Teamfight Tactics is a strategy game where your goal is to put together the strongest team possible to beat all other players in round-based combat.
Like with all games that involve strategy, there is a ranking system that pits players of equal skill levels against each other. Here’s everything you need to know about ranked play in TFT.
Also read: Does TFT Give XP
Rank Distribution
Ranks
Similar to League of Legends (the game TFT is based on), there are nine tiers: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger.
Usually, the game tries to match you with players that are of equal rank (for example Silver players match with other Silver players), but this is not a guarantee. Here are the ranks you might be matched with, based on what rank you are.
- Iron: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold
- Bronze: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold
- Silver: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold
- Gold: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum
- Platinum: Gold, Platinum, Emerald
- Emerald: Platinum, Emerald, Diamond
- Diamond: Emerald, Diamond, Master, Grandmaster, Challenger
- Master: Diamond, Master, Grandmaster, Challenger
- Grandmaster: Diamond, Master, Grandmaster, Challenger
- Challenger: Diamond, Master, Grandmaster, Challenger
You can join a ranked match as a party. If everyone in your party is Gold or lower, you can join in groups of five. If not, you can only join in groups of three.
Seasons
Ranked reasons in TFT generally last around four months. This is much shorter than League of Legend’s year-long Seasons.
Each season usually brings in new characters, classes, and origins. Sometimes it will bring in new game mechanics. This keeps the ranking system fresh and requires players to adapt to new strategies if they want to rank in any Season.
Because each season is so different from the last, the game will change your rank at the start of each one. They will take your rank at the end of the previous season and average it with the median rank of all players to determine what rank you should start at in the new season.
Ranking Up
If you haven’t played ranked before, you will start off at Iron II after your first match. You will then go through five preliminary ranked matches based on this rank before you receive your official starting rank.
The only way to rank up in the game is to play matches and place as high as possible. If you place high enough in a match, you will be awarded LP (League Points) that contribute to your rank and tier.
Each Tier has four divisions, which are represented by numerals I, II, III, and IV, with IV being the highest. Every time you earn 100 LP as you play matches, you will move to the next division. If you rank up from division IV in your tier, you will move up to the next tier at the first division.
Players only gain LP if they rank fourth or higher in a ranked match. If they rank fifth or lower, they will lose LP instead.
Also read: Best Apps for Teamfight Tactics
Ranking Down
In the Master tier and above, you can lose your division rank if you don’t play. You can bank up to 10 of your previous games to apply to your rank, but one match is removed from your bank every day.
If you don’t have a banked match for it to drop, you will lose 250 LP instead. This means that if you don’t play a match for at least 10 days, you’ll start to move down in rank. The lowest you can go via this method is Master Division I—you cannot be demoted to Gold.
Losing LP in a match does not carry between ranks when being demoted. You can only demote out of your division or tier if you get lower than fourth place in a match when you have zero LP.
Each game mode in TFT is similar, sharing champions, traits, and items, but having differences in other areas, including how they’re played and even their rank distribution. It’s easy to know that hitting that next rank is ideal. However, it’s not always clear what your skill level is compared to the rest of the playing field.
This is especially true when considering that modes like Hyper Roll and Double Up variate from the standard League of Legends ranking system that many are familiar with.
With TFT experiencing a surge in popularity in Set 6, players around the world are fighting to climb the ladder. While some are spamming the best comps, some are simply learning the game as they climb.
Regardless of where you’re at in terms of skill, it’s fun to know what your rank means. And how much of the player base you’re better than! Without further ado, let’s break down TFT rank distribution throughout each of TFT’s game modes.
Become an evil mastermind TFT player and find yourself playing with the best! Photo via Riot Games.
Standard Ranked TFT
Like League of Legends, standard ranked TFT follows the Iron through Challenger ladder. So if you’re familiar with that system, you’ll be able to make easy sense of this one.
Also similar to LoL, the number of players in Masters, Grandmasters, and Challenger is extremely few. On the other hand, Bronze, Silver, and Gold encompass the vast majority of players.
With that said, here’s the breakdown of what percentage of players are in each tier, courtesy of LoLCHESS.GG:
- Challenger: 0.026%
- Grandmaster: 0.051%
- Master: 0.35%
- Diamond: 1.2%
- Emerald: 4.6%
- Platinum: 13%
- Gold: 26%
- Silver: 32%
- Bronze: 17%
- Iron: 2.9%
Funnily enough, the Iron rank is more exclusive than the Diamond rank, which is typically a big benchmark to hit. But if you’re in Iron or Bronze, you might want to still rank up a tad. As you can see, it’s easily doable for most players to hit Silver, so you can do it too!
Overall, even hitting Gold puts you in the top 50% of players. Past that, every rank-up is a significant improvement and something to take pride in. So take that info and put it to use, either to brag to friends or as motivation to reach your goals!
Hyper Roll
Next up in TFT is Hyper Roll, whose rank system and distribution are quite different. Instead of using LP, it uses MMR directly to place players into one of only five tiers. Because there are just five tiers, there is a lot less variation generally.
For those who don’t know, Hyper Roll is a faster-paced mode whose games only take around 15 minutes. In it, you can’t buy XP or earn extra gold through saving gold. Because of that, you simply roll and fight, though there are some nuances that make it challenging in its own way.
Seeing as games finish quicker, every decision is that much more important, and it means that you have the potential to climb, or fall, in rank much faster too.
Quickly rising to the top with your Little Legend in Hyper Roll! Photo via Riot Games.
At any rate, here are the current Hyper Roll tiers and MMR benchmarks with their respective player base distributions according to LoLCHESS.GG:
- Hyper (4200): 5.06%
- Purple (3400): 9.22%
- Blue (2500): 16.92%
- Green (1500): 47.51%
- Grey (0): 21.28%
As you can see, the overwhelming majority of the player base resides in the bottom two tiers, with nearly half being in the Green tier specifically. For those who want to equate this to the standard ranked TFT distribution, Grey-Blue tiers are roughly equivalent to Iron-Gold.
After that, Purple is comparable to Platinum, though has a slightly smaller population. Finally, Hyper Tier can be related to Diamond+, which means you’re among the best of the best if you manage to reach it. But considering that the minimum benchmark for Hyper is at 4200, and the current highest-ranked player is at over 10,000 points, there is certainly a wide spectrum of skill in this tier itself.
Also read: Augments in Teamfight Tactics – The Ultimate Guide
Double Up!
Double Up has its own Ranked system, using Grey (0 points), Green (1400 points), Blue (2600 points), Purple (3400 points), and Double (4200+ points) tiers instead of the standard Iron to Challenger tiers.
Players will receive Ranked rewards based on the highest rating they achieve in each stage, starting at the Blue tier. Double Up will have its own separate ranked rewards at the end of the set.
Unfortunately, since the ranked system for Double Up came along with The Neon Nights, patch 6.5 we still do not have the exact play distribution for this particular mode.
Conclusion
Ever since the release of TFT there has been a ranking system for the normal TFT mode where you could climb on the familiar ladder that is verbatim the same as is it is in the Summoner’s Rift ranked games. New modes bring new opportunities to the table, and Riot has used that to its advantage by making Hyperroll and Double Up ranked modes as well.
Each game mode comes with the unique gifts after finishing the ranked season. Go and get them all!
