Have you ever thought about the LoL ranking system? We have collected all the important information about LoL ranks here for you.
League of Legends is one of the most popular online games ever. In 2020 alone, League of Legends had more than 110 million active players. The game, which is already 10 years old, is still extremely popular and even newcomers create accounts and play along.
For new players who want to get better at League of Legends, there is certainly one or the other unknown term – this certainly includes all the hoopla about the LoL Ranks. What is the ranking system that Riot Games has developed for League of Legends, and how do you climb up the ranks in the first place – which is also known as Elo Hell?
What is League of Legends Ranked?
Ranked refers to the LoL ranking system that gamers can play in – voluntarily. In this system, players who have already brought their account to level 30 can play Ranked matches and are then placed in the different Ranked Tiers depending on their skill.
There are different game modes in League of Legends, such as ARAM, Normals or Ranked. Players at level 30 unlock the Ranked Mode in League of Legends, in which they can earn LP with the help of Ranked Games.
Players who prefer to play Normals or ARAM don’t have to worry about their LoL Rank.
What are the ranks in League of Legends?
As of today, there are nine ranks in League of Legends. Each rank is represented by a specific name and an individual logo. This allows LoL players to easily differentiate their skill level, as everyone in the same rank and tier has roughly the same skill level.
These are the nine ranks that currently exist in League of Legends:
Iron
Bronze
Silver
Gold
Platinum
Diamond
Master
Grandmaster
Challenger
When was the Iron Rank introduced in League?
The lowest tier is Iron – where players usually end up when they try League of Legends for the first time. Just before Ranked – Season 9, Riot Games introduced this tier in 2018. Iron Tier was added to help players track their progress.
So, this means that if you’re a new player just starting out, you’re bound to spend a bit of time in Iron Rank – but that shouldn’t discourage you. After all, this is the place where you learn which champion or role suits you best.
At the same time that Iron Rank was introduced in League of Legends, Riot Games also implemented a new rank for those who made it out of the lower elos – by which we mean anything below Diamond. Grandmaster was also added in 2018 to better differentiate between Master and Challenger players, as the skill level between the two ranks was often quite large.
What is LoL Challenger?
Challenger is the highest tier in League of Legends and represents the top 300 or 200 players from each region. In order to make it to the Challenger Tier, players must outrank the previous eight LoL Tiers.
When you’re trying to get to Challenger, it can very often feel like Elo Hell – that’s because of the difficult grind and really bitter defeats. Most players won’t make it to Challenger either, and instead stay stuck in Silver or Gold, which is where the vast majority of players stay.
Nevertheless, everyone who wants to become a pro has to make it through this Elo ladder. So if you want to be scouted by a professional team or get into their academy (or LEC/LCS), you have to be among the top 300 or 200 players in your region just to be eligible.
How do ranks work in League of Legends?
How do Tiers and Divisions work in LoL?
As we mentioned above, there are nine Tiers in League of Legends. Each LoL Tier is divided into four Divisions – each represented by a Roman numeral IV through I.
Players can reach any tier once they get to level 30. So at first you’ll have to play quite a few games to gain knowledge and eventually be unlocked for the Ranked Ladder.
But how do you actually move between the different ranks and divisions in League of Legends? Well, since – Season 11, Riot Games has made some changes in this regard. Players no longer have to win 3 out of 5 matches to move up a division. The possibility of promotion is obviously greater, but so is the chance of relegation.
Switching between tiers is a bit more difficult than with divisions, because there you have to play a best-of-five series instead of a best-of-three. Since players are moving from one tier to another here, it’s probably going to be a little more difficult than moving up and down between Divisions.
How do you get your first rank in LoL?
It’s important to note here that players aren’t automatically thrown into Iron IV – the lowest tier and division in League of Legends – once they hit level 30 and opt for some ranked gameplay.
Instead, each player must complete provisional Ranked Games – also known as Placement Matches – which then calculate their official LoL rank. So some players who are already relatively badass are immediately ranked in Silver II without ever having set foot in Iron or Bronze.
So it’s extremely important for players to focus on Placement Matches, especially at the beginning of the Ranked adventure. Especially if you don’t want to fight through every animal on the way to Diamond.
What are LP?
LP is short for League Points, which is what you need to advance between ranks. You get LP by winning games. However, you can also lose LP by losing matches. The amount of LP depends on your and your opponent’s MMR – don’t worry, we’ll get there.
