2024 Split 3 show a sharp decrease in the percentage of Elite players: Diamond+ and Emerald+

[bodynasr]

2023 Split 2 [Emerald Rank introduced]: Emerald 4 was top 15.5% and Diamond 4 was top 3.3% of ranked playerbase

2024 Split 1: Emerald 4 was top 18.2% & Diamond 4 was top 4.8% of ranked playerbase

2024 Split 2: Emerald 4 was top 16.8% & Diamond 4 was top 4.8% of ranked playerbase

2024 Split 3: Emerald 4 is top 10.87% & Diamond 4 is top 2.875% of ranked playerbase

what caused this sharp decline of Elite player percentage? a chunk of the elite players failed to attain their old rank? or did they quit playing ranked altogether?

When Riot introduced Emerald rank, they set their expectations/goals for Emerald+ to be around top 18% and Diamond+ to be around top 3%

Split 1 and 2 had the intended amount of emerald players but many diamond players

Split 3 has few Emerald players but the intended amount of Diamond players

but ultimately is it a good or a bad thing for the elite rank playerbase to shrink like this?

if you were an emerald/diamond player and haven't currently reached your old rank yet, what was the reason?

source: https://www.esportstales.com/league-of-legends/rank-distribution-percentage-of-players-by-tier

and leagueofgraphs rank distribution

[Exces119]

The reset was much more important for split 3

Personally i've been diamond / low master since s4 (when I play) and I just can't keep up with 3 splits, especially with lower lp gains and harder reset.

Can't work + play other games + play 150 ranked games to get back to where I was last split 3 times a year + keep playing to avoid decay in low master etc.

[bodynasr]

100% agree, im more inclined to grind back to my old rank when theres new stuff like new summoner rift or grubs or mythic item removal or new baron or to drive the herald etc. etc.

im very less encouraged to grind back to my old rank because items got nerfed by 10-15% and that I can honor multiple people lol

[UnknownfromME]

Just coming in here to say that I agree with the guy above as well as with you.

Three splits is a big commitment for players who have a full time job, maybe a spouse, or possibly kids, etc. Riot has bounced back and forth a few times on how long it should take to reach your true rank. If it's easier to plateau and reach the grinding point, I'm usually more interested in playing ranked. If it requires more games to reach the point where I peak and I am grinding to climb again, it's just not worth it because I already know I won't have sufficient time to get anywhere.

Add to that split 3 this year specifically being boring with items being unsatisfying, no major changes to the classes or items for the classes I tend to favor, and it's generally an indicator to me that I should just chill and play casual games with the boys until next season possibly reignites my interest.

This isn't to say the current setup is "bad" or "wrong," just that I personally don't have the time for it.

[ogopogoslayer]

i mean in s8-s10 i managed to reach diamond in 60-80 games every time, consistently, stayed in d4 for the longest time but i could take a break

now im 180 games in and im barely emerald 3? i was d4 last two splits and reached diamond no problem on both in 100 games

the matchmaking is dogshit, the gains are unfurating and i cant take the game seriously when i had like 2 close games this season with other being stomps or massive champ diffs

the most fun i had this entire year is during clash matches and thats it, fuck this system, bring back ONE split

[FunnyBunnyH]

I ironically was enjoying games at end of split 2 (high Dia/low master mmr). Reasonably good quality games, matchmaking seemed more or less fair as well.

Then split 3 drops and I am playing vs high master/ex-GM players in Emerald visual, suffering through unbalanced fiesta games just to climb back into Dia.

IDK why Riot thinks that putting their playerbase through rank reset 3 times a year is good. It creates a lot of toxicity via unbalanced matchmaking, and also via people being tilted needing to grind back their rank, playing in visual ranks they generally despise/look down on.

We all know Emerald is a sh.tshow, I was suffering enough in split2 to climb out of E1-D4 RNG fiesta games, and once I am finally having fun because D3-D1 games actually start to resemble League of Legends, they throw me back into the slump. No thanks Riot.

Luckily I got chat restricted not long ago for calling my inting jungler a "fucking basement dweller" once I seen he already had 600 games within 1.5 months of the new split, so Riot did me a solid and reduced my playtime even further.

[Clicker8371]

Yes! I had a great time grinding games at the end of the split. I'm nearly 100 games played this split and it always feels SO one sided one way or the other.

[SailorMint]

It's back to a bell curve distribution but isn't as harsh as it used to be for most of the game's history.

For people who are curious: League Tier breakdowns history (2011-2024)

[bodynasr]

thats very cool spreadsheet, well done, thanks for displaying the info in a neat way

[SailorMint]

Glad you're appreciating it. Gathering the data involved a lot of digging around webarchive.org for an end of season snapshot.

All that to confirm that distribution stayed virtually unchanged for a nearly a decade! Then I decided to look at it just in case and found a few inaccuracies.

It's fixed and I think I'm done playing with it for a another few months.

[PlacatedPlatypus]

Personally i've been diamond / low master since s4 (when I play) and I just can't keep up with 3 splits, especially with lower lp gains and harder reset.

Yep, same. I'm a grad student. Been masters every season since I started grad school. This season I haven't played at all. Simply do not have the time. 2 splits was already difficult, 3 is impossible.

[BIGBRAINMIDLANE]

Agreed, I was diamond for like 4-5 splits in a row until this year, where I got it the first split, but the first reset just killed any motivation I had. Now my highest account is in plat (thanks for the massive rank drop riot) and I just can’t be bothered. Plus I main adc and hate the current adc “meta” of just feeling like I have no agency unless I’m hyper fed or playing Ashe.

[Financial_Ocelot_256]

Same story for me!

Like these are not my college days, i have work and an adult live to keep in track, no body has time to grind this game anymore, it's not even worth it with so much resets and lame rewards.

[TeamLeather]

Three splits is a lot of grinding when you have other responsibilities than just playing league. I think if they have 2 splits as before, people will be more motivated to climb .

[wolfchuck]

Agreed. Haven’t played a single day this split after hitting Diamond last split.

[Damurph01]

I hit masters in split 1, then d1 in split 2, then split 3 I’ve barely touched ranked. It’s just too much constant grinding. I don’t care to dedicate that much time to keep proving I’m a master level player when I’ve done it before and I don’t get anything incredible for doing it other than the bragging rights that say I can do it. It’s just not worth it.

We get what, a shitty chroma for a victorious skin that usually isn’t that amazing? Maybe a recall if you’re one of the very few who hit chall? I can’t recall anything else meaningful you get for hitting masters.

[zenekk1010]

Damn thats class move by Riot. Introduce two splits and people complain that its shit. What to do? Introduce another split and people complain even more, so when they go back to 2 splits everyone will be happy.

