Tag: Ranked

League Players Are About to Lose Every Master Rank in Patch 26.9

Posted on by Geekmandem

Riot Games has announced a hard-ranked reset for all Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger players in NA, EUW, EUNE, BR, LAN, and TR when Patch 26.9 goes live at the start of Season 2.


Every player currently sitting in Master tier or above in those regions will have their visible rank and MMR wiped back to Master 0 LP. No LP will be carried over.

Why Is Riot Doing This?

Since the start of season one, and to Riot Games’ own admission, they made a series of mistakes configuring the Ranked system at the start of the 2026 season, and the resulting patch-to-patch instability meant LP gains were inconsistent enough to undermine ladder integrity. Players were bouncing between +10/-30 LP and +/-20 LP depending purely on which patch they played on.

Riot has stated that the underlying matchmaking issues have since been resolved as of Patch 26.6, but the existing ranked ladder no longer reflects player skill. As a result, and with no other option available, they are taking drastic action.

When surveyed, Apex-tier players in the affected regions said they prioritised ladder integrity above everything else, even at the cost of fair matchmaking in the short term. A hard reset was the result.

What Changes With the Reset?

Beyond wiping ranks back to Master 0 LP, Riot is also adjusting LP gains and cutoffs:

  • Baseline LP gains and losses move to +/-30 LP
  • Expected range sits between +35/-25 LP and +25/-35 LP
  • Challenger minimum LP cutoff increases to 800 LP
  • Grandmaster minimum LP cutoff increases to 400 LP

Riot is clear that matchmaking quality will take a hit in the short term. With no memory of previous ranks in the system, you could see five ex-Challengers matched against five ex-Masters and have it register as a fair game. That shakeout period is expected to last several months.

What About Season Rewards?

Because the reset lands mid-year and shortens the effective Season 2 climb, Riot is adjusting how rewards work. Season 1 rewards will be distributed as normal, with the changes not affecting them, as this was Riot’s mistake. Season 2 rewards for Apex-tier players in the affected regions will be reconciled at the end of Season 3. The higher of your Season 2 or Season 3 peak rank counts for both.


Patch 26.9 does not yet have a confirmed release date, but it falls in the standard two-week patch cycle.

Riot Moved Thousands of League of Legends Players Out of Their Ranks

Posted on by Geekmandem

Riot Games is looking ahead to Ranked in 2026, alongside how the changes they’ve already made have impacted the game.

A number of positive changes were discussed; there was also a mention of the EUW-ranked “trial”, which got a more detailed update in the follow-up blog post.

LoL Ranked Changes 2026 Impact

The changes Riot Games has made to ranked have had an impact on the game already. According to Riot Games, they’ve seen:

  • Time to get into the game is down about 30% on average
  • Dodged lobbies dropping from 19% to 4%
  • MMR distribution at the top and bottom of the ranked ladder
  • 14% of players are in Iron, Riot want to change that, as most of these players are actually veteran players
  • For now, Riot has moved those players into Bronze, to keep Iron as the “new player” rank
  • The skill gap between Diamond IV and Diamond I was roughly the difference between Bronze IV and high Silver. Riot has moved those in Diamond I into Master
  • Master MMR range has been widened, making the LP requirement for Apex higher
  • New top and bottom tiers could come in future
  • More adjustments to LoL ranked are expected in future

Overall, Riot Games talked about the varied range of skill levels in League of Legends. The redistribution of ranks seems to be a major issue that they’ve solved.

MMR, Autofills, and Secondary Roles

On the changes to autofill and matching up players, alongside secondary role parity. The only news was that the change is coming, and that autofilled players should be more likely to play against an autofilled player. This should also impact players in secondary roles. Though, as of publishing, that hasn’t gone live yet, with the update still awaiting official release.

EUW trial has now gone live in 26.4, with OCE and VN servers to follow. If the testing of this goes well, it will roll out to other regions in 26.5.

On X, Matt Leung-Harrison, Lead Gameplay Designer for LoL confirmed that testing had “gone quite well (it is now fully Live and chugging along).” Matt continued with some examples of the impact.

So far, we are seeing a dramatic reduction autofill vs primary mismatches, eg. Autofill JG vs Main JG in high MMR (Master+) go from 35% >>> 5%. ie. Players should expect >90% of games to have role assignment balance. Outside of high MMR, this was already happening, so not much is changing.