Should you play ranked in preseason?

With the latest patch for League of Legends dropping two days ago, the highly anticipated preseason for season 11 is finally live on all servers. Your rank from season 10 has been finalized and you will not be able to increase or decrease it, no matter how many ranked games you play from now.

Due to this reason, preseason is often the time where Summoner’s Rift is rampant with trolling and those who are not taking the game as seriously; to be fair, I feel like this is the ethos that many players have during the regular season, but that’s just me.

Nevertheless, I think it is accurate to say that most of the tryhards in ranked take a break during preseason because of the notion that games played during this time do not count or affect your position on the leaderboard, as your rank will be reset once the new season actually begins.

However, what many players fail to understand is that the rank reset following the beginning of the new season is only a soft reset and not a hard one. This means that your MMR is still being actively affected and your placement in the new season is not entirely dependent on where you finished in the last.

This means that you could gain a lot of LP and have excellent progression during the preseason and it will still positively impact your MMR. For those of you that do not know, MMR stands for MatchMaking Rating and is more pivotal to the outcome of your rank than LP gains and losses.

Whilst you can see how much LP you gain or lose, as it is displayed after your ranked games in the post game lobby, your MMR is not displayed anywhere in the League of Legends client.

There are some websites that may calculate your MMR and can give you a better indication of where you stand in your current ranking or division, but they are usually approximate values.

Your MMR determines the skill of the players you will face in each queue type and MMR is exclusive to each queue type as well, so your ranked MMR is not affected by your normal game MMR.

Your MMR also determines how much LP you will gain or lose, which is why it is so vital. Each rank or division has an average amount of MMR based upon the players in those ranks or divisions; if yours is higher than the average, then you will gain more LP for a win and lose less for a defeat, but if yours is lower, then you will gain less LP for a win and lose more for a defeat.

(Image Credit: Screenshot via lolmmr.com)

It is very possible for you to be ranked in Silver 1, for example, but have an MMR of a Platinum player. In this case, you may find yourself being matched up with and against players of a higher rank than you, based on the fact that your MMR is much higher than the average of most Silver players.

If you win these games, then there is a very high chance of big LP gains, with losses not stinging as much, but consecutive losses will tarnish your MMR, stabilizing it to where the system begins to consider it “normal”, or average for your rank/division.

You will then begin to start gaining and losing normal amounts of LP. On average, LP gains of 23-25+ indicate that you have a very good MMR and are playing beyond the skill level of your current rank.

Corresponding LP losses for the same person may lie between the numbers of 15-16. Contrarily, LP gains of 15-17 indicate that you have a bad MMR and will need to win a number of consecutive games in order to improve it.

You may also be losing 20+ LP which is also an indication of a poor MMR. The MMR system is also sometimes referred to as the “Elo” system, and is colloquially known amongst players in the League community as the progression or regression in ranked games.

This is why you might sometimes hear people saying that they are “high elo” or are stuck in “elo hell”. It is simply just a reflection of the ranking system as a whole.

Preseason is primarily used for one thing; it is the testing ground for the developers AKA Riot Games to measure the effectiveness of their proposed changes. If you are an experienced LoL player, then you will know that every preseason comes with new updates, amendments and complete changes to the game.

Past seasons have completely abolished the old rune system and introduced the current one that is still active today, a change that I believe had a positive impact on the game. For those that remember the prior mastery system that was also entirely abolished, does it seem like a distant memory to you?

Previous preseason updates have also brought new champions, of course, and have introduced some of your favourite items, some new and some that were adapted. The hextech items of GLP-800 and Protobelt were particularly notable for me and that was over four years ago; so much has happened since then, including the changes to the jungle items, when Tracker’s Knife was removed which resulted in lots of furious Lee Sin mains.

The point is that Riot have demonstrated, particularly within the last few years of the game that preseason is here to make a statement and possibly, to completely defy everything we worked so hard at mastering in the prior season.

After all, a key ingredient in the recipe for a successful video game, as well as a thriving esports ecosystem around it (which is not a focus for all games but LoL is well known for its pro scene), is frequential updates. It keeps the game fresh, interesting and also gives the chance for new players to settle into the game.

There is however a catch, in the form of a thin line which balances changes to the game and the patience of the game’s community. Sometimes, small amounts of changes are good, for example, when Tracker’s Knife was removed, Lee Sin mains may have hated Riot Games with a passion, but the changes were insignificant in the grand scheme of things and they eventually moved on.

On the other hand, what we are seeing this year is quite the opposite. The changes that have been introduced are the biggest that I have seen in five years of playing the game; I would like to mention, this is my opinion.

The item shop is fully kitted with the new items and has been completely redesigned to aid players by offering smarter build paths. (Image Credit: Riot Games)

Regardless, we have to refer back to that line I was talking about. Will preseason this time be a step too far? Have Riot brought too much to the game?

Only time will tell, but whilst everybody else is AFK trying to maneuver through the shop or just analyzing the new patch notes, if you want to continue playing the game, then you must be using this time in the preseason and be capitalizing on the opportunity it provides.

Track record has shown that updates and changes from Riot are usually here for good, and if you do not like it then, well, tough luck. In other words, if you are sitting at home proudly protesting behind your Platinum II crest and end of season rewards, then you are nowhere on the radar of Riot Games.

This does not mean that as a company, the developers do not listen to their community. Although many players have mixed feelings towards Riot, personally, I feel that they (mostly) do an excellent job with the maintenance of the game.

But in general, it is those who are extremely high ranked, notable or famous members of the community and straight up pro players whose opinions actually mean something.

Riot are fortunate enough now that, for as long as the competitive scene for LoL continues, they will keep raking in millions of dollars until the game dies, if it ever does. Currently, the pro scene is still going and is showing no signs of stopping.

Essentially, whilst Riot do make a lot of money from skin sales and in-game purchases from plebeians like us, the bulk of their revenue will be made from the esport side of things.

(Image Credit: Riot Games)

The global esports industry is now one that has been valued at over $1 billion for 2020, and you better believe that somewhere at the forefront of those figures is Riot Games and League of Legends. The game has consistently sported some of the highest viewership numbers in history and over time, LoL esports has been growing exponentially.

LoL esports has attracted sponsorship deals from some of the biggest and most recognizable brand and companies in the world; this year’s World Championship had partnered deals with the likes of Mastercard (ongoing), Mercedes Benz and Red Bull to name a few, not to mention those other massive brands who sponsor and endorse the professional teams, who all have to pay their cut to participate in the regular pro leagues each year.

Riot are not going to care if you do not like the new updates because there needs to be enough uproar from those members and players of the community who actually have a voice and, usually, pros have no other choice but to adapt to the game and carry on playing as it is their entire career.

This preseason has introduced a ton of new changes and updates which will inevitably change the game, playstyles, champion builds and the meta indefinitely, so your job is to picture preseason as your personal and allocated time to improve, and get ahead of your peers.

Whether you intend to climb solo or with a duo partner, preseason is the optimal time to test your limits against the redefined meta. The best part about this time is the fact that this small window of opportunity, although having some impact on your MMR, does not have a direct impact on your placement rank in the new season.

Ultimately, it depends on how much you play during the preseason period. If you play a lot of games, (well over a hundred, for example) then obviously, the impact of preseason progression or regression is going to be a lot greater compared to if you only play a few games.

You always have the option not to play ranked, of course. This is also a brilliant way for you to master your current mains or new champions, their matchups and figure out which builds/items work best with them.

As mentioned earlier, there is a LOT of new stuff this year and, if you are serious about exceeding your previous rank looking ahead into the new season, then the time we have available to us right now is precious.

(Image Credit: Riot Games)