League of Legends: The Pros and Cons of Playing Ranked at the Start of Season 10

Cons

1. The quality of games is low.

Every year players get confused and frustrated as to why their games are full of Silver and Platinum players when they were Gold last season. The ranked reset is going to cause the matchmaking system (which players already have issues with) to create some seemingly imbalanced games. If you’re not interested in playing these lower-quality games you’re better off waiting.

2. Those low-quality games can affect your own play.

Some players might be less-than-thrilled about these poor games, but are willing to bite the bullet and power through. If, however, you’re someone who gets easily tilted, playing in these early games could cause you to become frustrated and make your play deteriorate. Always make sure that you’re in a good mental state before queueing up.

3. You’re going to get a lot of teammates who haven’t been playing during the preseason.

A lot of players take a break from League of Legends during the preseason since the ranked games don’t help your quest towards your ranked rewards. Some of these players may only be vaguely familiar with the new Elemental Drakes, Elemental Rift, and other preseason changes.

4. The servers are going to be a mess. 

The two times of the season when there are the most players playing ranked are the start and end of the season. With the League of Legends servers under a tremendous strain, there are plenty of opportunities for disconnects, clients clashing, or other glitches. It might be wise to wait and make sure there are no big issues with stability.

5. All those positives can work against you.

All those positive things I said above? Well, unfortunately, they probably apply to your teammates (who might just be trying to get the games out of the way or playing with their friends now that everyone’s online) and opponents (who are tryharding).

The simple truth is that people who advise you to play right when the new season starts or wait some arbitrary amount of time are really full of it. My advice would be to wait a day or two, just to make sure there are no issues with servers or gross matchmaking mistakes. And if you’re someone who tilts easily when they face higher-ranked players or have to play with less-experienced players, maybe take that week or two.