New season. The Soft Reset. ELO/MMR and more...

Hi, Doomy here.​

What is this?​

This is a guide or more so an educational text, with the goal of providing you information about how the Ranked Queue of League of Legends work.
This text will be based off my prior post about how the Soft Reset is being done, as well as providing more information on the matter.​

What is Ranked?​

Ranked is the term for the Ranked Queue type in League of Legends.
Each game determines your placement within the league. You gain or lose points for each game depending if you win or lose.
These points are known as ELO.
ELO is a number that describes an individual's skill-level,
the higher ELO you have,
the 'better' you are, but you will face harder opponents as well,
due to the fact that the Matchmaking tries to pull similar-skilled players in the same game. (apostrophe around better since, being better/good is entirely subjective) ​

What's my ELO and am I high or low elo?​

Whether you are high- or low ELO is entirely subjective and for you to decide.
However, the "ground zero" ELO is 1200, and you can use various of ELO/MMR checkers out there to see an estimation of what your ELO is.

From my experience of watching many players around certain tiers/divisions and using MMR checkers,
along with my knowledge from the prior seasons where ELO was visible;
here are some rough cuts as to what the ELO of different tier' players are.
Challenger: 2550-3000 ELO
Masters: 2300-2500 ELO
Diamond 5: 1900-2000
Plat: 1650~
Gold 1400-1600
Silver:1100-1300
all the numbers are approx.

Keep in mind that divisions can be described as decoration.
Chances are if you have ELO of a platinum player and you're sitting in silver,
that you will climb up, couse the system will reward you with more LP than what you would lose.
For example: +23 -14 - i will touch about this further at the Soft Reset section.​

Whats going to happen with my ELO during the season end?​

This is gonna be a short and boring answer.
Nothing, we will merely enter a state of "pre-season" and what's interesting is what will happen in the start of the new season.
Once the new season rolls out, your ELO wont be reset, it will be softly-reset.
Huh? what does that mean?
Where as a reset would mean your elo would go back to 1200 (the ground zero).
A Soft-Reset means that your ELO will be directed TOWARDS 1200.

So TL;DR
Everyones ELO will get closer to 1200.
As far as i know this is simply done by adding 1200 to your ELO, and then dividing this sum by 2.
So say your ELO was 1600 this season, after the reset it will be: 1600+1200/2=1400

So now u may ask, huh, what will my division/tier be, i was Gold II in the prior season?
this is not that relevant, in the end ELO/MMR will always determine where u will be placed;
if you get placed at silver 5 and u have the ELO of an average gold 5 player
then that means that u will play vs gold's gaining a lot of LP,
losing less LP, to reach the division/tier in which your ELO belongs to.
But if you happen to lose a lot of games during this "grind"
your ELO will equalize that of your current division/tier,
meaning that your LP gains will slowly become more stable

To add on: In order to make the ranked system "fair"
and not have too many masters players around plat/gold ELO,
in the start of the season everyone receives a small 'ELO' boost the first 30-40 games of ranked play.
Which i will touch on in the last paragraph.

The important bit ...​

Normally every game you'll lose and win 12-13 ELO (while your LP gains and losses may differ,
your ELO gains/losses will usually always static (unless u game the system.)
Remember these gains/losses are hidden)

During these first 30-40 games of a new account/or after a soft reset you will gain/lose 50-40-30 elo per game diminishing,
getting less and less till u hit roughly 60-70 games. (people from season 2 will remember this.)
This is in order for the players who deserve to be higher/lower to get to their respective place, faster. ​

For more questions you can add me on skype:zaritia i;ll be glad to answer any questions, as well as give tips/strats/champion guides : )​

 

Good guide, very clear and informative.

Do you have any official sources that confirm this is how ranked actually works next season?

 

Yes, i can easily pull up informations regarding soft reset, they have been explained by riot officials.

