How Does MMR Work in League of Legends?Hidden Rating, LP Gains and What Actually Moves Them
MMR is the number Riot uses to pick your opponents and to decide what each game is worth in LP. You never see it. Your LP per win and per loss shows you where it sits. Every rule below comes from Riot's own support pages and dev posts.
- Visible to you
- No
- MMRs per account
- 3, one per queue
- LP per division
- 100
- At the reset
- MMR stays
Short answer
LoL MMR in one screen
What MMR is
A hidden skill rating
Riot uses it to place you on the ladder and find players close to your level. Wins raise it, losses lower it.
Why your LP is uneven
MMR and rank disagree
MMR above your rank pays more per win. MMR below your rank costs more per loss, until the two meet.
What the reset does
Rank drops, MMR stays
You restart about one tier lower, never above Emerald I, and win extra LP until your rank catches up.
What you can see
Only your LP
Riot keeps the number secret. Your LP per win and per loss is the only honest read you get.
What is MMR in League of Legends?
MMR (Matchmaking Rating) is Riot's hidden estimate of how good you are. It decides who you play against and how much LP each game moves.
Riot's MMR, Rank and LP page puts it plainly: MMR is what Riot uses to determine your place on the ladder. Wins push it up, losses push it down, and matchmaking tries to give you games you have about a 50% chance to win. Your tier, division and LP are the visible layer on top. Riot calls rank a more relatable version of the same thing.
You don't have one MMR. You have three: Normal, Solo/Duo and Flex, each tracked on its own. A bad night in Flex does nothing to your Solo/Duo rating. The one link between them is your first ranked placement, where Riot looks at your Normal MMR to decide where to start you.
Riot doesn't show MMR anywhere, in the client or in the API. Sites that print an MMR for you are estimating it from public match history. Treat that as their guess, not Riot's number.
Why do you gain less LP than you lose?
Because your MMR sits below your rank. LP is how Riot closes the gap between the two, so it pays you less per win and takes more per loss until they match.
You generally need 100 LP to climb a division. How fast you get there depends on the gap between your MMR and your rank. Riot describes three cases, and your own LP numbers tell you which one you're in:
| LP per win / loss | What it means | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| About +20 / -20 | MMR matches your rank | Riot thinks your rank is right. You climb only by winning more than you lose. |
| About +25 / -15 | MMR above your rank | The system pushes you up. Normal at the start of a ranked year. |
| About +15 / -25 | MMR below your rank | The system pulls you down until rank and MMR line up again. |
The three cases come from Riot's MMR, Rank and LP page. The LP numbers are typical swings we see on accounts we play, not fixed values. Riot doesn't publish the formula.
How the gap opens
Riot says several losses in a row signal that your rank and MMR are no longer in sync. You can lose four games, win three back and still sit lower than where you started. The LP looks almost even, but the hidden rating went down. That's the moment people start posting about +14 and -25.
It works the other way too. If your MMR is above your rank, you climb faster than your win rate suggests. That almost always happens at the start of a ranked year, after the reset drops your rank and leaves your MMR alone.
Losing more LP than you win, every night?
Send us a few replays. A coach finds the habit that keeps costing you games, and you fix it before the next fifty.
Are promos still in League?
No. Breaking 100 LP promotes you on the spot, with no series to play.
Riot's placements and decay page no longer mentions promotion series at all. Demotion is where MMR shows up again. Inside a tier there's no safety net: lose more LP than you have and you drop a division. Between tiers, say Silver IV to Bronze I, you still get protection. You land on 25, 50 or 75 LP depending on how far your rank is from your estimated skill. A high landing means Riot still sees you as the higher tier.
Decay from Diamond up
Below Diamond, nothing happens if you stop playing. From Diamond up, every ranked game banks days, and once the bank is empty you lose LP for each day you don't play. Decay still runs while you're banned, and a Master+ player who decays drops to Diamond II.
| Tier | Days per game | Max bank | LP lost daily |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diamond | 7 days | 28 days | 50 LP |
| Master and above | 1 day | 14 days | 75 LP |
Numbers from Riot's placements, promotions and decay page.
Does MMR reset with the new ranked year?
No. Your rank resets once a year. Your MMR stays where it was.
What carries over
Riot's MMR page says you start a new season "at a lower rank than you ended it last season. Your MMR, however, remains at exactly the same spot." The ranked years article sets the drop at about one tier, with Emerald I as the highest start.
After the reset you play five placement matches in each ranked queue. A loss in placements gives 0 LP instead of taking any away. Since your MMR never left, those five games mostly confirm where the system already thinks you belong.
There was one exception this year. With Patch 26.9 Riot hard reset the Apex tiers in six regions, and Master+ players there had their MMR reset along with their rank. For the season dates and the Victorious rules, see when the LoL season ends.
What else changes your LP?
Riot adjusts LP in a few specific cases. Aegis of Valor and the Master+ dodge rule are new for 2026.
Aegis of Valor
Autofilled and finish with a C grade or better? Per the Ranked 2026 dev post, you get double LP on a win or no LP loss on a defeat. Players who often take support or jungle get it too, without the lobby notice.
