What's New in League of Legends Ranked 2019

League of Legends had its Ranked format greatly changed for the 2019 season. Beginning January 24 and broken into three back-to-back splits, Ranked 2019 is built to shake up the formula and address players' dissatisfaction with the previous models used. 

The three splits last roughly three months each, with no breaks in between them. Wins in ranked earn players Split Points to unlock special rewards unique to that particular split. Split points don't carry across splits, nor do they affect end-of-season rewards, but will affect and upgrade armor regardless of rank. 

Placement games can be done at any time in the season. During placement games, a provisional rank will demonstrate what players' rank would be if they ended their placements then. Provisional ranks rise at a faster rate with wins, but are unaffected by losses. This system helps put players into their appropriate brackets without the need for promos, and lets new accounts (seeded at the very bottom) climb to their proper rank. 

Another mechanic to accurately judge players' skill relative to their rank is the Position Rank system, live in Korea and North America for Split 1 and available to all regions in Split 2. Each position will be ranked separately, although they are affected by every game positively and negatively. This means that players can favor roles without having to grind out every position, and still be motivated to win even if playing off their normal roles.

Two new tiers have been introduced: Iron, the new lowest tier below Bronze, and Grandmaster, between Master and Challenger. The tiers have been reduced from five divisions to four. With this wider spread, tiers can now more accurately display a player's approximate skill. Further, Masters+ has been adjusted to have a limited size relative to their region's overall player population rather than a flat number.

Images courtesy of Riot Games