League of Legends Ranks: How Do They Work?

Competition has been part of every game since the beginning (the first video game competition was in 1980!). Many of us who play video games aren't satisfied with casual play. We want to be better and play smarter. Playing against a computer eventually becomes predictable and relatively easy to conquer.

Enter ranked gameplay.

Ranked gameplay in any game is typically a system designed to place players in tiers, buckets, or ranks depending on their skill level. As players compete in the game and win or lose, they move up or down in these ranks.

League of Legends is no exception. LoL has created one of the most robust and thriving competitive environments of any game. Much of this can be attributed to their amazing eSports presence.

What are the Ranks in League of Legends

LoL currently has 9 ranks. In order of least competitive to most they are as follows:

Iron
Bronze
Silver
Gold
Platinum
Diamond
Master
Grandmaster
Challenger

Each of these tiers is split into four divisions. A player can progress between divisions and eventually tiers by earning LP (League Points). You gain LP (even more if you beat a higher ranked team) by winning or lose LP by losing (more if you lose to a low-rank team).

When the season (once per year) closes, whatever rank you ended at will be locked in for that season. End of year grinding is a thing.

Most players that play the game are in Silver or Gold. Players who want to reach the Platinum rank, or beyond, must put in massive amounts of time and dedication (we often joke it takes a Ph.D. to excel in LoL 😮).

League of Legends Ranks Percentage

The sheer number of players makes ranked gameplay pools very large. Based on season 10 stats here is the current breakdown:

Iron: 3.7%
Bronze: 20%
Silver: 33%
Gold: 28%
Platinum: 11%
Diamond: 2.3%
Master: 0.039%
GrandMaster: 0.027%
Challenger: 0.011%

Assuming 8 million daily players (as reported by Riot) only 1,500 players are good enough to be in the challenger rank.

How to Play Ranked League of Legends?

Riot has made sure only experienced players can enter the competitive player's pool. Currently, you can only start playing ranked when you have reached level 30 and own 16 of the 151 champions.

Upon start, you'll play some matches where they will attempt to place you in a starting tier equal to your current skill level. Usually, you'll end up in Bronze or Silver unless you did poor, then you'd be relegated to Iron...Sorry, not sorry.

When first starting out don't worry so much about what rank you start in. It's important to grasp the many nuances of the game. Learn how to work as a team, place wards (map vision), and tame toxic players. There's a TON to learn in League of Legends. How you approach your ranked play will greatly determine how fast you climb.

Solo, Duo, and Flex Play

Ranked play is also split up by game type. You can play by yourself (solo), with a friend (duo), or as a team (flex). Each game type has a different style of gameplay. Flex is obviously for those who like to work as a team more so than the loan rangers who want to climb the latter by themselves.

Hopefully, we'll see you out on the Rift! It's always usually a great time!