As to how the elo system works, im sure any veteran player would know since it was presented to us, unhidden the first 2 seasons. Riot has stated that these tiers and divisions are released to encourage players to play more, and not feel down about losing tiers. And that the matchmaking still queues people up based on their mmr (elo) - which is why if your at a tier u dont belong, and play against higher tiered player, that u receive more lp, than what u lose, and vice versa.

But u touched on a very important subject; No, i do not know whether they opt to do the soft reset, but im very sure that they will as they have in the past 4 seasons, and haven't released any information that they wont.

Which means, if they release some new system, this post may be edited by me so the "guide" doesn't misguide.

 

Thanks for clarifying thing up! Well written guide as well.

 

That's how it has always worked.

 

Yeah, but it would have been nice to get a few official riot posts confirming the first 50 games gaining more LP and also the "elo cuts".

After all, assumptions are the mother of all fuck ups.

 

Great guide! Should be a fun pre season lol

 

When are re-placements?

 

At the beginning of the new season. (Season 5)
There is no specific date as so when the new season rolls about (surely course riot hasn't decided themselves)
But it is definitely pointed out, that it will be after new years. (when riot addresses the new season they parenthesized 2015)
But off the record we had of last season start:
Season 5 could begin in early 2015. About 2-3 months after season 4 ends.

and 3eugene, about; it has always worked like that, u get more lp the first couple of games when u play, so better players can get to their skill level faster.
Remember ELO isn't copyrighted by league, ELO has existed way before, it is infact the rating system used by chess-players (YES, this is how they determine the skills of chess players) and even when u play chess on chess.com in their ranked mode, u get more elo in the beginning. so professional players who are rated around 2200-2400 don't have to chore themselves through 1200-1300 elo chess players.
ELO is named after some dude who invented the ELO rating system.

 

After pre-season is finished so like dec/jan

 

This guide is very informative.
Thanks EliteEloBoost.
It's nice to know how ranked systems work for placements just before season 5 comes out.

 

Very well written guide, should help the new comers and players about MMR and what not.

I can't wait for the new season!

 

Thanks ceptrum, and everyone else applauding the writing, English isn't even my native language.
I will update OP further when more information comes along about the set date of the new season.

 

Well written Guide. I have started early Season 4 and don't have much knowledge about League of Legends but this guide has definitely helped me by far most out of maybe all the guides here on Sythe. I though have 1 question. If I win all my placements duoing with a plat player and Im silver 3, Will I go back to bronze or still be in Silver since Duoing lowers your MMR.

Pther than that great job!

 

You'll be silver/gold

Duoing raises your MMR.

EXAMPLE:

you: 1200mmr, duoing with plat, 1400mmr - 1400+1200=2600/2=1300.

Your MMR has risen so you will go to a higher division, especially if you win all 10.

only duoing with people LOWER than your current mmr lowers your mmr

 

Everything Heeatz said is true but one thing;
That the platinum ELO player you would be playing with would have approximately 1600 ELO and not 1400.

Dont think of duoing ever as lowering your ELO. If you are at a certain ELO bracket, and you are duoing with someone of the same skill bracket, you will likely face players a little bit better than you, (hence harder games)

If you duo with somone a tier below you, you will face easier oponents (ur friend will obviously face harder oponents) but you will gain less ELO and LP.

If you duo with someone higher ELO than yourself, you will face harder oponents, win more ELO, gain more LP.

Thus if you want to drastically get up during placement matches, it is a good idea to duo with someone high ELO, regardless if you win or lose... Couse if u win, you;ll get a large chunk of ELO and if u lose, u wont lose that much.

You can easily go 5/5 in placements and reach gold as unranked, if you are duoing with someone who has already placed platinum. Whereas if you soloed the placement games you would have to go 9/1 or 10/0 to reach gold.

(^these are somewhat accurate numbers)

 

very informative well written.

 

As I told u yesterday, great for those that didn't play in s1,s2 ty for the effort m8.

 

great info to keep in mind! thanks!

 

Provisional Start In A Month
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