There you are; you just gained a whole lot of experience and levels in League of Legends. You even managed to unlock all of those Summoner Spells and put some of your Blue Essence towards a couple of champions that caught your eyes. Now, you’re sitting there with some time on your side before you have to call it a night. What are you going to do?
What I would do with my extra time would be to head on over to League’s ranked mode and start climbing that ladder (that’s one of my favorite things to do, actually).
Now, if you’re new to ranked in League of Legends, I can understand how confusing this is at first. There are so many different divisions and tiers to climb to the point that some people just want to run away after trying to figure it out. Stick with it because I’m going to help you out by explaining the League of Legends ranked system.
With more than 115 million monthly users, LoL is one of the most popular PC games out there. The MOBA’s wire selection of champions and tactical gameplay makes the game unique, challenging, and fun all at the same time. However, as with any game like this, you will need to separate the Challengers from the scrubs when it comes to competitive play.
What do the best League of Legends players out there do in order to prove their worth? Even more important, what do they do in order to stop getting matched from those troublesome low-level players? The answer to all of that involves LoL’s ranking system.
Many people have questions like: What are the ranks called, how many ranks are there, how many people are in the top rank, which one will I start in, and so on. Well, we’ve dedicated this article to help you out with all of that. Let’s get started, shall we?
For more tips and tricks, here is our guide on how to get an S rank in League of Legends.
How Does the Ranking System Work in League of Legends?
In League of Legends, the ranking system has a total of nine tiers. Each one of those tiers is split into four different divisions, with four being the lowest possible in that tier and one being the highest possible.
In order to progress through each tier and division, you will need to earn League Points (LP) – You get LP for games that you win with your team.
How many points will you win? Well, that exact number is determined by your Matchmaking Rating (MMR). If you win against a team with a higher MMR than yours, then this means you’re going to get more LP than you would if you were to win against a team that had a lower MMR than yours.
If you do not win a match, then you will lose LP.
Rage quitting is another way for you to lose LP, so you need to avoid doing this. The amount of LP you lose, again, is all going to depend on the MMR of you as well as your opponent.
Once a ranked season has come to an end, your division and tier will be locked in – this is going to be your official rank for that season.
From there, you’re going to be rewarded with in-game rewards, including special skins. The quality of rewards and the amount of rewards you will receive are all going to depend on which tier you finished in at the end of the season.
Also read: Ezreal Jungle Build
What Do They Call the Ranks in League of Legends?
There are nine ranks in League of Legends, and each one has its own name. The names are as follows:
- Iron
- Bronze
- Silver
- Gold
- Platinum
- Diamond
- Master
- Grandmaster
- Challenger
Each one of these has four divisions within them – like I previously said, with four being the lowest and one being the highest. Once you reach 100LP in division one of the tier you’re in, you’re going to be given a chance to jump up to division four in the tier above if you win most of the games.
A large portion of the player base will be stuck in Silver or Gold because progressing to the top isn’t exactly easy…you didn’t expect it to be easy, did you?
In order to work your way to Platinum and beyond, you will need to put a lot of dedication into the game and your skills. An excellent way to do this would be to specialize in a small number of champions and check the patch notes for meta-changing buffs and nerfs.
League of Legends Rank Distribution in Solo Queue
League of Legends has a massive global player base – this game gets up to around eight million players each day. How many players can actually brag about being in the top competitive tear? How many players never make it out or Iron?
Season 10 of League of Legends is set to end on November 10, 2020 (so, if you’re reading this post after November 10, 2020, Season 10 has already ended.
The latest figures from Season 10 across all of the regions:
Solo Queue Rank – % of Playerbase
- Iron – 4.5%
- Bronze – 21%
- Silver – 33%
- Gold – 27%
- Platinum -10%
- Diamond – 2.3%
- Master – 0.034%
- Grandmaster – 0.028%
- Challenger – 0.012%
The most populated tiers would be silver (33%) and gold (27%). This figure shows us that not many people managed to make it past the gold tier.
Looking at Diamond onwards, you see a major drop off in the number of players in those tiers. Only 0.012% of the League players manage to reach the Challenger rank. If we were to use Riot’s figure of having eight million players each day, we concluded that around 1500 players around the world are skilled enough to make it to the top tier.
It’s also worth mentioning that once they reach Platinum, players can lose LP over time if they have an inactive ranked account. What this means is that in order to prevent your high ranking account from going down, you will need to continue to play League of Legends throughout the season.
Also read: League of Legends Solo Queue Rank Distribution
How do I Start Playing Ranked in League of Legends?
In order to start playing ranked in League of Legends, you will need to meet certain criteria. Starting out, you will need to be level 30 or above. If you haven’t reached level 30 yet, then you will not be able to play ranked.
Secondly, you will need to own 16 or more champions in order to play. Once you have those two boxes checked off, you will be able to start your placement matches (this is when the real fun begins).
When you do those placement matches, make sure you are in a good state of mind because those matches will be determining which competitive tier you’re going to start out in. If you lose most of your games, you will be placed in the Iron division, which is at the very bottom. If you win a lot of games and do good, you may be placed in higher tiers such as Bronze, Silver, or Gold. We know you’re a good player, but if you find yourself on a losing streak, don’t panic, just check out our guide on how to break a losing streak.
Once you are done with your placement matches, you will be placed in the appropriate tier, and that’s when it’s time to start your journey, which is working your way to Challenger.
Conclusion
Now that you know everything there is to know about the ranked system on League of Legends, once Season 11 hits, you can start climbing that ladder.
If you’re looking to dive into the LoL world even more, here is our article on the ranked solo queue vs. ranked flex queue situation.