So it’s best to win as many games in a row as possible to reach 100 LP as soon as possible. Once you reach 100 LP, you get the chance to move up. Between divisions you have to win a best-of-three series, between ranks even a best-of-five series.
Let’s put all this in perspective. You are currently in Platinum I, have collected the required 100 LP, and now need to win three out of five games for your promotion to advance to Diamond IV. If you lose your Promotion Series, your LP drops back to 0 and you have to start all over again in Platinum I.
What is MMR?
A player’s MMR refers to their matchmaking rank, which is a number that Riot assigns to you based on your skill level. Conversely, the lower your MMR and the higher your opponents’ MMR, the more LP you’ll get – assuming you win, of course.
The player MMR depends on the skill level, so if you win several matches in a row, your MMR will increase and you will be compared to other players with a similar MMR. This means that even if you are a Silver II player with a high MMR, you may be able to compete against someone from Gold III.
What is your Elo?What does Elo refer to in League of Legends?
Elo refers to the Elo ranking system that was used before the current League system. The Elo system was originally developed for games like chess and calculates the skill level of each player.
Nowadays, Elo is used as a synonym for your League of Legends rank. So when someone asks you what Elo you are in, they mean your League of Legends rank.
How do ranks work in Master, Grandmaster and Challenger?
While up to Diamond all ranks are still divided into divisions, this no longer exists from Master onwards. That is, these tiers have a completely different ranking system in which players advance through their LP.
After you successfully complete your Promotion Series and advance to the Master Tier, you will continue to earn LP. Players with higher LP will move up the Ranked Ladder from Master to Grandmaster and finally Challenger.
The system resets every day and players with more LP can push competitors with less LP out of their position. This provides more transparency to the highest skill level of League of Legends.
There is also a limit to how many players are in Challenger or Grandmaster at any given time. For example, in EUW Challenger there are 300 slots for the best players, while in Grandmaster there are already 700.
What is LP Decay?
When you finally make it into Master, Grandmaster or Challenger after hours of work, you naturally want to be able to play against opponents. After all, these tiers hold the least amount of players, which is why Riot introduced LP Decay. This means that you will automatically lose LP if you spend too many days in this cue without a contested match.
What is the distribution of players in the different ranks?
You’ll probably find the typical average player in Silver or Gold. According to Leagueofgraphs figures, the Silver tier makes up about 36% of all League of Legends players, with Gold just behind at 29%. Higher tiers like Challenger, where Esports players are usually at home, naturally have a much smaller number of players.
This is how the percentage distributions of the League of Legends player base look like:
| LoL Tier | Number of players |
| Iron |
1.8% |
| Bronze | 18% |
| Silver | 36% |
| Gold | 29% |
| Platinum | 11% |
| Diamond | 1.4% |
| Master | 0,12% |
| Grandmaster | 0.026%. |
| Challenger | 0.011% |
The differences between Duo/Solo/Flex cue?
There are different ways to play ranked games in League of Legends. You can either choose to play Solo Queue, where you play alone and are paired with four others, or you can play Duo Queue with a friend. Support and ADC duos are often found in Duo Queue.
Solo and Duo Queue are not the only ways to get a ranking. There is a second ranking system in which players achieve a position rank in the Flex Queue. For this you have to join a flex queue with four other friends – but who knows so many people who also play League?
It’s also important to note that since – Season 11, Master players or higher can no longer compete in the Duo Queue. This was introduced to make ranked games a bit fairer, as communication is the most important thing in League of Legends. For this reason, players with a high Elo can only play Solo Queue.
Queue Dodging and going AFK in Ranked
Queue dodging or going AFK in Ranked games can have severe consequences for you. If you play Ranked games at all, it means you want to climb the Elo Ladder in League of Legends – just like your teammates do – and if you go AFK, you obviously make it much harder for your team. Riot has therefore built in severe penalties for repeat offenders.