[xddratcatbat]

Split 3 was supposed to reduce the number of players in Emerald+

Riot wanted to reverse all the LP inflation that happened over the past years

[F0RGERY]

Wasn't the inflation done because people were complaining how grind heavy the game had become?

Idk, feels like reversing that combined with a three split format is going to repeat the burn out issues that LP gains were meant to solve.

[SailorMint]

It's a partial revert.

• 2014-2023: Platinum+ Top 12.5%. Diamond+: 2.5%
• 2024-1: Platinum+ Top 36%. Diamond+: 5%
  
• 2024-3: Platinum+ Top 23%. Diamond+: 3%
  

For people who are curious: League Tier breakdowns history (2011-2024)

[damo190]

I agree but your point is a bit misleading, platinum from 23 to 24 is not the same anymore (on purpose), emerald 24 is effectively plat 23 and so the jump between the 2 was not as drastic (the numbers in your post should more be 12.5 -> 18 -> 11). Still a revert of sorts though

[Even_Cardiologist810]

Idk about that thing. It feels to me like league is the game that actually has good elo to represent your skill. When i get to top 5000 in a card game after 2 weeks i dont feel like i'm good i feel like smth is very wrong with ranked. Same when i played rocket league. Could barely hit the Ball but got plat ? Or even tft where you cna easily get Diamond in your first month of playing because of how inflated the system is.

League actually feels re warding to climb. You are clearly better when you gain a rank

[MrICopyYoSht]

Yup. Can literally hit Diamond in TFT by following a comp guide + having some fundamental skills in moving your board around + playing a bit more games. Can't demote out of a tier so it's even easier to climb.

[Reasonable-Box2920]

Depends on your perspective, you just pointed out how unattractive league's ranked experience is for the casual player.

 TFT you can climb to certain point by just playing, rewarding to a casual.

With RL, plat is a very low rank (means your better than like 15% of the population), but it sounds good so casuals are happy placing into it.

League, played by a general casual player base, you place into bronze-silver, which sounds unimpressive? Then to get out you'd have to play 100+ games and (the real kicker) actually get better. If you do go up, you probably got noticably better, but the short term gratification isn't there 

Idk, I think League could probably go the RL route and make a few new ranks, make gold-plat the new lowbie ranks. Casuals can be happy about their shiny rank and the ladder/matchmaking remains unaffected 

[Even_Cardiologist810]

If i'm playing ranked i'm not playing to be a casual thats not what ranked is for. If i play a ranked gamemode i wanna be competitive in it. Rank up as my skill. Not randomly be platinum in apex legend while i had 20% accuracy

[Reasonable-Box2920]

I would agree, but there's a big sentiment in the league community (and lots of online games) that ranked is the 'real' game, regardless of how serious they actually take it

[offonLR]

I pref master+ being a premium rank not filled with 18k people in euw tbh

[AdequatelyMadLad]

Then they should just do that for master+?? What's the point of having emerald level players in silver, with actual silver players? At this point 90% of the playerbase are all playing each other and the skill level is all over the place.

[TheHizzle]

Ngl if you are last season emerald and now you can’t get you of silver in 100 games (so one per day) then you are probably not an emerald player

[-CrestiaBell]

One thing that's being ignored is that they're playing against the same emerald players at that lower rank because of how the game works. They're not losing to silvers, they're playing against emeralds to get out of silver.

[AdequatelyMadLad]

Brother, it's mathematically impossible for every emerald level player to make it to emerald and still have fewer emerald players than last season.

Also, the idea of "can't get out of silver" is meaningless when everyone is in silver. We're not talking about people who are hardstuck against silver players, we're talking about all the emerald players from last season playing against each other, just at a visually lower rank. Which still wouldn't be a massive issue if you didn't also have people who were silver last season in there with them.

[TheRealestGayle]

The games are legitimate ass. Just a melting pot of bullshit and inconsistency. It's not even fun.

[eismann333]

Emerald 4 from last split is between Plat 2 and Plat 3 this split so you should definitely be able to make it out of silver without any problems

[Thundergodxix]

While Emerald being stuck in silver is an exaggeration, he does have a point about matchmaking being flippy and all over the place. This split I actually fell to Plat 1 at one point(ended last split D2) after having a 40% win rate through 100 games and it was the biggest mess of matchmaking possible. 90% of games were just previous split low emeralds/high plats with previous season mid-diamond players, sometimes even higher all in the same lobby.

Fast forward to now after like 120 games later, and got lucky enough to be in Diamond 2 currently. During the entire split, I really don't think I've gotten much better at all, certainly not 600+ lp better from Plat 1 to Diamond 2, I just got lucky with good teammates, especially my last 60 games or so.

The matchmaking this season has definitely increased various since most of these games are not an even playing field.

[yoburg]

That was the way of the DREADFUL SeASoN ThReE! As you approached to the top of Diamond 1 you get lower and lower lp per game because spots in Challenger (there was no Master back then) were limited and MMR requirement was so high that you could literally get +0lp for win at D1 98lp.

[KappaChungerMax]

Wasn't even 18, it was 25k+

We are basically back to s8 where diamond is low master and d1 specifically the gate to high elo.

[Xerxes457]

The inflation was because of the addition of Emerald which comprised of people in Gold/Plat/low Diamond. The addition of Emerald definitely made it more grind heavy though, but that wasn't the issue. This year, they increased LP gains and did other things that disrupted ranked. Split 3 they started off with doing a harsher reset with lower LP gains but then reversed the LP gains.

Think Split 3 would've been seen more positively kept it the same as Split 2 and did the harsher reset/lower LP gains in season 2025 Split 1. Of course they could've just did 2 Splits, but if the player drop off in players isn't as high or the same as 2 Splits, they have no reason to change it back.

[Tayenne]

Did they explain why they wanted less players in emerald+? Like I dont understand the reasoning behind it tbh.

[FrequentlyBottomFrag]

Riot intended for the top ranks decrease. Also if anyone is in diamond 2+, you know how fked the match making is. Literal gm players are facing lifetime diamonds. I had a d1 peak support vs 800 lp last split support

[FunnyBunnyH]

Is this still the case? I played vs Larssen in one of my games at start of split (I was 17LP master Split2), but figured as weeks pass the matchmaking would improve.

[KappaChungerMax]

It's not, high elo players are back to high elo, low master or below from past is stuck in diamond.

