How does League of Legends ranked MMR work in Season 13?

Riot Games' developers have shared comprehensive details regarding the League of Legends ranked MMR (Matchmaking Rating) system. Riot EvrMoar, Valorant's senior competitive designer, posted critical information regarding this matter in his Twitter thread.

Riot Auberaun retweeted the post, noting that the topic is highly relevant to League of Legends and urging the community to read it to better understand how Riot Games' MMR system works.

According to the thread, the developer does not match make an off-visible rank, but rather MMR (Matchmaking Rating). It has a performance range that the game creators refer to as Variance.

So, while one player may barely be out of placements and another maybe 50 games in, they will end up being placed together if their Variances have MMR overlapping.

According to Riot EvrMoar, this is critical since it might generate dissatisfaction when a player sees someone else's rank that is far higher than their own during a match. This may also happen if someone actively manipulates their rank, such as by throwing a game or boosting. For example, a bronze account appearing in higher ranks.

He went on to say that the team recognizes the difficulty of striking a balance and that they only want fair matches between players with higher MMR ranges. This is due to fewer games played and individuals with a significant number of games played. Most perceive matching with the visual rank differential in mind.

With Riot Games' desire to fix accounts, they must also avoid making it too easy for players to visually rank since this will enable boosting. If this occurs, a high-ranking player may wind up hopping on a lower-ranking profile and reaching the highest of levels in only a few games.

He also stated that if these accounts honestly played ranked and their placements, they would not be in these lower rankings but would be extremely far off in skill. Hence, ranked manipulation occurs 99% of the time.

He also noted that they are frequently questioned why players with comparable rankings aren't paired together. And, according to him, the fundamental issue is that a gold player who has only played one match may have an MMR range of gold-platinum, but a gold player who has played over fifty games may have an MMR range of silver-gold.

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Riot Auberaun gives further information regarding League of Legends ranked MMR in Season 13

Riot Auberaun went on to add to Riot EvrMoar's post that the previous League of Legends matchmaking was based on both visual rank and MMR. Riot Games always made sure that MMRs were balanced as a top priority, and the developers searched for players who were also similar in visual rank as an additional filter. All of this was the case until the MMR was modified for Season 13.

However, there were new players, smurfs, and others who joined later in the season that were close in MMR and shared the attribute of having a lower visual rank than they should have. The primary issue was the lack of enough games played.

He concluded his remark by saying that the lengthier queue times resulted in a bad experience when they were all jumbled together. This is why Riot Games intended to make it easier for League of Legends players to start their ranked journey at any time of year, even if they missed the start of the year climb.

Overall, Riot Games sharing additional in-depth information is greatly appreciated since they pledged at the start of League of Legends Season 13 to be more open after facing harsh criticism from the community.

While League of Legends producers have had a difficult time recently with a dismal start to Season 13 and a social-engineering attack, Riot Games' developers appear to be more open and honest with the community. This description of the ranked MMR system for this season only helps players better understand the game and its system.