To combat inactivity in-game, Riot has invented different tiers with different punishments. Tier 0 is for people who have no criminal record for AFK offenses. The newly added Tier Seven is only for the worst rule breakers, where players are banned from the queue – so they can’t start in the MOBA queues and have a 15-minute delay for the next five games.
| Stage | Queue exclusion | Queue delay |
| 0 | Nothing | Nothing |
| 1 | Nothing | 5 minutes for 5 games |
| 2 | Nothing | 10 minutes for 5 games |
| 3 | Nothing | 15 minutes for 5 games |
| 4 | 1 day | 15 minutes for 5 games |
| 5 | 3 days | 15 minutes for 5 games |
| 6 | 7 days | 15 minutes for 5 games |
| 7 | 14 days | 15 minutes for 5 games |
Good behavior is rewarded by Riot and players can show that they are reformed. Players who end up in one of the lower tiers for going AFK can work their way back out of that tier through hard work. If players don’t redeem themselves, they get stuck in one of the tiers, and a single AFK rule violation means the penalty is reimposed on them according to the tier.
Queue dodging can also be really annoying, especially in higher tiers where the player count is significantly smaller than in Gold or Silver. For this reason, Riot has implemented penalties for repeat offenders here as well.
| Level | Cue exclusion | LP penalty |
| 1 | 6 minutes | -3 |
| 2 | 30 minutes | -10 |
| 3 | 720 minutes(12 hours) | -10 |
Each dodge will move you up a level and anyone who dodges more than three games per day will be excluded from the queue for a total of 12 hours. It takes the same amount of time for dodge levels to reset by 1.
What is a Ranked – Season ?
League of Legends consists of several – Season s. Each year a new – Season starts with fresh changes to the map, item store, champions or other game mechanics. At the start of each new League of Legends – Season , players are also reset to 0 and must first complete Placement Matches so they know where they currently stand. Players who rank high anyway will already be ranked in Diamond by default.
This means the following: At the start of each – Season – usually sometime in January – every gamer starts at 0 LP and 0 MMR and once again makes their way through the Elo Ladder.
Each League of Legends – Season also ends sometime in November. During the pre– Season between two LoL Ranked – Season s, Riot Games usually implements major changes that require more attention. For this reason, Ranked is also disabled during this time.
Do I get rewards at the end of a LoL Ranked – Season ?
Yes, Riot gives out rewards at the end of each Ranked – Season . Players who make it to Gold or even higher will be rewarded with a Victorious skin and Chromas to match the highest rank achieved. Players stuck in Silver, on the other hand, will have to settle for Eternals from the champion Riot has chosen for the Victorious Skin.
At the end of Ranked – Season 10, players were given Lucian, while in 2021, players will be rewarded with a Victorious Skin for Blitzcrank at the end of – Season 11.
Players will also receive Profile Banner Trims of their respective rank at the end of each Ranked – Season . So yes, Riot does indeed give out rewards to players who have invested time in Ranked Play and climbed the Elo Ladder throughout the year.
Riot also used to send physical gifts to Challenger players, but that no longer exists. These players used to receive a jacket with their Summoner name and rank. Now they have to put up with a Victorious skin and the Skin Chromas.
Do TFT and Wild Rift also use the same LoL Tiers?
Teamfight Tactics and Wild Rift – two games also developed by Riot Games – have similar tiers to League of Legends. In Wild Rift, players must also first play a Promotion Series if they want to rank up.
TFT players win or lose LP depending on which place they finish in the top 8 in each TFT match. Players receive a higher MMR depending on these placements. So if you are a Gold II player and win 4 rounds in a row, you can theoretically run into a Platinum II player in your lobby who has lost a few games in a row.
Wild Rift implements divisions differently than League of Legends. Instead of LP, there are progression marks for the division. Furthermore, Wild Rift has an additional rank between Platinum and Diamond – the Emerald rank. Maybe we’ll get that for League of Legends in the future?
LoL Guides
LoL Guides – Champions, Masteries, Items, and more – With our tips you will get better in ranking.
League of Legends is a diverse game with many elements that need to be considered for a successful Ranked. In our detailed LoL guides, we try to give you some tips and tricks as detailed as possible. If you follow our LoL guides, you will conquer the Ranked ladder in League of Legends in no time.
League of Legends is one of the most popular video games of all time. Over 100 million people dabble in the MOBA from Riot Games. Almost 90% of the player base is in the Iron to the Gold range. The often-mentioned “Elohell” makes some League of Legends players struggles. Our LoL guides are here to help. We’ll show you practical tips and tricks that will help you improve your ranking.
![Stromae, Pomme, Coldplay - “Ma Meilleure Ennemie ft. Coldplay” (from Arcane) [Official Lyric Video]](https://esports-video.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Stromae-Pomme-Coldplay-Ma-Meilleure-Ennemie-ft-Coldplay-from-360x180.jpg)
by 