- 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.
- 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?
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.
- 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).
- Will our elo be resetting then?
We won't be resetting ratings, no. Players and teams will be seeded 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).
- When you upgrade divisions will you start with 0 league points or like 50 or something?
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.
- Seems like you can game the system by throwing a ton of games after each time you go up a skill tier, and then proceed to pubstomp your way to the next skill tier. Please tell me this has been considered already.
If your hidden matchmaking rating (MMR) is far below where it should be for your current division, you will gain LP much more slowly. Similarly, if for some reason your MMR is far above where it should be for your current division, you will gain LP more quickly. Throwing games will not help you out in this system. It's always better to win the game you're playing, regardless of if it's part of a division series, or if you've just been promoted, or if it's just a typical game in the middle of the division standings.
- It could also mean that I'll be matched AGAINST my friends if they're in the same league, which is not exactly a nice experience imo. Unless the matchmaking tries to pair us together if we're playing at the same time or something.
Leagues don't affect matchmaking. You can still be matched against anyone in the entire system, so being in the same division as a friend just allows for some friendly banter and competition. It doesn't mean you will play with or against them more often (unless of course, you duo queue).
- Can the promotion/division series be done with other people (random or from league) doing such series?
It would be nice to have a shared goal, and maybe force players to work together a lil more.It won't work this way at launch but it's high on our list of possible post-launch improvements. We agree that it could be pretty awesome to only match people who are in a series together so that everyone has the same stake in the match outcome. It'd be difficult to do this in Diamond without slowing down matchmaking significantly, but it should be very doable for the other tiers.
For now, we won't be telling anyone else that you're participating in a series, so it's up to you if you want to let people know or not. We look at it as being similar to starting a game at 1490 Elo in the previous system, where you know that you'll get to Gold if you win, and other players in the match aren't necessarily in the same boat.
- Would duo q'ing with someone of a higher tier give you more League Points than Solo Q?
No, duo queuing with someone who's in a higher tier wouldn't give you more LP. It's based on the expected win percentage of your team in the matchup, and the fact that you're in a lower tier than your opponents would be offset by the fact that you have a higher tier player on your team as well.
- What's the main difference between this new system and the SC2 system?
There are certainly similarities, but in designing this system we focused on certain goals we felt were under served in in SC2 and in LoL seasons 1 and 2.
- Clear short, mid, and long term goals
- The ability to understand how promotion works and when it happens
- Exciting series matches similar to the playoff games you see in LoL pro play
- Communities of players competing to rise in the ranks
- If there's only one league at the top, to qualify to move into it, do you have to knock someone out of it? Or is it adaptive and expands in size?
If you move up into Challenger Tier then you knock someone else out. Once you've reached that level of badassery, you've got to fight to keep it. This is the only League where that will be the case.
- What is the difference between League, Ranked and Normal games in these new system?
- How do they work together?
- Ranked and League will be two different queues?
League and Ranked are the same thing. The old ladder structure (the singular ranked list of everyone that plays ranked LoL, sorted by Elo) is now going to be replaced by Leagues of similarly skilled players.
Normal games will continue to be exactly the same as before.
- Are the division and promotion matches consecutive? Or can you just play one, go eat dinner and watch a movie, come back a few hours later and play another match in the best-of-three/best-of-five (like ELO placement matches)? Or is it like competitive play where you play games until there is a majority winner? (This might mean 3-4 hours of consecutive play).
You aren't required to finish them right away; you will have a very generous window of time to complete your series (multiple weeks), before you are no longer eligible to be promoted. Though we want to bring you the intense feeling of a tournament game, we know people have things to do, dinners to eat, and swimming pool fires to put out.
- If someone is in a promotion series what prevents them from repeatedly dodging until they enter a game they have a high chance of winning?
If you queue dodge during a Division or Promotion Series then the series will immediately be canceled and you'll have to re-qualify for the series by winning another game. It might sound harsh, but queue dodge rates in ranked are honestly too high right now, and we're not interested in having some players carefully micromanaging their series matchups at the expense of everyone else's queue times and failed lobbies.
- What are the penalties if I dodge a ranked game?
A time penalty preventing you from searching a new game for a certain amount of time. This time starts at 5 minutes and is increased by 30 more minutes to a 1 hour cap for every following queue dodge that day.
A League Points penalty is applied to the player who dodges, 3 points for the first time and 10 for the second time before the timer reset.