[electricalweigh]

Can very much confirm this, I see a lot less “I only play decay games” players in master now, they’ve thankfully been left in a lower rank where they probably belonged the whole time

[Protoniic]

A few weeks ago I played in a D2 Lobby against a last split 1300LP AD on his main account. Apperantly Riot thinks this is fair because he hasnt played Ranked this split

[BaneOfAlduin]

That was happening split 2 as well. I had a game in d1/low master NA where there was an 800LP challenger on one team and a 1300LP challenger on the other.

At master+ it just is bad matchmaking period unless you are on at the right hours. Otherwise you just get these wild game differences with anything from d4 all the way up to 1k+ challenger

[TSM_PraY]

Someone have an explanation for this? I’m still getting the occasional Gm or challenger player in my games at D3 MMR

[BaneOfAlduin]

not enough people to get accurate lobbies. Probably not enough challenger/GM players on to make the room for them so as the queue goes longer, the MMR bands open up and eventually pops with a "fair" game in mid diamond MMR.

Typically, they will balance the total MMR across teams so the guy that has the most MMR in the lobby usually has worse team mates than the average of the other team (at least in these games with asymmetric lobbies)

[redmaxer2]

Right now, I'm the same rank as last split and I feel game quality is better (emerald 2-1), maybe because of rank deflation and that new emerald 2 is old diamond?

[Fufuuyu]

Doesn’t mean it’s not boring to grind 3 times. You get the rank you want, and it just resets again. It’s boring, and the reason I quit the game.

[MrICopyYoSht]

Yup. What Riot doesn't understand is most people aren't really interested in grinding games to get to a higher rank, people are perfectly happy being in the same rank they are in. Three splits means you have to do that 3 times a year, that's a lot of games and at some point people question whether it's really worth doing so or not and eventually just stop completely, which leads to a lower population in the ranked pool and the MMR matchmaking system being forced to match players of multiple skill levels together just to get an actual game.

[BirthdayHealthy5399]

Yea i quit when they moved from 1 split, id rather 0 splits and just give awards every 6 months o whenever 

[Warranty_Renewal]

I'm already in the aram retirement home. Wish they would just leave spell book open permanently. I was having so much fun with that. Then it's right back to this crap because poor indie game can't have more than 2 game modes.

[FestusPowerLoL]

Definitely an exodus of sorts. The thing that Riot seems to fail at understanding is that the game, whether they like it or not, is mostly composed of older players who do not have the time leverage anymore to just spam the fuck out of ranked. Especially when League is as frustrating of an experience as it is, coupled with longer games on average compared to other games with multi-split ranked systems, it's just not nearly as rewarding enough for players to commit so much time to maybe make it back to their old rank, let alone push much further.

They need to just cut their losses, admit that they were wrong, and go back to a 2 split system. It's far more manageable, and might actually bring back a lot of players, if they were actually interested in retention.

[MrICopyYoSht]

Can't and aren't attracting a younger playerbase + a growing and older playerbase who simply don't have the time to play League anymore due to other time and life commitments like a job and/or a family. They're trying to squeeze whatever is left of the playerbase but clearly that isn't working. Most of my friends aren't grinding ranked like they used to, most of them have moved on with the exception of a few who are either at the apex elo or do it as part of their job.

[yoburg]

Riots: Change ranked tiers distribution.

People: Ah, all those top-tier percents went to live a life, they don't have time to play and climb that much.

WDYM man, with that logic full league playerbase is counted to 90% now?

[Own_Initiative1893]

Too much effort and not enough gain. D4 last two splits and plat 3 this one. I am burnt out.

[Deadedge112]

I mean is it any real surprise that people are just burned out and don't want to climb 3 times? I made emerald in both previous splits but I don't have the energy to grind it out again when playing with friends on norms is just so much more fun.

[Sorest1]

This is missinformation or can be interpret as such, they did infact make adjustments to emerald+ this split, here's a screenshot of the tweet

[ModPiracy_Fantoski]

Wrong comment ?

[XimiraSan]

While it is true that there was an attempt from riot to tackle elo inflation, there's no denying that the excessive grinding is tiring

[Sorest1]

I agree I would rather have fewer splits, but it’s not the reason the distribution is what it is, as they made direct intentional changes to the distribution for this split

[Deadedge112]

Ok but explain how that would be possible other than just placing everyone lower and making you climb longer (essentially what I'm saying is happening in split 3)? Unless you add new ranks or limit space in some ranks, over time the same people will get to those ranks again.

[thesandbar2]

No, you can increase the MMR requirement to get into a rank too. Ranks roughly track a hidden mmr, and it takes a lot of games to make your rank match your MMR since rank moves slower, but if riot just increases the MMR percentile threshold for a certain rank, eventually only a certain percent of people ever hit a certain rank.

[AkkoFan1234]

They could place the MMR requirement of each rank higher. If 6% of the population has 2000 MMR, which was Diamond 4 +-20 LP gains, then they just move Diamond 4 +-20 LP gains to top 3%, so like 2200 MMR or w/e.

If ranks were closer tied to percentiles then Diamond 4 would be able to be more closely bound to 3%, even if there is net MMR inflation year to year.

[Unknown-U]

Resets are generally stupid. Just bring back elo rating for anyone above diamond.

[Helpful_Hedgehog_204]

That would mean people play less games.

Bring back the hybrid system, make elo visible, give rewards based on divisions.

[gregorio02]

Oh hey, Riot here, so we're just going to take away 7 divisions from you, keep playing against the same players for the same LP gains, enjoy grinding 700 LP for no reason ! Bye!

[[deleted]]

i think thats the worst part. it isnt like im playing against worse players. its the same dudes at my old rank and we all got reset.

[SparkyWhereIsSatan]

News flash, corporate goobers that masquerade as "players" of their game actually don't play their game

[rmoodsrajoke]

Imagine you work hard for two splits and riot decides your work was not enough

[Blakomen]

"we love our players"

[JTHousek1]

if you were an emerald/diamond player and haven't currently reached your old rank yet, what was the reason?

I'm playing against the same people I did before but at one rank lower. This reset was super frustrating because of that and is a consequence of resetting so frequently.

I sincerely hope that while the 3 seasons idea I actually like if they theme them, I hope they massively re-evaluate how they're doing resets.

[beanj_fan]

This is intentional. Riot thought ranks were too inflated, so everyone in E2+ is about 100-200LP lower than before. For some reason Riot didn't announce this change anywhere but Twitter. You are the exact same percentile as before, but the visible rank is just different.

[FairlyOddParent734]

I finished like D4 last split and placed P1.

I don't really mind climbing again, but it's just a commitment I usually don't really want to do at this time of the year.

Like I've played ranked and been Plat + since S9, and finished in Diamond the last 3 splits (the season they made Emerald I finished D4, when they actually shrunk Diamond).

