Teamfight Tactics ranked, explained

Teamfight Tactics, like its big brother League of Legends, has a fully-fledged ranked system with tiers, divisions, and end-of-season rewards. But while the autobattler has many similarities to Summoner’s Rift, there are a few key differences. 

Here’s everything you need to know about ranked play in TFT.

The basics

• Unlike League, TFT ranked currently has no level requirements. This means you can play ranked right off the bat at level one.
• TFT has nine different tiers, just like League. There’s Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and the top ranks Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger.

• You can play ranked in a party with friends, but there are a few restrictions.
• You can queue together in parties of five if you’re Gold or lower. And you can queue in parties of three if you’re Plat and above.

Ranked seasons

• Ranked reasons in TFT are significantly shorter than League.
• Riot’s goal is to start a new season every few months, meaning there could potentially be three or four seasons every year.
• Each season is tied to a new set and sets aren’t intended to span across multiple seasons.
• TFT’s first season lasted from Nov. 20, 2019 to March 18, 2020, while season three started on Sept. 18, 2020 and ended on Jan. 21, 2021.

Placements, promotions, and series

• With each ranked season and set—which generally includes new champions, abilities, and mechanics—you practically have to learn TFT over again. Because of this, the devs soft reset your MMR.
  • A soft reset means your MMR is pulled closer to the median.
• Once you play your first TFT ranked game, you’ll be provisionally ranked in Iron II, one of the lowest ranks in the game. You’ll have five placement matches to prove yourself, and after the fifth match, you’ll be placed into a tier and division.
• Provisional matches work in the same way as League with “accelerated LP values,” according to Riot, and no LP loss. You can earn up to 100 LP per provisional match.
• There are currently no promotion series in TFT, meaning once you hit 100 LP, you’ll automatically promote to the next division with the leftover LP.
• Players can’t lose LP when finishing in fourth place or higher. They also can’t gain LP when finishing fifth or lower.

Demotions and decay

• Decay only applies to the top players in the game.
• In the Master division and above, you bank up to 10 games, with one banked game getting removed each and every day. If you don’t have a banked game to lose, you lose 250 LP every day.
• You can’t demote out of Master from decay. There’s also no decay in provisional matches.
• You can only demote out of your division or tier if you lose while at zero LP.
• Demoting to a lower division or tier happens when your MMR is too low for your ranking, and you have zero LP.

Rewards

• To qualify for the bare minimum end-of-season rewards, you’ll have to reach Gold or above.
• Rewards include unique emotes and Little Legends, reflecting your hard work throughout the season.
• If you decide to switch server for whatever reason, your MMR will transfer over with you, along with your rewards (as long as they’re in your inventory).

Top players