PSA For newer ranked players
Tomorrow 1/16/18 marks the start of season 8 in League of Legends. Now, those of us who have played a few seasons know what to expect. But players new to ranked may not know what to expect. I will use my prior seasons as examples (obviously actual results different per player).
Soft Reset: The start of each season results in a soft reset of ranks. You play 10 placement matches before you receive your new season 8 starting rank. Your placements mmr is based on your preseason ending mmr (if you played preseason) or your season 7 ending mmr if you didn't play preseason, but played season 7. If new to ranked/new account starting mmr is roughly around 50% mark of the player base (I believe 1200?). Riot will have a post explaining this when season starts or you can look back at prior season. However, what they don't really explain well is the soft reset. ** What Rank to Expect? ** You should expect to receive a lower starting rank at the start of season 8 than you ended season 7 or preseason with. Yes... there are sometimes exceptions. But for the vast majority of us this will be the case. Also, realize your starting rank could be a lot lower than you might expect. Season 8 will roughly be 11 months long, which is plenty of time to climb the ladder. League of Legends seasons really are not a sprint but more of a marathon so be prepared. Climbing can be hell sometimes lol.
The highest rank players can receive after placements I believe is Platinum 1. So at the start of the season you will see all your favorite pros and streamers being placed in plat 1. So with the reset and these players being placed in a lower division, obviously other players move down as well. So your preseason rank or ending season 7 rank really will make a difference from where you see your starting rank in season 8. To my knowledge Riot hasn't changed anything the last couple seasons, so I feel bad for bronze players and their placements. Since bronze lowest ranks really not matter what happens in your placements you still going to be starting season 8 in bronze because well... no where to drop to. Your mmr however will change based on wins/losses so winning is still important as it effects lp gains/losses. Also, challenger/master players keep their roughly same prior mmr so even though their rank says "plat 1" they still plat challenger/master/diamond players. Same is for everyone honestly. No matter your starting rank the players in your games should be a similar rank as to what you were last year.
My personal example: During preseason 6 I ended with a rank of Gold 5 with roughly G5 mmr. After my placements I was placed I think silver 5. I had a lousy placement record but... not sure how much it really matters to be honest. wins/losses do affect your mmr so obviously you want to win as many games as you can as mmr the most important as it affects your LP gains/losses. In season 6 I ended Gold 3 with gold 3 mmr. Think I went like 2-8 in placements and started season 7 in bronze 1. Now this is where understanding starting ranks and really what this post is about comes in. Even though at the start of season 7 my profile said "bronze 1", that's really not my actual rank. With the soft reset my mmr was really higher than bronze 1 and everyone I played with was roughly season 6 gold mmr level. So my lp gains were like 30 and losses were like 13 or something. Everyone season you get a little buff where you gains more lp than you lose to help players rank up to actual ranks a little quicker.
Best way to track your progress If you have a season 7 ending rank or have a "goal" rank you can use sites such as op.gg to track your progress. http://na.op.gg/statistics/tier/ My current preseason rank is gold 3 47 lp, which is roughly in the top 18% of players. But due to rounding and other issues let's just say I am a top 20% player. So how does this help me in season 8? Well... say I bomb my placements again like I did last season and get placed even lower than I probably should be placed I can use this site to see where my current rank as a % of the player base is, compared to my "actual" skill derived from prior season(s). So say I am placed bronze 1 again (PLEASE GOD NO!!!!!!!) I can look to see where that rank is as a % of the player base. It's a good idea to give this concept some leeway so wait like 3-4 weeks because players will be doing placements over the next few months. But the idea in my case is to try and stay in at least the top 20% of player base throughout the season regardless of what my profile rank shows at the time.
Usually plat 5 is like top 10% of player base just from looking at past seasons. So if you have a goal to reach plat you know you going to need to be within the top 10% of player base by end of the season. Or diamond, which is usually roughly like top 2% of player base. It changes a bit per season, but you should get the idea.
WHEN YOU DO PLACEMENTS DOES MATTER Regardless of what anyone says, when you do your placements will effect your starting rank. The soft reset hits the hardest right when season starts since everyone's ranks are reset. But as the season goes on players rank up and ranks get back to how their supposed to be. This adjust the starting mmr calculations compared to start of the season.
Example: So on my main account my starting mmr was roughly gold 3 at the start of season 7. I did poorly in placements and ended placements in bronze 1. Although even doing well in placements at the start of the season was still netting others players ranks of like silver 2-3-4 who had starting mmr of gold 3.
I have another account that ended season 6 rank gold 4 with gold 2-3 mmr. I waited to do placements on that account because I didn't want to play as many games in season 7 as I did in season 6. I waited to do placements until like August or September of 2017. Think I went like 6-4 and was placed in gold 5. My estimated mmr after placements was gold 2 (using op.gg), which is an estimate since Riot wont let us check our actual mmr. But everyone I was playing in my last placements games were plat 4- gold 2 so the estimate seemed pretty accurate. So you can see even with gold 2-3 mmr and ending season 6 rank of gold 4 I still had a little bit a of reset going on placing me gold 5 for season 7.
How much do you want to play Honestly the whole "when to do placements" part really comes down to more of how much you plan to play during the season. If you someone who just love League and playing ranked there no reason to put-off your placements. Be a trooper like me and do them placements early!!!! If you a veteran player who just wants gold+ for free skin otherwise you only play normals well then you might as well wait to do your placement games later in the season so you have a higher starting rank and less climbing to do. If you bronze 5 now and want to reach silver/gold/plat/etc. no reason not to start early. You have a climb either way so might as well get started on it.
I have to run but can explain more of my points later. Although I am no where close to pro at this game I have played this game for a long time and many ranked seasons on multiple accounts and have a pretty fair idea of what to expect for starting ranks. If you going to comment about "well that's not exactly how placements are calculated, etc." I will admit right now I know..... This post is not getting into the super technical calculations behind mmr and starting ranks because honestly it doesn't matter. Chill out :)
