League of Legends: Inter-Division Promotion Series to Be Removed in Season 11
Riot Games has revealed that promotion series between divisions will be removed next season
Anguish. Frustration. Rage. These are just a few of the emotions experienced by League of Legends players following an unsuccessful promotion series. Whether you’re Diamond or Iron there is no worse feeling than losing your best-of-three and being forced to return to the lower tier and fight for a chance at redemption.
This eternal ranked problem is only made worse by the fact that upon successfully completing a promotion series the only emotion felt is… relief.
More from Blog of Legends
- Bee’koz Vel’koz Skin: Splash Art, Price, Release, How to Get
- King Beegar Skin: Splash Art, Price, Release, How to Get
- EMENES retires following leave from Cloud9, cites military service
- EMENES Donezo Manifesto: Former Cloud9 Midlaner airs out grievances
- Team Heretics Perkz: European legend reportedly playing for TH
Fortunately, Riot Games have finally acknowledged the promotion series issue and listened to the community’s deafening cries for help. According to a recent /dev blog post, League of Legends will discontinue promotion series between divisions from Preseason 2021. While promotion series between tiers will still exist (such as Gold to Platinum or Iron to Bronze), Riot are committed to removing the dreaded, nerve-wracking inter-division promos in order to improve the overall player experience.
Several questions will inevitably arise after such a fundamental aspect of the ranked ladder is removed and the /dev blog post has attempted to answer the most obvious queries.
For example, they have explained that excess LP earned before promoting to a higher division will simply be rolled over and be used to work towards your next rank. As for the 0 LP demotion protection, this will now be removed in order to compensate for the disappearance of promotion series.
As with any major ranked change, obviously, this decision could be reversed if it harms the League of Legends experience, a possibility that the community is already familiar with following the disaster that was dynamic queue. Nevertheless, both Riot Games and the League of Legends community are seemingly in agreement that inter-division promotion series take away from the enjoyment of the game, so it is unlikely that this change will be overturned during preseason.
This decision was by far the most exciting and impactful of the /dev blog post, however, there were also some other announcements that could affect ranked play in 2021:
Ranked Informed Matchmaking
Riot are confident that matchmaking is in a very balanced state currently in terms of MMR, but are making strides to level the playing field in terms of LP differential both within teams and between teams. This means that the dev team are looking to implement “guardrails” for every ranked game in order to reduce the frequency that you’re matched with players at a higher/lower tier than you.
Ranked Seeding
Everybody hates smurfs, whether they’re on your team or the enemy. Riot share this contempt and have added Ranked Seeding in order to more accurately determine a player’s rank based on their initial games. Despite early tests coming up with varied results, the dev team are committed to lightening the smurf problem in ranked and will continue to improve Ranked Seeding through to Season 11.
Apex Tier Changes (Master+)
Although this impacts a very small percentage of players, the dev team outlined improvements to the ranked experience for those at Master tier and above. This includes removing duo queue at these ranks as well as opening the Master tier from the start of the season.
Next. Clubs to Be Removed in Preseason 2021. dark
The /dev blog post concluded on a fun note with a brief summary of the end of season rewards. For the first time ever, players will receive a chroma for every tier reached above Gold for their Victorious skin in Season 10. As for Clash, a full list of rewards has been revealed and can be found on the blog post here.