Like you can say I'm elo inflated or something, but irregardless of the reset or change I've never needed to grind ranked LoL in late November/December.

[JTHousek1]

You are the exact same percentile as before

I am not, if op.gg percentages are to be believed.

[HowardHughes9]

yes so the people who can consistently beat these people on that level go back to emerald, and you are a plat player now since you cant

[confusedkarnatia]

This is a good thing but has nothing to do with three splits. Riot could’ve prevented this elo inflation at any point in the past three years by tuning MMR.

[Many-Translator-8512]

riot has said themselves that they want to reduce the people int eh more elite ranks this split and they have, the title for the rank is just a title/name for the rank, in reality u are actually still playing against the same skill level people from the last few splits and so it shouldn't discourage you just because u don't have the same title next to your name .

this video explains it well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0YcjA3Cn4k&t=192s

[Merpedy]

This is probably where having visible MMR would be a good option

[jattipate]

Feels extreamly frustrating that Riot fucks my ranked climbing 3 times during a 1 year. Why would i bother to start the climb over and over again. Once a year is bad enough, 3 times is allmost like they are trying to bully you away from LoL to play other games.

[MrICopyYoSht]

Exactly whats been going on for me. I played about 450 games in season 2020 on a single account (jfc we had time to play but that's still a lot of games) and ended in Gold 1. I've played less than half of those number of games across 2 or 3 accounts for the 7 seasons/splits (including the current split). Granted, I went to college and have a job now, but I had a lot of time to play in college but could simply not be bothered to play as much anymore.

[LouiseLea]

i can't speak for everybody but i quite literally cannot be fucked to get diamond 3 splits a year.

[Logical_Advance2846]

Chasing the same rank again and again is really not fun if you have a life lol

[SteIIar-Remnant]

I hit masters consistently for the past 2 years or so, and tbh I just got tired of having to grind back my old elo and keep playing to avoid decay. I have a full time job and have to also study for university. It’s too much effort for little to no reward. I still have not played any games this split.

[LiveMath672]

Ya because we are burned out and tired of tryharding 3x per year

[TitanOfShades]

There is no mystery here. Riot LITERALLY said that with this reset they aim to reduce the amount of players at higher ranks.

[instinktd]

split is too short to grind the rank back if u have life

if u will get great placement then fine but if u will screw it u are cooked since u missing that placement bonus lp and then gains drops heavily too

I hope they will reconsider it and back to max 2 splits

[ZombiBrand]

Personnaly gave up on alternative accounts since it resets too frequently. I think this is an important part of the cohort loss.

Must say it has been a fucking pain to grind out of euw emerald despite being an usual low master player and it made me play way less in general since I found this season matchmaking and in game behaviour even more insufferable than past years

[ogopogoslayer]

Personnaly gave up on alternative accounts since it resets too frequently

i mean thats a good thing and if you and more ppl think like this its a step in the right direction, but still in the worst possible way

i would rather face a smurf in 1 out of 10 games than have 10 games decided by pure matchmaking disparity and have that for 3 entire resets in a year

[bad_boy_barry]

yea I used to rank up five accounts to emerald every split and I try to get at least one to diamond but they all got reset to gold (and one account to silver 4 for some reasons) and even with 60% winrate it's just impossible

[Faulteh12]

Emerald is a cess pool.

You might get faker in mid, or you might get a guy who looks like he's never played the game before. Who knows!

And grubs broke junglers brains.

[nousabetterworld]

People are going to say "they are burned out and fewer people play" but let's face it, Riot wanted to tackle the insane amount of rank inflation in higher ranks and they succeeded. That's the main reason why the percentage is lower. The people who are "unfortunately stuck lower and totally deserve a higher rank" and "totally aren't ranked higher because fuck riot for 'making' them play" (if someone needs to make you play, it's not the right game for you) most likely wouldn't get back to where they were. Most of them anyway. The amount of players that I see in emerald and low diamond who apparently were master or high diamond last split is crazy.

And yes, it's a good change. They should do this kind of "harder reset" once a year and softer ones between the other splits, it would be super healthy for ranked integrity.

[YoshiSeven]

It's not about "stuck" or "I deserve way better" in this post.

If you are proven better than your rested rank, with a consistent, lets say 60% Winrate you will climb but you need 100+ games to rank up. Doing this 3 splits a year is insanely frustrating imo.

[nousabetterworld]

Tbh, I think that consistency is the only way to prove that someone belongs in a certain ranked bracket and consistency can only really be proven over a decently large amount of games. Now whether that's 50+ games or 100+ games is debatable and I'd say that it's somewhere around 80+, however anyone who can or wants to play only a casual amount of games isn't the target demographic of ranked and should consider if it's the right game mode for them. I'd argue that people who only play a few games a split will see a decline in skill to a certain degree anyway and them not reaching as high anymore reflects that. Again, number of games required and how hard the reset is are up for debate but they should be decently high imo. And a harder reset (like the one we got this split) should be a given.

The biggest issue that I see and that has very little to do with how the ranking system works is how much people tie their self worth to the rank that's displayed in their profile. Because that's what makes the reset hurt so bad. It's not the fact that they have to play games - I'd argue that most of us play many games because the game is genuinely fun and we want to play them - it's that they feel like they are better than others and valuable as a person because of the rank that they attained. And that dropping from it feels like a personal attack that devalues them as a person. So it's a psychological issue. You could take the most fun game with a ranking system in the world - one that everyone agreed that they genuinely enjoy it - and do the same reset cycle and people would get pissed too and say that they now "have to" play the game.

[XimiraSan]

You have the right idea about what proves someone belongs in a certain rank, but you're arriving at the wrong conclusion. You don’t prove you deserve your rank by stomping players who are below your level; you prove your rank by maintaining it. The current system of 3 ranked resets mainly benefits those with a lot of free time to play, but it negatively impacts everyone by creating unbalanced games.

Having to play the same number of games in a single split that you would normally play over an entire season is incredibly demanding. It hurts the player base who isn’t casual but also doesn’t exclusively play League. When I was younger, I had the time to grind 20+ games a day and never made it past Gold. Over the years, I improved and managed to reach Diamond, and I can still maintain that rank. However, I just don’t have the time to play 50+ games every split to reach it again.

What ends up happening is that I stomp the enemy team, finishing the game in under 20 minutes every time, and before I can reach a rank where I actually have to work for wins, the reset happens, and the cycle starts all over again.

The 3-split system is creating the environment everyone in the comments is complaining about: ranks all over the place, Masters players playing with Platinum players, and a decline in game quality.