Consolation LP
Lose with a verified AFK, leaver or intentional feeder on your team, and Riot can give the LP back. They can't be in your premade, and the refunds have a weekly cap, per the MMR and LP page.
Losing to a cheater
When Riot bans a confirmed cheater, the LP you lost against them comes back. Win with one randomly placed on your team and you keep the LP. Queue with one and you get banned too.
Going AFK yourself
An AFK or leaver penalty can cut your LP for that game and for the game after it, on top of the loss. It counts even in placements, where an AFK is scored as a defeat.
Dodging
A dodge costs LP and a queue timer that grows with repeat dodges (Riot's dodging post). From Master up it counts as a full loss and adds a cooldown.
Loss prevention cap
Riot's MMR page lists loss prevention as one more thing that can cap the LP you get from a win. When a gain looks strangely small after a protected loss, that's usually why.
Riot's MMR page only talks about wins and losses. Aegis of Valor is where Riot says your mastery grade matters, and only in the games where it's active.
Does duo queue or Flex change your MMR?
Duo can make games a bit harder. Flex has its own MMR and can't lift your Solo/Duo rank.
Per the MMR page, queuing with friends means "you may see slightly more difficult opponents or reduced LP gains." It's the price of the coordination a premade brings. From Diamond, Riot also limits who can duo. Diamond IV to II can queue with Emerald II up to Diamond II, and Master players can duo within 400 LP of each other. Grandmaster and Challenger queue alone, per the tiers and queues page.
Flex is a separate ladder with a separate MMR. In the Ranked 2026 dev post Riot moved Flex ranks closer to Solo/Duo, but in its own words, "Flex will never pull Solo up." A Flex climb is a Flex climb. Groups of 1, 2, 3 or 5 can queue for Flex; a group of 4 plays unranked.
How do you fix bad LP gains?
You win more games than you lose for a while. There's no setting, queue time or trick that changes the math.
Your MMR fell because you lost more than the system expected. It comes back the same way. Each win against players at your level nudges it up, and once it passes your rank the gains turn in your favor again. What helps is cutting the games you lose for reasons you control.
Write down your LP for ten games before you change anything. A feeling of '+14 every game' is often three games.
Play one role and two or three champions. Every game on a pick you're still learning is a game your MMR pays for.
Stop after two losses in a row. The third one is the game that turns a bad night into a bad week.
Don't dodge to protect MMR. You pay LP and a timer every time, and from Master up it counts as a loss.
A new account isn't a clean slate either. It starts with fresh MMR in every queue, and you climb out of games against players the system knows nothing about. Most people end up back where their old account was.
If you keep losing the same way, an hour of LoL coaching on your own replays usually finds it faster than another fifty games. And if you'd rather climb with a stronger player in your lobby, a duo boost puts a Grandmaster or Challenger player in your games while you play on your own account.
MMR questions, answered short
How does MMR work in League of Legends?+
MMR is a hidden rating Riot keeps for each queue. Wins raise it, losses lower it, and matchmaking uses it to give you games you have about a 50% chance to win. Your LP gains bend toward it until your rank matches.
Can you check your MMR in LoL?+
No. Riot keeps it secret. Third-party sites estimate it from public match history, so read their number as a guess. The LP you gain and lose per game is the real signal.
Why do I gain less LP than I lose?+
Your MMR sits below your visible rank. Riot says several losses in a row tell the system your rank and MMR are out of sync, so losses cost more until the two line up.
Does MMR reset with the new ranked year?+
No. Your rank resets once a year and drops about one tier, but Riot says your MMR stays exactly where it was. That gap is why January pays more LP per win.
Are Solo/Duo and Flex MMR separate?+
Yes. Normal, Solo/Duo and Flex each keep their own MMR, so a Flex losing streak never touches Solo/Duo. Riot also says Flex will never pull your Solo rank up.
Do normal games affect ranked MMR?+
Not after you are placed. Normal MMR is its own number, but Riot uses it when it places you in ranked for the first time.
Does duo queue lower your LP gains?+
It can. Riot says queuing with friends may bring slightly harder opponents or reduced LP gains. Rank limits on who can duo start in Diamond.
Does dodging lose MMR?+
A dodge costs LP and a queue timer that grows if you keep dodging. From Master up, Riot counts a dodge as a full loss and adds a cooldown.
Are promos still in League of Legends?+
No. Breaking 100 LP promotes you right away. Dropping a tier puts you on 25, 50 or 75 LP, depending on how far your rank is from your estimated skill.
About the Author
Herberth "ARES" Andrade
Grandmaster · Tier 1 Tryouts · 5+ Years Boosting
ARES is a Grandmaster player with five years on the boosting side, which means a lot of hours watching LP move on accounts at every rank. This guide is the short version of what that taught him about MMR.
Get your rank and your MMR moving again
Have the climb played for you, climb it yourself with a stronger partner, or find out what keeps costing you games.
Every rule above comes from Riot's support pages and dev posts, linked where they appear, and was checked on October 15, 2026. The LP swings in the table are typical values, not Riot figures. We update this page when Riot changes how ranked works.