Preseason in League of Legends is always a time of upheaval. Riot Games have already disclosed its ambitions for item balancing, as well as a redesign of the store and the introduction of mythic items.
In 2021, systems impacting the ranking of players will be modified and changes within the different levels will be put into place.
Removal of promotion series within a division
While promotion games within a division were originally created to offer interesting goals to players, it turns out that they are not that useful and can be a huge disappointment for players who fail over and over again.
This is why, at the beginning of Preseason, promo series within divisions (for solo and flex queues) will be removed with the following changes:
- In case of promotion to another division, the remaining LP will not be lost;
- Removal of demotion protection between divisions for players with 0 LP.
Note, however, that this removal does not affect promotions between the different tiers (Silver to Gold, Gold to Platinum, etc.). In short, within your level, you will be able to progress more smoothly, but still have to win through your promo series to move on to the next.
Ranked Informed Matchmaking
As we all know, this system is determined by MMR. In order to refine this system, Riot will add a new criteria called 'ranked informed matchmaking'. This system ensures that the teams are balanced from the division and LP point of view, but also from the MMR point of view.
To estimate the impact of this change, the system evaluates the differences in LP within the two teams. Here are the results of the first tests, which already show several significant improvements:
- No variation in the MMR difference between the teams
- Difference in LP within a team reduced by 40% at all matchmaking percentiles
- Difference in LP between teams reduced by 40% at all matchmaking percentiles
- No more than 1 min 30 sec queue times for 0.01% of players.
- No more than 5 seconds queue times for 50% of players
This new system will protect you from too great a difference in level.
Placement in ranked mode
The objective of Riot is clear — to continue to improve the placement of players, especially when they are placed for the first time in the ranked hierarchy. The system is not yet perfect, even if the first changes have shown an improvement in the placement of new players (this first test phase took place three months ago).
The problem with these new accounts was that they were winning or losing more games than expected after their initial placement. Another problem is that most of these misplaced accounts are what we call "smurfs", which cover a wide range of skill levels.
Riot still need to improve its algorithm. Based on the conclusions of this first test, the studio will spend a few more months on creating a better version. The second version of the ranked mode placements and other solutions for matchmaking will be released at the beginning of Preseason.
Original content by "Cthulhu".
Few achieve them, many dream of them, the three highest levels of the League of Legends ladder, Master, Grandmaster and Challenger, will undergo some modifications during the preseason.