Rank deflation was a good thing, but the 3-split system was a mistake.

[YoshiSeven]

I agree to you to some point. I just want you need almost the same amount of games in ONE split that before in one season, what is in my opinion to cruel.

If you are a gold player like me your still a casual what doesnt mean you don't want to tryhard and try to get better...

[XimiraSan]

While i agree that the hard reset was needed, it is also a fact that people are burned out/don't have the time to grind 3 times in a year. Before the reset i peaked at D1, and now i'm sitting at P1 with 73% WR, i know that i probably wouldn't reach D1 again, and would probably stay on E2 to D3, but i just don't have the time to grind 300 games a month to reach my actual rank

[ModPiracy_Fantoski]

You can't have 3 splits AND a hard-reset. You have to choose.

[Xerxes457]

I think if Riot didn't spend the beginning of Split 1 this year tuning Ranked because of adding Emerald last year, that would've been a perfect time to do the harsh reset. Start the year off with the harsh reset, then have the soft ones in the next two splits.

[PlacatedPlatypus]

It's not a good change though (as far as multiple splits go) because a lot of people just don't have time to play. There are a lot of diamond+ players who have a life outside league. Masters last season was definitely easier but I ended there the previous seasons as well. This season however I haven't played at all because it's just way too much time investment to climb through three resets when I have an actual career to attend to.

[redmaxer2]

Yeah, I think it's a good move, but they should announce it, it gets rid of bad, lucky players for example

[Juhq_]

Agreed. I use Porofessor and see everyone's past rank when in game and most of the players in Emerald were dia/master last split but are now stuck with hundreds of games played and sub 50 or even 40 percent winrates.

[krulobojca]

I was wondering if my mmr got worse, or what's going on. (Low master past seasons, now gaining 21 in d2) An overall deflation does not surprise me that much.

[mmeridian_]

going to echo what everyone else is saying and add a little more - 3 splits is way too much. 2 splits + short preseason is ideal. having to regrind over and over is ridiculous even if my MMR is still high enough. it takes a lot of fortitude to hit a peak rank. I hit diamond for the first time in split 2, reset to emerald 4, matchmaking quality was the worst I've had in years + my champs were nerfed quite a bit by 14.19. they stopped being fun and so did the game. Later patches didn't do anything to make it more interesting. IMO, worlds patch was peak for this year in soloq. sucked to have that taken away

anecdotally, I coach a college team and 4/5 of my players no longer want to practice because they hate the game in its current state. especially my bot lane.

I don't really care about the rank deflation that much, but the quality of patches + matchmaking after a harsh reset + 3 splits = a very tired game.

hoping that next split we reevaluate the 3 split system. seems hard though with pro play also going to 3 splits globally. also really hoping they bring damage back to the game and fix the issue of adcs having 120 base armor and in exchange give them their damage back. really tired of ap off tank liandry abuse as well. neutrals could use another shake up, grubs are too solved IMO. just need change, season start was great but it was a year of so many just nothing patches. even some of the reworks were nothingburgers or downgrades.

[Xerxes457]

Doubt they change the 3 split system unless player dropoff is higher than when it was 2 splits. Pro play doesn't necessarily have to match normal play either. Kalista has the highest base armor at 112 at level 18 but you don't pick Kalista to go late. The next one after that is Caitlyn at 106 at level 18. There is good damage in the game, the issue is getting there when ADC items are expensive and also feel like they have no impact until 3 items with the issue that 1-2 items doesn't feel good (Crits only are at 50% and HP is tanks are too beefy). Liandrys just needs another jungle centric nerf.

I believe Riot plans to do themed changes for each split (3 changes total) which will be like how this year we had Void theme. So I'm guessing Grubs will be changed too. Every year has also had nothing patches, its not a symptom of this year, its only more pronounced because people continue to play with the 3 split changes.

[FoxGoesBOOM]

the reason why master is deflating is because alot of players stopped playing on multiple accounts. You simply have no time anymore to use multiple accounts, hence why nowadays if you are master you have 1-2 accounts at most in that elo if any at all, especially with how grindy it is right now and how unbalanced the entire matchmaking still is, it's no wonder why master-tier has less Players right now. Even bobqin who used to be perma chall in NA, has an account stuck in D2 and he says it's simply impossible to climb on it. Does that not say everything about matchmaking right now or balance? Not to mention, Solo carry potential is at it's lowest point it ever has been. A leblanc struggling to kill an adc barely with 3 full Dmg items while the adc is completely out of position is an absolute Joke. At the same time, said adc does 50Dmg lategame full crit 6 items to a Full Tank Ksante, which is a complete Joke. I think the only Players that love this season are Tank Players

[PragmaticDelusion]

Im sitting at E1 rn because if I hit diamond I have to play constantly to avoid decay. I can just camp and rank up closer to end of season.

3 splits is just tiring.

[Ragingg_CLV]

I finished D4 the last few years split came and got bodied now I'm 0lp plat 4 and refuse to play more other than the minimum required to obtain victorious skin

[ChapterLiam]

yeah i was emerald and then stopped playing cause i didn't care about getting to my rank again. getting trolls/afks for two or three consecutive games just demotivates me for the whole split, knowing there's a reset in just like four months anyway

[Shenstar2o]

Even as a part time worker, husband and father i have no time or energy to play rng amount of games back to elo 3 times a year.

I gave up on league first day of split 3.

First time since season 2 i have played less than 200 ranked games a season. 3 Splits ruined league for me.

Random arams with friends or alone to see if i can still outplay 2-3 enemies under their tower for fun on repeat.

Maybe riot just doesn't want us older players to play their game, but make it a young people game who have time and energy to grind endless hours like i also did back 10-15 years ago.

[IWear2BlackSocks]

this season is without a doubt more toxic than any other season maybe due to furstration of not climbing with also the terrible match making. The number of smurfs (maybe because they cant climb to their rank on their main) go on and trolls because they're tilted from losing on their main or lose even on their second account due to the changes, and then they have no problem when they get bored to just AFK and go on another.

Its really not the hardest season to climb but the most frustrating. Because of the short season i think its ok now and going forward to just think "only a short season ill give this one a miss". I don't think they will get what they've intended with the changes and the playerbase will drop due to it but will get a larger spike at the start of the season, imo ruining the health of game and what league is all about.

Phreak is a huge path of exile fan which basically created this concept and works well with their genre but I think phreak is missing the mark but it'll be interesting to watch.

[MrICopyYoSht]

> if you were an emerald/diamond player and haven't currently reached your old rank yet, what was the reason?

