The 2018 season starts soon

Riot·Jan 10, 2018·3 votes·96,115 views

The 2018 season is nearly here. On January 16th, 2018, take the first step and begin your journey.

Ranked

As in previous seasons, your rank will be soft-reset at the start of the season: Your new rank will be based off of both your existing MMR and your performance in 10 placement games.

In Challenger tier, we’re removing the solo-only restriction in Ranked Solo/Duo. We saw that Challenger players were facing Master tier duos pretty regularly, which ends up making the queue less competitive overall (despite the original intention back in 2016), and also punishes duos on the upper echelons of Master for winning too hard. We’ll be monitoring how much this impacts the health of the queue over the coming weeks.

In addition to your tier, ranked rewards will have a requirement of Honor level 2 or above at the end of this season.

Honor

Like ranked, Honor resets with the season start as well. Honor level 3, 4, and 5 players get a scaling head start, and you can learn all the details over here. After that, it’s up to you to fight with Honor on your way up the ladder.

2018’s Honor rewards start at Honor level 3.

… and more

When the new season starts, you can once more earn Hextech chests for each champion by getting an S- or higher champion mastery rank in-game.

You're definitely gonna want to do your placements early and stay Honor level 2 or above so you can participate in our new tournament experience, Clash.

A lot’s changed since preseason began! Check out these pages for details:

Preseason Update
Patch Notes 7.22
Patch Notes 7.23
Patch Notes 7.24
Patch Notes 7.24b
Patch Notes 8.1

See you on the Rift!

64 Comments

RiondriusJan 11, 201814 votes

Soft vs. Hard Reset? call me cruel but will we ever get a complete reset? I just want too see Imaqtpie play out that first placement match with 9 silver players XD.

THE333NATJan 11, 201813 votes

Hard resets can really screw up rankings so they are genarlly not done take SMITE for example they did a hard reset for season 4 and ranked was unplayable for 6 months

TormentulaJan 11, 20182 votes

I think back when dynamic queue was a thing or sometime after, they did a hard reset (due to a bug, basically a lot of players from high elo got silver somehow but quickly climbed) and it was not a fun experience for the first 2 months.

It was for higher elo: bullying people. for lower: even less confidence in climbing as they get stomped. Occasionally carried.

owo me so ornnyJan 16, 20182 votes

That actually gave me more confidence as a borderline gold player at the time. If I played like shit I knew it was because the difference in skill but if I won lane I felt good about myself and it made me more motivated to play as good as possible.

DunkmasterDennisJan 11, 201811 votes

Inb4 "Rito fix this broken game"

Fisher of menJan 12, 20182 votes

too bad riot isn't the ones who own the game anymore ;_;

SDhrekJan 15, 20181 votes

They have not owned the game for a long time, but Riot still makes a lot of decisions, it's just that the people who own then make a few guidelines, and then that's it. League actually might have more problems if they were not owned by a huge company like they are.

DakadoonJan 15, 20188 votes

You give us a date for the season start, but what time? Is it just midnight PST? 3:00 AM?

x T21Jan 11, 20187 votes

Aatrox

pls dont eat dogJan 12, 20186 votes

can u get rid of bronze so I can get to gold?

ArconaJan 16, 20181 votes

This made me die LMAO

AscendentJan 11, 20185 votes

I don't know why this hasn't happened already after flex que was released but you need to make Solo que actually solo que and duo's can go play flex. Us solo players don't want to play vs or lane vs duos, I don't even want duo's on my team because 9 times out of 10 they're bad and that's 2 bad players on your team both trolling. For example if you have a duo, one is top lane and one is jungling, usually that jungler is going to gank for his friend top most of lane phase. How useful is this to the rest of the team? not at all.

Number1SkaarlFanJan 11, 20183 votes

You also have to consider that duos do not want to play against 5 man premades

AzurithJan 12, 20186 votes

Yeah know, I duo queue quite often, what I am about to say has nothing to do with my main point but, I have what I call "ranked anxiety." I believe I could possibly be really good at 5s, I just have to put the games in. I'm just to anxious and fear losing that I just don't play ranked unless I have a partner. Sorry long probably pointless read ahead, just my thoughts. NO tl;dr!

