No More Bronze V, Baby!

Continuous cries and tears from players about the hard climb to a higher elo, melted frozen hearts of Riot Games. They were receiving tons of disappointing feedbacks that ranked system makes League players feel nervousness and anxiety. No matter how hard you try, there are no promises that your starting rank will make you satisfied.

Here where changes begin. 

Placements
First of all, a player will now be able to see his progress in gaining the LP during the first 10 games (only your own stats). If a player wins, he will get a massive amount of points and even skip promos between the divisions. In case of a defeat, a player won’t lose any LP. When all the promos are done, you and your friends will see your official rank position, and start to climb higher.

Tiers and Divisions
After you’re done with your placements, it’s time to think about The Climb. For years, Riot Team heard complains that even when a player’s skills are improving, the rank doesn’t go up. So, finally, after almost a decade Riot decided to look closer in the tiers and divisions and surprisingly found out that some players perform better than others. According to their analysis, a skill gap between the top and bottom tiers players is just too big. It made the designer team to create a new system to provide a proper reflection on player’s improvements. That’s why they added TWO NEW TIERS, yes after almost 9 years, they decided to add tiers! Today, we have Bronze - Silver - Gold - Platinum - Diamond - Master - Challenger.

The first one is going to be below Bronze - Iron. So from now on, players will have a better understanding of their skill level and progress. The second one will be between Master and Challenger - GrandMaster. This tier will help Riot Games to accurately provide a long-delayed control of the top of the Tier ladder and recognize players based on their skills. 

Probably, right now you are thinking that Riots just want to add more steps to your ladder. Not to worry, Summoner! They are decreasing the number of divisions in every tier from 5 to 4. Now, guess what? NO MORE BRONZE 5 PLAYERS in the whole game! Yey!

Visual Design

Here’s what we were waiting for - the visual updates. We have more metals in tiers now and we definitely need to refresh the look. The previous icons and emblems were not really theme-connected with a Runeterra concept and history or the rank experience. As explained, the renewed visuals are inspired by the philosophy of art and battle of the League world. As well as designers implemented medals for the account level, they are going to do the same for a Rank Tiers. To start your climb on a level of a scrappy falcon in Iron and Bronze, to a warlord in Platinum and a God of Battle in Challenger.

All of these changes are still in a concept and development phase and Riots are open for comments and questions. We are super excited about the news and can’t wait to see them on a live server.