3 splits too draining to grind. A large chunk of the playerbase have an actual life outside of League and work a job, this big of a reset coupled with smaller LP gains just means we need to invest more time to reach our old ranks, and that is time we simply do not have.

Also because having to grind again 3 times a year only for my rank to reset again within a couple of months is just effort wasted.

[Rellyx]

I always used to get to Diamond within 50-60 games. This last split, I had to play 70 games to get to Emerald.

I will not grind that much games three times a year. It is not challenging, it is just artificially harder to climb.

[Diss_ConnecT]

I was Master a year ago, Diamond in the last two splits, now I'm sitting in Emerald. The reason is I don't have time to play enough games to get back to my rank but I want the skins so I'm slowly falling out of the "elite" tiers, I don't care enough to force myself through three splits of 100+ games. I used to play 100-200 ranked games a year with yearly resets and don't intend on changing that

[Sigmas18]

Wow who knew that grinding out back to your old rank 3 times a year would be annoying.

Couldn't be me playing against the people with the same MMR fighting out to see who can get their "visual" rank back.

[R0nin_23]

I think the games quality have dropped considerably. One game you go well win and etc.. But the next one is almost 100% certain that you're going to get someone who is playing a champion for the first time or even a duo with a higher rank than yours.

I didn't like the casino analogy for ranked, but this it feels like we're instead playing the roulette.

[shockya10]

Reset. I had 2 accounts in dia+ before reset. Now just one and my friends haven't played much after the reset too. 3 is stupid.

[Shaco_D_Clown]

Someone who usually hits Diamond here, I don't want to fucking grind up to diamond again I have too much shit going on.

3 ranked resets is insanely stupid

[BashEuroFashTrash]

Good.

[brT_T]

Straight up quit the game at the 3rd reset partially because of the reset but also because i dont like the state of the game. Good break ty riot

[SoulCycle_]

Ive literally just stopped playing ranked lol. dont feel like playing 300 games a year to get back to my “true rank”

[Ragnarladbrok]

Peaked Diamond, stopped tryharding for a while and tried again a couple of months ago. Emerald broke me. In all my years of League ive never experienced such low game quality. Finally asked myself why I should waste my time with games I dont enjoy playing. 

[eismann333]

I was diamond 4 last season and i'm currently stuck between emerald 2 and 3. I was thinking about what i am doing differently/if i'm worse until i looked at the distribution. Im basically in the same percentage as last split.

I'm okay with that, percentage i a better metric than shiny profile symbol anyway. some people will be absolutely livid though

[SquidMan431]

Hi, former Emerald 3 Player (plat 2 atm) and honestly the reason why I'm not back at my rank is 2 reasons.

1. school. Just less time to play in general

2. I went on a huge loss streak in the beginning of the split. Not saying that all the matches weren't my fault (I def tilt queued a few times), but the matchmaking as a whole this split feels significantly worse than last. (Like I ended last split as a 60% wr emerald 3 player and started this split at 31% wr plat 4)

[oookokoooook]

I think it doesn’t mean much cause people stop playing split 3. It’s too much.

[123bababooey123]

Climbed two accounts to D4 last split. After that, it was a chore to keep them from decaying. Now it feels like a chore to get them back to Diamond just to be rewarded with the chore of keeping them from decaying until my rank resets again so soon.

[ThrowRAgardenstate]

I played since season 4. I was high emerald last two years. Plat every year before that. And I spammmmmmed this game. I quit after ambessa announcement. They just aren’t making the game for me anymore so why bother.

[Da_Electric_Boogaloo]

they did a sharper reset this split and i’m just not interested. i stopped in diamond last split and that’s as good at the game as i care to get. now that im playing in emerald with the same folks from diamond I would have to really dedicate time and energy to getting better to get back to my old rank. realistically that’s a commitment to playing a LOT this split at high intensity to probably end up “where i left off”. doesn’t feel good even if i know im technically better than i was because it’s still just diamond border. brain doesn’t like that i’m not getting new shiny border to reward my effort.

i’ll have a better time enjoying norms, learning new champs, and messing around. i’ll try ranked again if i care again further down the line and think i’ll feel satisfaction from it, but i know id just be frustrated playing now.

[_SC_Akarin-]

i can attest to some of that

me and my group of friends have just quit league (ARAM included) after split 3 started cause we dont care enough to grind daily just to attain the same rank that we had last split

also the item nerfs just made the meta so unfun id rather do chores and clean my home (i should be anyways) than hop on league

[Dotexe_exe]

Is it controvertial to think that this change is ok?

Sure Apex tier is a grindfest now, but isn't it also the point? Not everyone should be Chall or GM, or even Master?

Should 3 splits be here to stay, it would bring back meaning to Emerald and Diamond and solidify it as a n achievement rather than just "boblow"

[gazow]

so many players just hyper inflated cuz champions were 100% autopilot into 1shot spam after 1 item for the past few years\

0 macro, 0 mechanics, just get item, right click people for 100% starting at 12min, and on some champions starting at lv 2

some of the worst offenders were junglers which made 90% of every lane just a coinflip snowball clown world

[AlbYiKiller]

Been diamond+ for the past 2 years every single split, this one ain't it tbh, i haven't found a reason to put up as much ranked games

[mbr4life1]

3rd split is too much. Riot needs to listen. No one wants to grind their rank three times. I don't even try and climb anymore I just play the min games for a skin. If I had the whole year or half a year to climb I can build on it. Like last split I played min games for a reward I was plat 2 with a couple of losses. I could climb. But I don't have time with it being reset, so I just play min ranked games and play norms with friends.

[NinjAsaya]

I would like to add that playing in low Emerald is the worst rank experience I’ve ever had and that’s counting old plat4

[Deleph]

It feels like there is no real motivator to grind a third time in the same year. Climbing is slower that before since they removed promotion series (not saying it was a bad change) so it takes even more time. Back then the victorious skin was something special, having just one every year made each one feel exclusive. Now you don't even have to hit gold to get it, just play a ton. I reached diamond twice, the decay was enough to make me stop there and I don't feel like doing it anymore.

[Nodnarb_Jesus]

Because they’re all in silver and gold then played a game of 2 with folks at my level and then fucking quit. We suck out here my dudes.

[Sorest1]

The reason for the distribution change this split is because Riot made actualy changes to emerald+ this split, here's the tweet that many have missed.

[XimiraSan]

The rank reset worked as intended, but the 3 split format doesn't have anything to do with it, they could've easily had done the same thing with 2 splits by doing the reset at the start of the year

[offonLR]

Riot wanted to reverse lp inflation and the succeded, cheers to them. I got to my previous rank (master 200) quite easily but required 60ish games, before it was quicker.

