LoL Ranking System – All you need to know about League of Legends Ranks

League of Legends is the premier MOBA title on the market. Players from across the globe are flocking to this title for over a decade. The competitive esports scene as well as the ingame ladder system have attracted millions of players to battle for the top of the LoL ranking system. Before you start your climb to the top League of Legends ranks, there are some points you need to learn on how the Ranking system in LoL works and what it takes to be the best out there.

© Riot Games

What different ranks exist in LoL?

The LoL ranking system can be split into two areas: divisions and tiers. Divisions can be represented as entire floors, while tiers are small steps within such divisions. With the start of the second ranked split in season 13, Riot has added one additional division to a total of 10 divisions, with the first seven having four tiers within. Below is the complete list of all the LoL ranks in order:

• Iron (l, ll, lll, lV)
• **Bronze (l, ll, lll, lV) **
• Silver (l, ll, lll, lV)
• Gold (l, ll, lll, lV)
• **Platinum (l, ll, lll, lV) **
• Emerald (I, II, III, IV)
• Diamond (l, ll, lll, lV)
• Master
• Grand Master
• Challenger

What is the distribution of ranks in LoL?

Before the addition of the Emerald rank, the ranked distribution looked like this:

• Iron – 5.5%
• Bronze – 24%
• Silver – 29%
• Gold – 24%
• **Platinum – 12% **
• Diamond – 3.1%
• Master – 0.49%
• Grand Master – 0.045%
• Challenger – 0.019%

Based on the information given by League of Graphs, the vast majority of the player base is below platinum Elo, and less than 0.6% of the players on the solo queue ladder are Master Elo or above. Challenger players represent the highest level in LoL, with only a few hundred accounts. They usually register more than 1000 LP.

The current rank with the highest percentage of players is Gold IV at 10%, followed by Silver IV (9.3%) and Silver II (7.0%). The lowest rank in the game is Iron IV, and it only includes 0.47% of the player base.

The expected new ranked distribution

Riot mentioned in their dev blog they will be looking to better distribute the players while only giving out to a minority of players in the highest ranks. Based on the expectations, the new ranked distribution would look like this:

Image Credits | Riot Games

The percentages would look like this:

• Iron – 4%
• Bronze – 16%
• Silver – 20%
• Gold – 20%
• **Platinum – 20% **
• Emerald – 17%
• Diamond – 2.5%
• Master – 0.49%
• Grand Master – 0.045%
• Challenger – 0.019%

This would allow to have the vast majority of players ranging from Silver to Platinum, with only the top 3% (approximately) being Diamond Elo and above.

How does the LoL ranking system work?

The ranking system is based on set divisions/tiers as mentioned above. Players will earn LP points upon wins, and lose them whenever they lose. With each tier having 100 LPs, the moment a player goes above the threshold is immediately promoted to the next tier. This happens when going from the fourth tier of a division to the first one.

In the previous months, players would be placed in the promotion stage when reaching 100 LP in the first tier of any division. To reach the next division, players were required to win 2 out of the next 3 games played.

From the second ranked split, however, Riot decided to remove promos across the board, so there will be no more promos in the future. It should speed up the climbing process but it also might have some repercussions, especially if the demotion shield will still be active (you don't demote immediately if you hit 0 LP).

LoL Ranks explained – it's all about MMR

Depending on past performance, each player also has a system-generated "MMR" (match making rating). While this rating is not directly displayed, it's the most important indicator in the game since it helps the ranking system assign players fairly, allocating people of similar skill levels together. It also helps determine the level of "lp" loss/gain depending on whether you win or lose. For example, getting a winning streak will increase your MMR above the average for your division/tier, granting you higher lp gains when winning. This is because the system aims to accelerate the promotion of better players, reducing the impact of smurfs.

Wanting to improve your rank and know how do LoL ranks work? It's all about game knowledge. You can read all the latest League of Legends news regularly at our site.

What ELO means in LoL?

ELO simply refers to the ranking/rating system. In the case of League of Legends, when somebody mentions ELO, it refers to your rank or your general skill level. The term is borrowed from Arpad Elo's system which is commonly used in chess. Players are rated between 0 and 2200+ on the "Elo scale". The higher your ELO the higher division you are expected to be.

In LoL, ELO is only shown once you get to Master or above. At that point, there are no more tier for these divisions, and the ELO is the main indicator to show how well a player is performing.

Is Plat 1 high ELO?

Plat 1 is statistically considered high elo as players in Plat 1 are within the top 5.3% of the ranked system. Players achieving Plat 1 are extremely close to Diamond IV, the rank where the top 3% of players are in. However, the difference between high ELO players is immense, as seen in the various League of Legends ranks, which include the same amount of divisions compared to the rest of the players.

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What rank is Faker?

Faker is a legend in the League of Legends scene, being acknowledged as the best mid laner and player in the world for multiple years. While Faker may not be considered the best nowadays, he remains among the very best in both the competitive scene and the solo queue ladder.

The League of Legends ranks of competitive players change throughout a season as not many are active on the ranked ladder. Rank decay is common as many competitive players refrain from solo queue for a multitude of different reasons. These reasons include not wanting to give away tactics, and not having enough time given their busy schedules scrimming other teams and reviewing VODs.

To no surprise, Faker from year to year has managed to achieve Challenger by the end of every season in the LoL ranking system. While he may not always be on the challenger leaderboard, for the reasons mentioned above, he continues to finish the year at the highest division. On some occasions, the superstar has even managed to claim the Rank 1 spot on the Korean competitive League of Legends ranking system.

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How do you get S rank?

At the end of each game, Riot has a separate system that evaluates your individual performance at the conclusion of every game. Better performance in-game will yield greater "champion mastery" gain. The system will also determine a grade based on your performance on the set champion in a role compared to other players.

Grades range from:

• S (+, normal, -)
• A (+, normal, -)
• B (+, normal, -)
• C (+, normal, -)
• D (+, normal, -)

Grading has not shown to have any impact on lp loss or gain in the LoL ranking system.

Additionally, getting an S grade is needed to upgrade your champion mastery to Tier 6 or Tier 7. In order to achieve this, you have to play better compared to other players playing the same champion. Areas known to contribute to grading include kills, deaths, assists, creep score and vision score. Additionally, given grading is champion and role-specific. Champions with that average high kills like Veigar and Pyke have a much higher difficulty to attain a S grading on.