I play mainly ARAM because of this reason. If I do horrible, can't be blamed, well people try, for being given a champ. But... I will say, I play pretty decent at ARAM when I get my main 5s role champs, ADC. I can and have single handedly hard carried poor team comps because I have my ADC champs. I know this is really egotistical and since it is ARAM means nothing but it feels like I am holding myself back. I have gotten really good. Not perfect, not pro, but really good at ARAM for someone with silver rank and to chicken to play. If I am wrong, look at my match history, tell me, ne honest, the truth will make me improve.

So... uhh before I went on a pointless tangent... If I duo queue I tend to play really well. I am sorry to say you are stuck with bad ones, but we are all not like that. We actually have an unfair advantage when we duo over solo players. Which if I had to give a reason why they shouldn't be in solo queue that would be it. We can use discord or whatever chat program and communicate quicker than typing.We can easily strategize plays together, if we type and ping in chat without team to follow good plays even better.

Sometimes I grow a pair and solo queue by myself in 5s. This has gone 1 of 2 ways. I have absolutely stomped a game or! and sadly just as many times ended is me getting wrecked, and back to ARAM. I know I could do better, I just have to play 5s more. Just being honest, that duo gives me the boost I need. Yeah, bad reason for them to exist but... I think the system does a fair job matching us against enemy duos.

I am sorry your experiences have been bad, I am sure you had a few good ones at the least. We aren't all bad though. I hope you play with a good duo to prove it. Well this post is kind of long and well I guess probably wrong or totally bad. Let me know, I want to be a better writer. I would like to post more smart opinions and learn. Thanks for reading this.

ÉlysianJan 16, 20182 votes

I totally relate. I get ranked anxiety too, severe. I'm currently struggling to complete my 10 placement matches. Had to take a break in between each one or Anxiety gets real bad. Once I get my rank, back to ARAM and featured modes I go. Although, i do enjoy Twisted Treeline sometimes.

AzurithJan 26, 20181 votes

Man hope you finished them now and placed well. I still havent even started mine since my duo partner is MIA and doesnt have the same schedule I do anymore. Litterally my fear of ranked anxiety and being attacked for any little mistake is stopping me from my placements. Yet at the same time I really want to see how far I can go this season. So many ARAM games where players ask me if I am a smurf or why the hell I am not Diamond really makes me wonder what my true rank could be. Uhg I guess it's time to suck it up and start playing.

AscendentJan 24, 20182 votes

I see your point but i prefer to play solo, being in a duo has never helped me. I've learned to solo carry on my own, been practicing in normals after quite a long break and on a 16 game win streak so far just maining top lane because ADC just can't carry this season in most situations. I used to main ADC but in most games you're dependent on your team mates while top lane i can solo carry team fights with ease especially since i main Nasus and Swain.

AzurithJan 26, 20181 votes

I actually agree with you. I do not believe a duo helps you that much at all unless you do communicate in voice chat and have enough game knowledge to take advantage of it. It is just the confidence boost part that has made me dependant on it. Well... I guess this season it is time to face my fear and see what I can do when I focus on Ranked and keep playing even if Solo..... God I am so anxious but I truly believe I can be really good, time to prove it to myself. I will do it the hard way in your opinion, ADC is my main, I love the role, can't abandon it now. Even if it makes things harder. If they harder well... it will just make me all the more better in the end. Thanks for letting me know what ya think, hope the best for you in this season!!!! :D

Hecarim GodJan 11, 20184 votes

buff hecarim plz :D

IAmSchnookJan 12, 20181 votes

Please no, getting one shot by a flying horse is no bueno

DaDerpyPenguin2Jan 12, 20182 votes

A god needs no buff :)

MasterDCloneJan 11, 20184 votes

Why does honor have to be connected to both clash and ranked rewards like seriously ranked is a place to test your skill and the rewards should be for those who played well not for those that are the nicest especially seeing how getting honor 0-1 is harder than 2-5. And i just cant wait to not play the new game mode clash that ive been excited for since the leak about its release

ThmsJan 12, 201812 votes

Basically its to keep toxic players to a minimum. Because you gain honor ever game you play without getting reported. Just takes longer if you don't carry. So its incentive for childish people to keep their mouth shut and play the game.

