profile Border

Silver Rank:

Silver Rank Summoner Icon + Silver Rank in-game Loading Screen Border + Victorious Ward Skin (must be Silver+ in at least 2x Queues)

Gold Rank:

Gold Rank Summoner Icon + Gold Rank in-game Loading Screen Border + Victorious Champion Skin (1 Chroma per Gold+ Queue Ranking) + Victorious Ward Skin (must be Silver+ in at least 2x Queues)

Platinum Rank:

Platinum Rank Summoner Icon + Platinum Rank in-game Loading Screen Border + Victorious Champion Skin (1 Chroma per Gold+ Queue Ranking) + Victorious Ward Skin (must be Silver+ in at least 2x Queues)

Diamond Rank:

Diamond Rank Summoner Icon + Diamond Rank in-game Loading Screen Border + Victorious Champion Skin (1 Chroma per Gold+ Queue Ranking) + Victorious Ward Skin (must be Silver+ in at least 2x Queues)

Master Rank:

Master Rank Summoner Icon + Master Rank in-game Loading Screen Border + Victorious Champion Skin (1 Chroma per Gold+ Queue Ranking) + Victorious Ward Skin (must be Silver+ in at least 2x Queues)

Grandmaster Rank:

Grandmaster Rank Summoner Icon + Grandmaster Rank in-game Loading Screen Border + Victorious Champion Skin (1 Chroma per Gold+ Queue Ranking) + Victorious Ward Skin (must be Silver+ in at least 2x Queues)

Challenger Rank:

Challenger Rank Summoner Icon + Challenger Rank in-game Loading Screen Border + Victorious Champion Skin (1 Chroma per Gold+ Queue Ranking) + Victorious Ward Skin (must be Silver+ in at least 2x Queues) + Challenger Rank Unique Recall Animation + Potential Physical Reward (previously Jacket, Backpack)

Any advice for climbing from some specific ranks?

Currently, ranks in League of Legends are divided into 9 different tiers, each with 4 different divisions ranging from division 4 all the way up to division 1 (except Master and higher, as those are tiers with a single division only). We will give some advice on what to focus on for each rank, in a brief fashion of course:

Iron Rank:

This is the lowest ranked tier in all LoL ranks. It has been introduced recently, and serves the purpose of being the “beginner” rank in LoL. If you are in Iron, you are most likely weak all around as a player. Our advice is to try to have fun playing LoL, maybe find a small set of champions (5 or less) that you really enjoy playing, and just play a lot and try to use your critical thinking to find ways to avoid repeated mistakes that you make. So to summarize, play fewer champions, try not to make the same mistakes many times, and just have fun playing League of Legends.

Bronze Rank:

This used to be the lowest tier in LoL ranks, although that changed with the introduction of Iron. Most players in Bronze have a confusing belief that they are stuck in this rank because of the teammates they are matched with, although this is completely false. While it might be a factor that goes into making it harder for you to climb out, as long as you focus on your own gameplay and what you can improve, you can climb out of Bronze with ease. What you need to do is to take the advice from Iron that was mentioned earlier, but add to it the mentality of improvement. You want to focus on yourself more than you focus on your teammates in order to climb out of Bronze Rank.

Silver Rank:

The quintessential “average” rank in LoL. Being the most crowded tier overall, it is not surprising to see many people on the internet complaining about being ranked in Silver. Realistically, breaking out of Silver Rank is the first step to becoming a good League of Legends player, as that would already mean you are above average. In addition to the previous advice that was already given, it still holds true here, another addition is considering looking up guides to your champions, using external websites to figure out itemization and maxing orders for your champions, or perhaps watching Challenger players or professionals playing the same champions, and trying to pick up on any good habits or patterns you can apply to your own gameplay.

Gold Rank:

Most high level players would agree that the LoL ranked ladder only truly begins in Gold and above. The lower ranks are mainly where casual LoL players, or beginners, belong, while going into Gold and higher would mean you have begun to grasp concepts in LoL which are required in order to truly individually be able to carry games. We consider Gold Rank to be the easiest Tier to escape out of all of the ranked tiers, as the differences between it and Platinum are not difficult to bypass. For most Gold Ranked players that we see, they are lacking one very important point, which is what we call Sharpening. What we mean by that is, you are already decent at a champion or a few, but what you need is to concentrate all of your time and effort on mastering this champion or that set of champions that you are already decent at. Take the previous advice, but add to it the focus on a maximum of 3 champions for your primary role and a single champion for your secondary role. This way you can maximize your learning pace and truly achieve Sharpening.

Platinum Rank:

Welcome to the land of the decent, but not amazing, Platinum. Players in this LoL rank tend to be good mechanically, as in their ability to last hit as well as dodge and land skillshots, but tend to be lacking in Game Knowledge. You would be best off first of all believing that you still have much to learn and a large room to improve, and focus on yourself instead of blaming other factors which you can’t control for your inability to progress. Also, it is imperative to maximize your minimap awareness in order to progress. Finally, watch as many games as you can, as previously mentioned, in order to add to your own knowledge and begin to understand how League of Legends should truly be played.

Diamond Rank:

If you are already a Diamond Ranked player, you are on the cusp of reaching the top 1% of players in LoL. This particular LoL rank is the dream of many players, as reaching it would truly signify that you have earned the right to call yourself a good player. Now, does the road end here? No. There are higher echelons of ranked in League of Legends that can be achieved, although reaching them would be far more specific to each individual player than to be able to sum it up in a brief guide like this one.

Master, Grandmaster, Challenger Ranks:

The best of the best belong in these ranks. They exist at the top of the LoL ranked ladder, and are players who can easily blaze through all of the previous ranks like it is nothing. All players on the ladder who are serious about climbing, aspire to one day reach one of these Tiers.

Is there an easier way to obtain my desired ranked rewards?

A much easier & quicker alternative to climbing the ranks and reaching the rewards on your own, is purchasing Elo Boosting. Elo Boost is a service where a skilled professional Elo Booster (a very good Master+ Player) plays on your account in order to reach your requested rank, and thus the rewards that you are aiming for. Using ProBoosting’s Elo Boosting service is completely safe and guaranteed, as it is a very old and reputable website that has been providing Boosting in sever titles for many years. You can also order Duo Boosting, which is completely allowed by LoL’s rules, if you are afraid of being detected. You shouldn’t be worried though, as the boosters take very careful security measures to make sure they are undetectable. Through reading this guide to LoL ranks, you should have learned a lot about how the ranked mode in League of Legends works, and what you should be attentive of on your quest to getting that shiny Diamond rank. Thank you for reading this far, and we hope we have answered all the questions you had concerning Ranked in LoL! Stay tuned for future articles, and best of luck on the fields of justice!