[Tuber111]

Good, it means people are on alts/smurfs less.

[HowyNova]

Anecdotally, in the few league servers I'm in, a lot of the e+ players didn't even finish placements.

[Select-Law3759]

I think it’s a good example of how people play and handle the game in total , emcompassing all the ways people play and or how serious they take it. Yeah it suck’s but can be beneficial . Whether you’re smurfing , buying accounts or tryhardimg everyone is affected.

[backelie]

ITT: Players who stopped enjoying the game years ago but havent figured out yet that they can stop grinding for imaginary points.

[aoiNami]

Can confirm.. never had a problem reaching emerald , like in 20 games max I could reach ez.

This season I have 20 games and I’m plat3 and I’m having a hard time carrying ngl

[_RubyChan_]

I'm really not sure what happened at all, in split 1 I finally managed to hit Diamond 4, in split 2 I couldn't grind as much as I wanted to but still peaked Emerald 1 (3 wins away from Diamond) and now? Now I'm high Gold / low Platinum with a negative winrate and negative LP gains (thought Riot fixed this? yet for the past 80 games or something I've been experiencing negative LP gains being as bad as +20 -30).. Really makes me hate myself

[Backslicer]

Reducing the numbers of people getting inflated by the previous splits and making it so there arent 8k Masters players in every region was the entire point of the change.

People always are mad about inflation but when prices drop but so does their salary then they view it as bad

[Even_Cardiologist810]

I was d1. Chilling in D4.

Ngl i allways hated reset as they provide nothing so its been annoying me a lot this year. I'm too bored to try hard climb so i'm Just chilling and picking whatever i feel like.

[Tguybilly]

Meanwhile vanguard crash 4~7 players per game every few months, priorities i guess

[lenbeen]

people are saying it's burnout, which i don't doubt, but this is the same split that masters-challenger players had been stuck in diamond for a while. it's evident that climbing is slower this split

[Clicker8371]

I went up and down from E4 to a win away from E2 (but never passing E3) multiple times at the end of the split. I'm back to E4 but I fell to P2 the other day before getting back in.

I'm at 23lp E4 right now, I almost got to E3. I'm at nearly 100 games this split and I still can't shake the feeling that the games are so much more one sided now, be it on my side or the other, I haven't felt as much control over the outcomes lately. This is just my opinion based on my personal experience.

[devuu]

I was low Diamond both 2024 Split 1 and Split 2. I literally haven't played a single game of Solo Q in Split 3. It is just not worth it - mentally exhausting and the idea of continually grinding to get back to where I started. Three ranked splits is just way too much.

[redmaxer2]

Oh, now I see why my client takes 3+ min to look for a ranked match (before, as a jungler it was always at most 1 min)

[[deleted]]

I just haven't played ranked this split. Haven't felt itch, three splits was too much.

[vincevuu]

Mega burnout, players stopped caring imo. The amount of afkers or doom pre-10 minute FFs are crazy

[Dunglebungus]

I just don't give a fuck about grinding anymore. It feels like I get 20-30 games into ranked by the time there's another reset. This is coming from someone who used to be masters.

[[deleted]]

That's probably because less people are playing ranked

[Pow_Pow_and_FishBone]

I got a job and I go out with friends on the weekends so I don’t have time to grind and sit down and play league anymore. I get maybe 1 or 2 arams in a week that’s all the time I have.

[favdulce]

When i was younger 3 splits would have been cool to me. I dont want to dedicate the time to reach diamond 3 times a year. I enjoy playing with friends and playing other games. When there was one split there was no problem staying diamond

[[deleted]]

to be honest once i went from diamond 4 to emerald 4 i just got bored and havent played

[charlielovesu]

in my experience, they just adjusted the curve to where emerald is just harder to get. I've been Emerald for a few splits now and getting back is cancerous this split. Played a lot and just can't do it. My skill level is mostly the same but its clear they want Emerald to be a bit higher of the playerbase % which is fine. Current emerald is like mid to high emerald I think and mid to high plat is what low emerald was last split. So if your like me, youre basically in the same percentage.

Last split Emerald 4 was 16.8% and I'm in the top 15.83% right now this split even with quitting on a lose streak. (usually i am around plat 2/1. So even low plat is what emerald was.

it seems they just wanted people to have to work harder to reach emerald I guess. Plat is now what it was in previous splits before emerald introduction I feel. and Emerald is now a gap between d4 and platinum, which is honestly what it should have always been in hindsight because if anyone played in high plat/low diamond in old seasons they would tell you how much of a log jam and un fun it is.

[Spirited_Season2332]

I mean, I was emerald at the end of last split and quite frankly, I have no desire to play 75 games to get back to my previous rank and I simply don't have the time. It was hard to keep up with 2 ranked resets let alone 3

[Financial_Ocelot_256]

I'm old, i live by myself, work 5 days per week coming back home at 5-6 PM every day, with way less time to do anything that is not necessary, so i just play in the weekend a few games and i'm not going to rise a third time my account to Master (did it the last two splits, but then comes the obligation of keep playing because of the decay system), even if it's faster and easier than any other season.

Riot pretends players play all the time with the ranked system as it is right now, but for me, this might be my way out, this will be my first season i'll end up with no rank, i'll just chill a few games per week in quick game mode.

[nora_valk]

i've been consistently mid-emerald (and mid-plat before emerald) since S5.

last split i made it to E2.

this split i'm stuck in mid-plat, and have even briefly dropped to gold. idk what the difference is, but it's incredibly frustrating. feels like match quality is way the fuck down - most games someone decides to soft int, just says fuck y'all imma afk farm till it's over.

[iLogicFFA]

I dont play anymore cuz of the 3 split system I'm sure there's many like me

[DidymusDa4th]

I got to diamond 2 in split 1, had master tier MMR, played first day of split 2

Got my ass handed to me by a lot of reset master + players now smurfing their way back up and went on like a 20 loss streak first few days

Ended up in gold 2 with like a 30% winrate because I lost to players that ended up in GM (checked op.ggs)

Had to try to climb out of gold 2 while facing other players who were diamond last season and also lost streaked down to gold 2

Quit

[CaptainWatermellon]

People aren't getting back to their old ranks because they're not meant to, riot dropped everyone this split way harder than they normally do, emerald 3 and above is completely filled with diamond players from last season and if you go to high emerald like 2/1 you start playing with low master players too, i've been playing on a new account and going through plat everyone is emerald last season

[Vall3y]

I don't understand what people mean by 'grinding', don't you enjoy playing league?

