League of Legends can become a rather monotonous game if you don’t set yourself a new challenge or obstacle to overcome. Riot has made sure to provide you with more than enough obstacles so that you have to work hard and prove your status as a quality League of Legends player.
This thorny path to success is called the ranking system. The ranking system is an ideal opportunity to show to yourself and others that you have unique gaming skills and that you can confirm it through the higher tier and division. We will repeat a few important facts about how the League of Legends ranking system works. Stay tuned.
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Ranking System – a Brief Introduction
So, we can say that you were intrigued by the ranking system. You are in the right place to get acquainted with the concepts, rules, and instructions on succeeding within the League of Legends ranked community. Unlike normal mode, ranked mode is intended for those who want to compete and win.
We can say that ranked mode is a way more competitive version of a seemingly fun game that has served you so far to kill boredom while you wait for dinner or spend some time on the computer before you begin to study for your exam.
The ranked mode also includes two teams of five players, unlocked only when the player reaches level 30 and has a minimum of 20 purchased champions in his collection. At the very beginning, you have to play placement games – placement games serve to let Riot’s algorithm recognize your gaming skill and to rank you in one of the tiers and divisions based on the skill shown within the match. Basically, the more matches your team wins, the better your chances of being in the Silver or Gold tier, and from there, you start your path to success or the Challenger tier that is intended for the best.
During ranked matches, you can collect or lose LP (League Points), and their amount is important because it decides whether to upgrade or downgrade on your way. In addition to LP, a hidden algorithm called Matchmaking Rating (MMR) calculates whether you gain or lose more or less League Points. So, let’s begin. When you want to play a ranked match, you can choose whether to play solo/duo or flex queue.
If you want to play alone or with your friend, you will choose a solo/duo queue, and if you have a team of three players, you will choose a flex queue. Riot, however, does not allow the premade team of four players because that would not be fair to the one who would be in the middle of an almost complete team. But if you have a team of five players, you can also play a ranked match, just split the roles and agree on your common goal during the game; you mustn’t be four pre-arranged. Seems fair, do you agree?
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Ranks and Divisions in League of Legends
The ranking system in the League of Legends has nine tiers, and each tier has four more divisions. This is how they are ranked, from the weakest to the strongest tier: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master, Grandmaster, and the best of the best – Challenger tier. An example of a division could be the Silver I. This is the best division in the Silver tier because you can go from it to the Gold tier.
If you are a Gold IV, then you are in the lowest division Gold tier, and you are threatened with falling into a worse tier than Gold, which is the Silver tier. However, there is an exception here. The three highest tiers, Challenger, Grandmaster, and Master, each have only one division. So, IV is the worst division, and I is the best division. Now you know what tiers and divisions are.
Solo Queue Rank Distribution in League of Legends
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Every player who wants to play ranked matches wants to succeed at the end of the season among the few who are the best and are in the highest tiers. Each League of Legends ranked season lasts almost a year and is divided into three splits. Splits last for three months and during them, players collect split points, which are reset at the end of each split. The rank in which a player is at the end of the season is locked, and based on it, and the player can win prizes, such as special skins. At the beginning of each future season, the player starts from the rank in which he finished last season.
You can quickly see how the players are unevenly distributed and how they are least in the top tiers according to the rank distribution. This is why players tend to stand out from the crowd of average players and reach the top of the ranked rankings as Challengers.
According to leagueofgraphs.com, which periodically publishes rank distribution according to the latest data, this is the rank distribution of solo queue:
As you can see, the highest percentage of players (36%) is in the Silver tier, followed by the Gold tier with 29% of players. These are the two most popular tiers, which is why players are trying to get out of them. Unlike the Silver and Gold tiers, the situation at the top is pretty empty. Platinum, which has 12% of players, is followed by the Master tier, where the total percentage of players is less than 1% (0.21%).
There are even fewer of them in the Grandmaster tier (only 0.024%), and in the highest and best tier, Challenger, there is 0.010% of the total population of ranked players in the League of Legends. With all of the above, the desire to reach the Challenger tier is extremely high for all players.
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Final Thoughts
Man is a curious being, the gamer who plays the game is even more curious. Why settle for average standard games when you can turn on your competitive spirit and show how to play? Well, the solution lies in ranked games. Ranked is a competitive mode within the League of Legends where players can climb or fall down the ladder of the best.
Through nine tiers and their divisions, players try to get into the circle of the world’s best League of Legends players. This tier is called the Challenger and is the goal of this ranking system. To be the best means to be a Challenger. Why be an average Silver player or Gold player when you can take this competition seriously and reach the stars? Good luck and have fun!