IAmSchnookJan 12, 20189 votes

It's not that hard to climb through the honor levels. Just play the game and don't be a dick. Trust me I just climbed from Honor 0 to Honor 5.

DaDerpyPenguin2Jan 12, 20184 votes

Username checks out

scorpionstingJan 14, 20184 votes

Indeed. Same goes for me. Got permabanned awhile back and now I'm here with an honor 4 emblem and a whole lot less negativity.

m21tacticalJan 11, 20183 votes

The old honor system was for honoring players that made the game a better experience. Your new honor system is based on who kills the most players, not who is the most honorable person. The most distasteful toxic gamers are being honored just because they get a bunch of kills. I would rather see the word "Defeat" at the end of every single match than "honor" a toxic person just because they got a bunch of kills, but that's how the new so called honor system is set up. A word at the end of a round does not determine if the game was a "Victory" or a "Defeat." Having fun or not with a group of individuals determines that outcome. Perhaps you should familiarize yourself with the word "honor" and rethink what "honor" actually is. Is a toxic person that makes the game a shitty experience, a person of "honor" ?

Teemo Take Care Everyone See ya in the Rift !!!!!

PantsGuy777Jan 11, 20183 votes

Theres a good reason why they put the honor screen before the end screen with kdas.. Its specifically so that you dont just honor the person with the best kda

LukaSongJan 12, 20184 votes

Except that, unless you haven't been paying any attention at all to your match, you would easily be able to tell when someone is stomping the enemy team. Not to mention that at any point in game you can hold tab and check the kdas. Regardless, wether people are voting truly honourable people or just folks with high kda is completely out of Riot's control. It's not Riot's sense of honour that you should be complaining about, it's the playerbase's.

Little TurtlesJan 12, 20183 votes

What if I already own Grey Warwick and Medieval Twitch, would there be a substitute reward?

L RayquazaJan 13, 20185 votes

random Emote or Ward skin

KiblJan 11, 20182 votes

what is the clash release date?

IAmSchnookJan 12, 20181 votes

They haven't said anything yet since they teased it a month ago.

HAF TempestJan 12, 20182 votes

By existing MMR, does it mean the MMR from preseason or the MMR after the end of season7?

SDhrekJan 15, 20181 votes

Its after preseason mmr, it has always been like that, but a lot of people dont think that and stop caring about there rank because its pre-season, but~ it does effect it.

japanese flagJan 11, 20181 votes

why did I even started playing ranked ;-; From Silver 5 Flex To Silver 1 Flex 94 LP ;-;

AnateraJan 11, 20181 votes

Wow! Amazing! You gonna fix the damage scaling yet?

IAmSchnookJan 12, 20185 votes

What does this even mean? Damage scaling?

ImABeast20fo7Jan 11, 20181 votes

[deleted]

SaltNPettyJan 11, 201812 votes

So, because you lose the game is a joke?

jpnarutolife21Jan 12, 20181 votes

lol

ImABeast20fo7Jan 12, 20182 votes

[deleted]

0neHandedBanditJan 12, 20187 votes

its ok maybe next season you'll get silver :) https://gyazo.com/36d3ce4aa367ef2585735bab79700186

HintJan 12, 20183 votes

bronze lol

MåshtyxJan 13, 20181 votes

Does this mean you'll reset our champion stats aswell? Like I won't have a "five most played" showing right away? It'll show after placements?

Coast PlayerJan 16, 20181 votes

Zoe

FatalitmanFeb 4, 20181 votes

Why are we a lower rank than last time? I won last year 2 games and I was silver. Now I won 4 games and I am bronze and because I am bronze gives me this bad teams and I lose. At the beginning of the season I would like to start from the beginning of ranks in order not to be affected by past rank Jhin