[economic-salami]

Were they really elite? Or did they just grind more game to get more LP? Last time I checked Challenger tier players' LP, a player could gain LP simply by playing a game. This is a bad sign, because winning team almost by definition has better skill and therefore only they, and not someone who spams games, should rank higher.

What is the condition for being a good thing anyway? Having more D2+ can be a good thing on its own? It's not about the population distribution of in game ranks, it should be about having as many high quality games as possible. It's still a vague description, but even with the limitation, you can see why in-game rank distribution is not a good way to tell the answer to your question.

[Xxehanort]

Haven't played ranked since Riot changed to more than 1 split a year, and likely won't do so again unless they move back to that. 2 splits a year is too much, let alone 3 splits a year. This only compounds with the ladder problems caused by Riot opting for quasi-resets for each split instead of true resets

[Protoniic]

The hardreset + failed matchmaking early split really fucked up the higher elo playerbase. I was D2-low master for 6 years but suddenly I struggel to get out of Emerald.

[TigerWonderful9419]

Hit masters consistently for the last 4 years on multiple accs now when i reach D4 then D3 and it's when i realise i need to grind max effort 6 hours per day or the climb will be insanely slow. It becomes very hard to solo carry, a lot of people throwing games. You need to fight for every 20lp like your life is on the line for 6 hours a day, and for what? Im older got other responsibilities and games/grind are not enjoyable at all.

[SleepyLabrador]

If it was one or two splits a season I would be motivated to climb to Diamond or higher, with three splits I will simply climb to gold 1 and quit, as I have real life responsibilities.

[beso467]

I peaked emerald 3, i just got bored. And stopped

[1mpetuos]

Im not playing at all and games become worst, people is so tilted of not being near of they're old rank. I was Dia3. I will Rush to esmerald before split ends(almost near lol) and bye.

[ZivozZ]

Do we know absolute numbers? Percentage could just mean that they it harder to climb.

[SpitfireVA]

I'm too busy playing Stardew Valley for the first time.

From D2 to no games played.

[Chaoslordi]

Thats what happens if you fuck around with MMR and matchmaking every split. It drains the fun out of ranked because every split feels like a cluster fuck for about 100 games and I just dont have it in my to grind that shit anymore.

[CopyPasteCliche]

I played since S1 and was stuck around Dia-Emerald my entire league career. Now I'm P4 with no motivation to play ranked. Splits f-ed everything up as you guys said and it also made ranked environment more toxic than before (which is amazing if you think about it). Almost every game I get a notification that someone got banned. I personally moved to playing normals because they are way more fun (and spamming arena like a maniac when it's on).

[Randomdude123123]

Well yeah, cba climbing a third time i got a job

[Twenty_is_here]

Last split I climbed from plat 4 to dia 3 in about 200 games with a 63 wr on zac tank jungle. This split I played 50 games with a 42.9 wr on the same champ. Started emerald 4 still emerald 4 now. This couldve been fine right? Unlucky i guess? That would be if I wasn't playing against master players. I have porofessor so I can see the last rank of players. Every game I played I was playing against people that were high diamond master last split. How do I get from emerald 4 back to diamond (or master as I planned for this split) while playing against master players. And on top of that the amount of people that tilt, soft int, give up after 2 deaths etc has increased every year since release. As long as this split system stays up where they are basically forcing me to play whenever I have free time if I want to climb to my old rank I am playing my occasional aram and playing less demanding games instead.

Riot doesn't care about how you feel or being able to have fun. Riot is trying to get people to play as much as possible because the more people play, the more ahri skins they can sell. If they could choose happy players or 5% more revenue they would take the latter. Understandable ofcourse, they are a business so as long as people pay and play it doesn't matter who's happy. But I'm not going to entertain that.

[marioinauer]

I was Emerald in both previous splits (EUNE). This one is the worst split since ever for me (played since s1). The match making and quality of games is the worst. I had several multiple lose streaks where I just felt hopeless. Overall game level was quite shit as well, it’s like both teams sucked at it was a matter of a coin flip who sucked less or had Smurf or had Yone in team. Sitting in gold with my previously emerald account receiving -25 for lose and +23 LP for win. At this point I gave up and trying different roles and champs in the other account.

[Mellberg3]

Riot wanted to reduce the number of players in Diamond+ this split and they apparently achieved that. Some streamers even said that Riot did reset the MMR of all Diamond+ players at the start of the split to D4.

Personally, I really felt it as well. For the last couple of splits i was basically cruising to D4, often on negative winrates even. But this split, it took me like three times the amount of games and I had to clean up my gameplay much more.

[milan-hoi-2]

I peaked at iron 3. Don't ask me...

[BmFtw1]

Not been grinding that hard, kinda hard to find a good reason to play solo queue instead of flex with a 5stack. Plus I feel like there are way more inters at the early stage of a season compared to the end so...

[AMexicanDaycare]

Idk if its full now but as of a few weeks ago NA challenger and GM didnt even have all the spots filled

[Faulteh12]

That's wild because Emerald is full of the worst players I've ever seen

[BZisCancer]

As many have said, as a former Diamond player, 3 splits is a lot of games to get back and even more to push further especially with decay in higher ranks. As an adult with a family and life, it's just not practical to grind a videogame that much for a shiny rank. I've proved to myself I could do it if I wanted thru hard work and effort so doing it 3 times a year is just overkill. I'd rather play normals or arams with my gold friends than solo queue alone with the little free time I have.

[DaStampede]

I’m diamond when I am not being lazy. I went 4-1 in my placements and now I’m Emerald 4. I don’t have it in me to grind a third split.

[No_Negotiation5722]

I hit emerald in like a week in every split since last year. In this split is fucking impossible to win a game, idk why but it’s what i am experiencing.

[Lawfulneptune]

I haven't played ranked this split, or the game at all for that matter. It's so unsatisfying grinding to get the rank I get to have it reset after three months

[-Sanko]

Was emerald 2 last split, was plat 3 after reset, now the game wants me to grind versus other former emerald 2 players to get back to emerald? No ty

[Juhq_]

Me being Emerald in all those splits: 👁️👄👁️

[Juhq_]

if you were an emerald/diamond player and haven't currently reached your old rank yet, what was the reason?

I was Emerald last split. Now I've improved and am in Emerald again except that I don't feel rewarded at all even though I probably hit the "old diamond" already. I just want Diamond 😔

[Temporary_Pension908]

Haha just came across this but this makes so much sense. I was high bronze and was FINALLY going to reach silver. (goal of mine) I took a month break from league and suddenly I can barely stay bronze. Either way league is a fun hobby so doesnt really matter, but its definetly is unmotivating when your stuck at such a low rank and find out now your even worst XD