Riot is shaking up LoL’s league system too

Riot Games has been talking a lot about the changes it's making to League of Legends' pre-season, but it isn't finished yet. Next up on the chopping block, are small LP gains in ranked matches and tier-dropping immunity.

Explaining it in a recent Reddit post, “Riotsocrates,” (all we are, is dust in the wind dude) said that in order to clarify current issues surrounding LP gains and to remove the safe-guard of moving up a tier and simply cruising at low altitude, Riot had introduced the following changes in the latest pre-season patch:

• Small LP gains between matched opponents have been removed. This sort of LP “clamping” has previously affected everyone, but will now only be present in the hotly competitive Diamond I tier.
• Tier demotion and shielding have been added. This means that when you move up a tier, (from Bronze I to Silver V, for example) you can now be demoted to the previous tier if you lose enough games. However, you will get a 10 game shield to find your feet. Keep losing while at 0 LP though and you'll be demoted back down again.
• Challenger tier size increased to 200 in solo/duo. To help improve the depth of the division featuring the most skilled players outside of the pro-circuit, Riot has increased the number of players applicable for the Challenger tier.

Explaining the latter of the changes, so-crates said: “The skill gap between players at 0 LP and 100 LP in Diamond I is simply too wide and there is a logjam of extremely skilled players vying for Challenger at the top of Diamond 1. We want to ease some of that pressure recognize more players by increasing the number of spots in that tier.”

The multiple division tiers were introduced in last year's pre-season, bringing much better progression tracking to the game's ranked play

As usual Riot is requesting feedback on the changes, so if you like or don't like what you see, get in touch with the developer.

Kitguru Says: This all sounds pretty reasonable, though admittedly I've yet to get the 16 champions required to take part in ranked. And I've been playing off and on again since Season 1. Should step my game up a bit really. [Cheers RoG]

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