Hi! I just had a question about MMR and how it affects ranked. A friend of mine said he was going to play normals and raise his MMR so that when he does provisionals later on in the season he'll be placed higher since people right now are winning 6/7 of their games and getting placed bronze. Can somebody explain this please? Thanks!
Ranked MMR and Normal MMR are different and are independent of one another. You have to win ranked games to raise your ranked MMR.
That won't work because ranked MMR is separate from normal MMR. But it's true that waiting until late Feb/early March to play ranked is good. This thread helps make MMR make sense: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/E9nkYATc-psa-regarding-ranked-placement-and-seedings-for-all-who-are-confused
MMR is MatchMaking Rating. It's basically a hidden ranking that affects how much LP you gain/lose upon loss, and where you will be placed. I believe MMR is separate in norms from ranked, so your friend is wasting his time.
For example, I play a lot of norms with my IRL friends, who suck (~silver rank), so if they're too heavy and we lose, my mmr tanks. I still get matched ~gold when i play by myself because of that (I'm high plat). In ranked, my friend was plat 3 after preseason, had plat 3 mmr, and went 5-5 in placements and got Silver 1. I was plat 2, had Diamond 5 mmr, went 4-6 (1 division up, 1 more loss on placements) and I got placed in gold 1. People in silver doing provisionals are most likely going to get placed in bronze regardless of record in games because of this, and there isn't much you can do about it now. Your chance to boost mmr was in preseason, you're going to have to grind it out one way or another.
MMR stands for Match Making Ranking; it's an invisible score that every League account has attached to it that determines who you get matched against. It becomes visible in what division you're in if you choose to play ranked, and it scales how hard you win. MMR is soft reset to a lower point at the beginning of every season, so your friend is playing normals to raise his before he goes into ranked, since your MMR and your placements combine to see how well you get placed. I believe that MMR is separate for ranked and normals, however, so i'm not sure it'll work.
