LoL Ranked Explained: 2026 Seasons, LP and Rewards

League of Legends ranked in 2026 is split into three seasons: Season 1 ran from January 8 to April 28, Season 2 from April 29 to July 28, and Season 3 has been live since July 29, 2026. You climb ten tiers from Iron to Challenger by earning League Points (LP), 100 LP per division, and each season has its own Victorious mission that asks for 15 ranked wins. Rank only resets fully at the start of the year; the mid-year season changes kept LP and rank for almost everyone. This guide covers the season dates, tiers and LP, placements, demotions, decay, duo rules, autofill protection and rewards.

Checked against Riot's 2026 patch notes (26.1, 26.8, 26.9, 26.14, 26.15, 26.22), the /dev: Ranked 2026 blog and Riot support articles on November 12, 2026.

Riot had not posted the end date of Season 3 in patch notes as of patch 26.22. For reference, the final 2025 season ended on January 7, 2026, and the 2026 season started the next day.

When do the 2026 LoL ranked seasons start and end?

Season 1 ended April 28 at the end of patch 26.8, Season 2 ended July 28 at the end of patch 26.14, and Season 3 began July 29 with patch 26.15 and is still running. Each change happened at local server time.

Season	Start	End	Notes
Season 1, 2026	January 8 (patch 26.1)	April 28 (end of 26.8)	Full rank reset; 5 placement games
Season 2, 2026	April 29 (patch 26.9)	July 28 (end of 26.14)	Apex reset to Master 0 LP in NA, EUW, EUNE, LAN, BR and TR; no change for others
Season 3, 2026	July 29 (patch 26.15)	Not yet announced	No disruption to LP or rank; Victorious mission refreshed

End-of-season rewards for Season 1 were granted in patch 26.9 and for Season 2 shortly after Season 3 began. Shard transfers are switched off during each transition until rewards are granted.

What are the ranks in League of Legends?

There are ten tiers: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Emerald, Diamond, Master, Grandmaster and Challenger. Iron through Diamond each have four divisions, from IV (lowest) to I.

Tiers	Divisions	How you move up
Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Emerald, Diamond	IV, III, II, I	100 LP per division; 100 LP in Division I moves you to the next tier
Master	None	Apex tier; Riot says Master is the top 0.2% of players worldwide
Grandmaster, Challenger	None	Apex tiers with their own promotion and demotion rules

Solo/Duo and Flex are ranked separately, each with its own rank and season rewards. Flex allows parties of 1, 2, 3 or 5; four-player groups can only play unranked. Since 2026 Riot also pulls Flex ratings closer to your Solo/Duo rank, though Flex never raises your Solo rank.

How do LP, placements and demotions work?

You gain LP for wins and lose LP for losses; at 100 LP you promote and extra LP carries over. Dropping below 0 LP demotes you a division, and dropping a whole tier puts you at 25, 50 or 75 LP.

• Placements: five games per queue for unranked players, which means new players and everyone at the start of the year. A placement loss gives 0 LP, and the highest possible placement is Diamond III. Your starting rank uses your results, opponent strength and last year's rank.
• Promotions: there are no promotion series. Reaching 100 LP moves you up immediately.
• Demotions within a tier: if a loss takes more LP than you have, you drop a division. Riot's example: losing 20 LP at 5 LP in Silver III leaves you at 85 LP in Silver IV.
• Demotions between tiers: you get some protection, landing at 25, 50 or 75 LP in the tier below depending on how far your estimated skill is below your old tier.
• Climb Indicator: added for 2026, it shows when a player's visible rank is behind their MMR, so a lower-ranked teammate in your lobby may just have started climbing late.

Riot also said in its Ranked 2026 dev blog that it recalibrated the lower tiers so ranks better match the skill of today's players, describing the change as realignment, not rank inflation.

How does ranked decay work in LoL?

Only Diamond and higher can decay. You bank days by playing ranked games; once your bank is empty, you lose LP every day you do not play.

Rule	Diamond	Master, Grandmaster, Challenger
Banked days per game played	7	1
Maximum banked days	28	14
LP lost per decay day	50	75

Decay can drop you divisions and tiers: from Diamond IV it takes you to Emerald I, and apex players who decay fall to Diamond II. Decay also continues while your account is banned.

What is Aegis of Valor and how does autofill work?

Aegis of Valor is a ranked bonus for autofilled players. Since patch 26.15 it gives double LP when you win an autofilled game, with no mastery score requirement, and it no longer reduces LP losses.

When it launched with the 2026 season, Aegis gave either double LP on a win or no LP loss on a defeat if you earned a mastery grade of C or higher. Riot changed it in 26.15 because players were chasing the grade instead of the win. Other autofill rules from the Ranked 2026 dev blog:

• Matchmaking first tries to pair an autofilled player against an autofilled player in the same position, then to balance the number of autofilled players on each team.
• Players who mostly queue for often-filled roles such as jungle or support get Aegis rewards at roughly the same rate as autofilled players, without a lobby notice.
• Dodging no longer clears your autofill status; it carries over to the next game. At Master and above, a dodge counts as a full loss and adds a dodge cooldown.
• You can no longer ban a champion an ally is hovering, and champion select is about 30 seconds shorter.

What do you need to play ranked in LoL?

Summoner level 30, at least 20 owned champions and at least 10 completed Normal Summoner's Rift games. Both ranked queues use 5v5 draft pick with ten bans on Summoner's Rift.

• Two queues: Solo/Duo and Flex each give a separate rank. Ranked queues are open at all times except during maintenance and the short shutdown at each season change.
• Ranked restrictions: a penalty above a warning for unsportsmanlike behavior in ranked locks you out of ranked until you finish 5 Normal games; remade games do not count toward that number.
• Ranked 5s: a separate five-player team queue with a Clash-style draft that shows some information about your opponents. It runs in set windows, currently 4pm to 4am server time.

Who can you duo with in LoL ranked?

Below Diamond the duo range is wide; from Diamond upward partners must be within two divisions, Master players can only duo with players close to their rank, and Grandmaster and Challenger cannot duo at all.

Riot re-enabled apex duos for most regions at the start of 2026, then tightened the rules in patch 26.15 after seeing too much impact on match quality. Players with Grandmaster or Challenger MMR also cannot duo, even if their visible rank is lower. In Korea, players cannot queue with Master or higher. In Flex, there are no rank limits for Diamond and below, but anyone grouping with Master and above players must be at least Emerald.

What rewards do you get from LoL ranked in 2026?

Each season has a Victorious ranked mission that asks you to win 15 ranked games, and rewards are granted after the season ends. Solo/Duo and Flex have separate end-of-season rewards, while the Victorious skin counts wins in either queue.

For the 2025 year, Riot added year-end accessories based on your highest rank: a Victorious skin border for owners of all three Victorious skins of the year, a ranked emote and a ranked icon, and players needed honor level 3 or higher to receive them. Riot had not detailed the 2026 year-end set as of patch 26.22. Separately, Ranked 5s, a five-player team queue with a Clash-style draft, has a run from September to December 2026 with its own rewards; its queue window was extended to 4pm to 4am server time in patch 26.20.

Before your next climb, check the patch 26.22 tier list for the strongest picks in each role.

Related guides

• LoL Tier List Patch 26.22: Best Champions by Role
• Best LoL Champions for Beginners in 2026
• League of Legends game hub