Gaming
esports
Introducing Master Tier in League of Legends
Unsatisfied with current standings for its top players, Riot announced a new Ranked tier, Master.
Riot Introduces Master Tier
© Riot Games
With season four of League of Legends coming to an end this November, Riot outlined their upcoming changes for ranked solo and team queues earlier in the week. A ladder system still very much in its infancy, the past two seasons brought immense change that included the removal of the elo system and the introduction of Challenger tier.
This time around, the announcement was less revolutionary. For the 2014 season, Riot has created a new tier called Master to help bridge the immense divide of skill between Diamond I and Challenger—aiming to increase competition and encourage player growth. They also teased a Victorious skin for a popular champion at all levels of play.
Introducing Master Tier
Going forward, Riot’s focus is on offering greater distinction between the skill parity of its highest level players.
In the current system, once a player achieves Diamond I, they must climb up to 100 LP to qualify for a series for Challenger. Challenger only has one hundred and fifty spots per region. After a one week period of immunity, players with the lowest LP are kicked back to Diamond I.
Unfortunately this has proven to be a system that doesn’t always clearly indicate skill levels. While Diamond may only be a dream to the majority of League of Legends’ millions of players, the reality is that the difference of skill between the player base in the highest division of Diamond tier is just as big of a gap as those going between divisions V to I of lower tiers. A Diamond I player at the bottom of their bracket is significantly worse than one closing in on 100 LP and their Challenger series. However, because of the top tier’s limited spots, a lot of these Challenger tier players simply end up endlessly playing musical chairs in Diamond I and Challenger; falling in and out.
Riot’s solution is simple: their newly created Master tier. Once players reach Diamond I 100 LP, they will be put into a promotion series to become a Master. This way they are clearly distinguished as players far above Diamond, but still able to participate in the competition of Challenger.
Riot also noticed the stagnancy of Challenger tier. Due to its week immunity period, people spent their free week playing an immense amount of games and reaching a LP pool that was too high for them to ever be knocked out. As such, Challenger will now be on a twenty-four hour schedule with no immunity, making it more competitive and less prone to players climbing just high enough to avoid falling out of it. To help compensate, they’ve also added fifty more spots, raising it to a two hundred player ladder for each region.
Challenger Rank Spots Increase to 200
© League of Legends
Season Rewards
Every year, players love to guess what champion is going to get an exclusive and rare skin. Last season was Victorious Elise and the season prior gave people Victorious Janna. These skins are coveted by the community--players must be Gold or higher to unlock the skin at the end of the season or else they’ve missed their chance forever.
This season it’s Victorious Morgana. A popular support from the start of season 4, it makes sense; she’s been pick or ban status in both ranked solo queue as well as competitive play all season. Those in Gold or higher will unlock the skin at the end of the season, along with a profile border and season icon that indicates their tier.
Victorious Janna was season two’s reward
© League of Legends
Why Master Tier Matters
It’s important to differentiate between skill levels. Master tier gives players a chance to be at the top of the ladder without engaging in Challenger’s competitive atmosphere with rotating spots. It also helps break up Diamond’s problematic nature of lumping all of the game’s best players in Diamond I without a clear indicator of skill level beyond a few LP.
More importantly, however, it’s inspiring. It gives a new goal for League of Legends’ seasoned players who have talent but lack motivation. For many players, getting Diamond V was enough as it got the highest of season rewards—beyond the hardcore Challenger division. Now players will have Master tier to work towards as they continue to grow in skill.
For more League of Legends features, follow @RedBullESPORTS on Twitter.
