The new changes include an extra rank reset, two Ranked skins and more rewards for players’ progress throughout the season.
With Season 12 behind us and the preseason for 2023 already on live servers, Riot just dropped some exciting changes for their Ranked rewards. Of course, these changes won’t affect the previous season and will become active with Season 13. The central part of the changes, which are announced by Game Loop Product Lead Chris “Auberaun” Roberts and Game Designer Chris “cwal” Wallace in Riot’s blog, is that Ranked skins are available to all players. And there will be two of these skins, which are called Victorious, as Riot is dividing Season 13 into two Splits. Each Split will have its own skin and Ranked rewards, and will have a rank reset before it starts.
In the current system, the player ranks are only reset between seasons, and players get rewards for their Ranked progression throughout that season. The current award distribution is:
- Iron and Bronze: Ranked icon, Ranked profile banner trim, Sejuani Series 1 Permanent Eternals
- Silver: Ranked icon, Ranked profile banner trim, Ranked border, Sejuani Series 1 Permanent Eternals
- Gold: Ranked icon, Ranked profile banner trim, Ranked border, Victorious skin, Sejuani Series 1 Permanent Eternals
- Platinum+: Ranked icon, Ranked profile banner trim, Ranked border, Victorious skin, Victorious chroma (up to their rank), Sejuani Series 1 Permanent Eternals
Season 13 will have a rank reset in the middle of the year
Starting in early January, we will start the LoL Season 13 with Split 1. As always, it will come with a rank reset for all players. There is no exact time for when Split 2 will start, but in the middle of the season usually means May or June for League.
Two splits aren’t the only changes to the Ranked system either. Riot had already made changes to their promotion series when they removed the division promos. And now they are decreasing the number of promo games between ranks from five possible games to three at most. Now players will be able to rank up by winning two games, instead of the previous three necessary victories.
They are also removing the matchmaking system by removing visible rank influence from your matches. Currently, there are two crucial factors LoL considers when matching you with your opponents: your LP, which is visible, and your MMR (Matchmaking Rating), which is hidden. From now on, LP will be only used to place players on the ladder, and the matchmaking will only be based on the player’s MMR. This could be an attempt to fix the current Smurf Queue problem, which is heavily disliked by the community.
More accessible Ranked rewards for low-ranked players
Ever since the introduction of Victorious Jarvan IV in 2011, Riot has always given players placed Gold or above a Victorious skin for their achievement. But according to Wallace, this only led to players either stopping once they hit Gold, or it meant they couldn’t reward players in Silver and below even if they played hundreds of games. With the new system, there will be two ways to earn a Ranked skin.
The first option is to hit Gold like it is required currently. The significant change here is that once a player hits Gold once, they are eligible for the skin reward. Even if they demote later. Or players in Iron, Bronze and Silver can get these skins by playing the game. Wallace says these players, “[will] have to play a much larger number of games.” But there is no exact number mentioned yet.
On top of all these changes, Riot will also add a Split points system. Players will be able to earn points as they play during the season and will be rewarded by things like Hextech Keys, Chests, and some other goodies they can unlock along the progression track each split.
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