One of the unique features of League of Legends compared to other games is its ranking system’s promotion series. In games that use Elo or MMR, they simply add ranking points after each match, whereas League of Legends has a separate ranking system with tiers and divisions, each tier limited to 100 ranking points, and upon reaching that, you must win a series of ranked matches to climb.
While this can create initial excitement or drama, over time, the promotion series have increasingly become a terrible experience for players. If you encounter a troll in normal matches, you can shrug it off and try again in the next game; however, you only have 3 chances in the promotion series, and losing one match for the same reason will frustrate you many times over.
Therefore, since the 2020 preseason, many players have provided feedback to Riot Games that they should remove the promotion series, at least between tiers. The reason is quite understandable; it is utterly meaningless in assessing player skill and only increases the toxicity among players. Riot Games seems to have taken this feedback on board and after a long time, they have decided to eliminate the promotion series between tiers. Specifically,
Riot Mark Yetter: “The idea of the preseason
As we’ve discussed before, we also have plans to upgrade the ranking system for preseason 2021.
Promotion series: With the goal of “enhancing player satisfaction and showcasing skill in the system,” we will remove the promotion series between ranks to minimize the growing frustration when you know you’ve been playing well for an extended period. This means we need to reconsider the demotion protection system in the ranking tiers. All of this is to ensure that players are in the correct rank without any errors.
Information about ranked matchmaking and transparency: Playing a match with a significant rank disparity is extremely frustrating, regardless of whether MMR is close or not. We are working to modify the matchmaking limits and improve transparency at the skill level. The goal is for you to be confident that you are playing with other players of equal skill and rank. We also want to avoid situations where you face players with vastly different skill levels in a match.
Rewards: We are looking to change the theme of the Glory skin line and highlight your current and past ranking achievements.
With the announcement of the removal of the promotion series between ranks, Riot Games will reduce the number of meaningless Bo3 series that prevent truly skilled players from climbing ranks effectively. Of course, the Bo5 series for divisions is not mentioned by Riot Games, which means it will still remain, but at least it is more acceptable compared to the current meaningless Bo3 series.
While this news is very exciting, it also presents a significant challenge for Riot Games as they are forced to change the ranking point system of League of Legends. Therefore, it is no surprise that we have to wait until preseason 2021, which means after this year’s World Championship, for these changes to be applied.