League of Legends Rank Reset Explained

The rank reset LoL system tends to be a tad unexplained by Riot Games, as it changes every few years. While MMR, aka Matchmaking Rating, has never been explained at all. However, some things have stayed the same these past few seasons.

How Does Rank Reset Work in League of Legends?

The rank reset and ELO decay rules in the League of Legends ranking system are changed every year at the start of a new ranking season, and there is no one exact rule that Riot follows. In the current ranked season, the developers have used a “soft reset” strategy, meaning that players have received a lower rank, of one tier and division, after which you play your placement games.

RANK	RANK ICON
Iron
Bronze
Silver
Gold
Platin
Diamond
Master
Grand Master
Challenger

Riot explains that this is a chance for players to re-prove themselves and see if they continue to play League of Legends at the same skill level. Game developers have repeatedly said that they are satisfied with the soft reset solution, suggesting that we will see a League of Legends ranked reset strategy in a new ranked season, which will be similar, if not identical.

Does Rank Reset Affect MMR?

The thing we must mention is that your MMR will be the same as last season, regardless of what rank you get after playing your placement matches. What does this mean in practice? For example, once the season ends, if you finished your previous season at Diamond I and received Platinum II for the start of the new season, your path to Diamond will be much shorter than other players.

That's because your higher MMR will guarantee you more LPs for winning matches, although you will still encounter players of slightly higher rank than your current rank, as the queue system in League of Legends strongly considers your MMR.

Does Preseason Rank Matter in LoL?

That depends on what you consider to be beneficial to your rank. In essence, when you play ranked in the preseason, your rank will not be improved for the next season.

However, your MMR will definitely improve if you keep winning games in preseason ranked. Beware that it will also drop if you lose games. And since very few people care about ranked in the preseason, that happens quite often!

Does League of Legends Rank Reset Every Split?

There are three splits in every League of Legends season. And, as we could see in the previous seasons, split does not utilize the soft reset strategy.

It doesn’t influence your rank placement at all, but the other way around. Your rank and number of games played dictate the rewards you get, based on how many split points you’ve earned.

Is There an ELO Decay in League of Legends?

From other online games, you may be used to having your skill rank drop through inactivity. So, how does this work for League of Legends?

Well, as long as you don't have a Diamond rank or higher, you don't have to worry about it. You may not play the rest of the season and only come back at the end of it, and your rank will stay the same. On the other hand, Diamond, Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger players will lose some LP points for inactivity. Despite the drop in LP by inactivity, your MMR stays in place, so it will be easier for you to return to your pre-decay rank.

The ELO Decay system allows the so-called “game banking”. This means that one day you can play ranked games a lot to be inactive for a while later and have your in-game activity reserved, which protects you from losing LPs. The number of games you can “bank” is different for Diamond and Master+ ranks.

Diamond ELO Decay

In Diamond, every ranked game you play means 7 days in your “activity bank,” and you can collect a maximum of 28 of them. Yes, it means that you can play 4 matches in one day and have bliss for a virtually complete month. However, if there are no more days in your “activity bank,” you will lose 50LP every day until you reach Platinum I.

Master+ ELO Decay

The rules are a bit more restrictive for the Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger ranks. One ranked game adds one day to your “activity bank,” and you can only have a maximum of 10 such days. For each day of inactivity, you will lose 250LP until you drop to Diamond IV.

League of Legends ranking system is one of the most complicated of all popular games. But what's the surprise? After all, this is a game with a true high-skill cap, so the game creators had to create this system so that everyone would have the most deserved rank for their experience level.

If you want to get a better idea of how the ranking system in League of Legends works, we recommend checking out our guide to the League of Legends ranked system, as well as other articles that may help you find your way around the world of arguably the most addictive online game ever made.