- Level 30 + 20 champions to unlock
- ±20 LP baseline
- 10-game demotion shield
- 3 seasons a year, 1 reset
Ranked in League of Legends runs on two numbers: the LP you can see and the MMR you cannot. Most confusion — "why do I gain 14 and lose 26?", "why did I not demote at 0 LP?", "why is my friend placed higher after the same 3–2?" — comes from mixing the two up. This guide walks through the whole 2026 system from unlocking ranked to the apex cutoffs, using Riot's own wiki and patch notes as the source for every number.
- Unlock: level 30, 20 owned champions, 10 Normal Summoner's Rift games; then 5 placements per queue.
- LP: 100 per division, baseline ±20 at matched MMR (±30 on the reset apex ladders); no promotion series.
- Shields: 10 games after a promotion (3 in Master); tier-loss protection at 0 LP depends on MMR.
- Calendar: three seasons a year, one January soft reset of at least 4 divisions capped at Emerald I.
- Decay and dodges are the only ways to lose LP without losing a game — covered in their own guides.
1. Unlocking ranked
Ranked Solo/Duo and Ranked Flex open at summoner level 30 once the account owns at least 20 champions (the free rotation does not count) and has finished 10 Normal games on Summoner's Rift. Each queue then needs 5 placement games before a rank shows. Flex allows parties of 1, 2, 3 or 5 — never four — and since patch 26.9 Flex results no longer touch your Solo/Duo MMR.
2. LP, MMR and why gains move
Each win at matched MMR pays about 20 LP and each loss costs about the same. The matchmaker, though, builds games from hidden MMR, not from the rank badge. When your MMR is higher than your visible rank — you have been winning more than expected — the system hurries you up the ladder: gains rise to around +28 and losses fall to around −18. When it is lower, the mirror image: roughly +14 / −28. Riot's wiki puts it plainly — gaining "significantly less than 20 LP per win" means your MMR sits below your rank. MMR is tracked separately for Solo/Duo, Flex and Normal games, updates after every match, and partially survives the annual reset.
| Your hidden MMR vs your rank | Typical LP per win | Typical LP per loss | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Above | ≈ +28 | ≈ −18 | You are climbing toward where the matchmaker already puts you |
| Matched | ≈ +20 | ≈ −20 | Rank and skill agree; win rate alone moves you |
| Below | ≈ +14 | ≈ −28 | The rank is ahead of recent results; expect a slide without a better win rate |
3. Promotion
Reach 100 LP and you are promoted immediately — to the next division, or from Division I to the next tier — with the surplus carried over (a rollover that would land on exactly 0 LP is nudged to 1). There are no series left: Riot removed the best-of-three division series in patch 10.23 and the best-of-five tier series in patch 13.14. Diamond I at 100 LP promotes into Master.
4. Demotion and the shields
For 10 games after any promotion into Bronze through Diamond (3 games into Master) a demotion shield keeps you at 0 LP however the games go. Outside that window a loss at 0 LP in Division II–IV drops you a division. At 0 LP in Division IV — the bottom of a tier — a separate tier-loss protection forgives a few more losses; how many depends on your MMR and Riot does not publish the count. When the tier drop does come you land in Division I of the tier below at 25, 50, 75 LP, again by MMR. Only one thing ignores both protections: decay.
5. Placements and the annual reset
Since 2025 there is one soft reset a year, in January: every account's rank drops by at least 4 divisions and nobody starts above Emerald I, while MMR is only partially pulled toward the middle. You then play 5 placement games per queue: no LP is lost in them, the first win pays 40–80 LP (cap 100), and nobody can place above Diamond III. The three seasons inside the year — For Demacia, Pandemonium and Classic in 2026 — keep your rank and only restart the Victorious mission. Details in placements explained.
6. Master, Grandmaster, Challenger
Above Diamond I the divisions stop and LP is the whole rank. Master starts at 0 LP; Grandmaster needs at least 200 LP and a seat, Challenger at least 500 LP and a seat (700 / 300 on the biggest servers, fewer elsewhere), recalculated daily at 23:45 UTC daily. In patch 26.9 Riot hard-reset the apex ladders of NA, EUW, EUNE, BR, LAN, TR to Master 0 LP, moved their baseline to ±30 LP (+35/−25 to +25/−35) and lifted the cutoffs there to 400 / 800 LP. Apex accounts decay faster than Diamond and, since the same patch, a dodge there counts as a full loss.
7. Losing LP without losing a game
Two mechanics: decay (Diamond: 28 banked days, −50 LP a day; apex: 14 banked days, −75 LP a day) and dodging (−5 LP and six minutes for the first dodge in 24 hours, −15 LP afterward, 12-hour lockout from the third). Both have their own guides: decay and dodge penalties, each with a calculator.
8. Duo rules and Flex
Solo/Duo lets you queue with one partner within an adjacent tier below Emerald, narrowing to within 200 LP in Diamond I and closely matched MMR in Master; Grandmaster and Challenger cannot duo. Flex has its own rank, LP and placements. See the duo queue rules and Flex vs Solo/Duo.
- League of Legends Wiki (Riot) — Rank (LP baseline "as of the 2026 Annual Cycle", series removal patches, shields, demotion landing LP, placements, reset, apex thresholds, decay)
- League of Legends Wiki (Riot) — Ranked game (unlock requirements, duo restrictions, Flex party sizes)
- Riot Games — /dev: Apex tier ranked reset (21 April 2026) and patch 26.9 notes
- LoLTheory — League of Legends ranks (2026) (duo pairings table, LP examples)
All free tools: calculators, percentiles & season countdowns →
Common questions
What do you need to play ranked in LoL?
How much LP do you gain per win?
Can you demote in LoL?
Does rank reset between seasons?
Ready to climb the Rift?
More League of Legends guides
League of Legends and all related assets are © Riot Games; splash art via Data Dragon. BoostPirate isn't endorsed by Riot Games.