Season 13 is nearly upon us, with the season starting on January 10, 2023, but there are some changes to ranked promos coming with it that will affect players differently.
Ranked promotions have been the subject of community complaints and memes over many years due to their volatile nature. Otherwise known as promos, they are a set series of games, previously a best-of-five, that determine whether or not a player is able to ascend to the next level of the ranked ladder. Previously these series happened at every divisional rank, between Gold III and Gold II, for example, as well as between tiers of ranked play like Gold and Platinum. These systems have changed over the years and will be getting adjustments heading into Season 13, so here’s everything you need to know before they drop.
The big change to ranked promos in Season 13 is that the requisite number of games that a player has to win in order to succeed has been changed. This is separate from the changes in cosmetic rewards announced earlier in 2021. Previously, in order to move between tiers of ranked play, a player would have to win what was essentially a best-of-five series in order to move forwards. This often led to tangible player frustration when they had performed well enough to make it all the way to 100 LP in their final division of a rank only to be met with uncooperative teammates or unlucky circumstances that send them back to having to requalify for the series. Riot Games is looking to remedy this situation without removing tier promotions entirely by moving the qualifying series to a best-of-three series.
This will not only decrease the number of games a player has to win in order to move up the ladder, but it also means that unsuccessful promotions take less time so players can more quickly get back to trying to reach their ranked goal. Overall, this change should make players more able to reach their peak rank as well as be more generally mobile throughout the ranks.
Previously in League of Legends, players would also have to take part in divisional promos, best-of-three series that would determine whether or not a player could pass to the next division of a ranked tier. This is different from tiered promotion, as divisional promotions would be between Gold I and Gold II while tiered promotions happen between entirely different ranks like Gold and Platinum. These divisional promos were removed last year at the start of Season 12, and there’s no sign that they’ll be coming back.
The new changes are only decreasing the amount of time that players will have to spend trying to complete promotion games, granting more time to climb the ladder. All-in-all, these changes seem to be positive for the average player, who will now be able to climb their way back to promos or complete them and climb higher even easier.
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