– Reduce LP gain below Emerald rank by 25 LP average → 25 LP on average across these tiers.
– Make it a little easier to move from one level to another
Why earn more?
– At the beginning of the season, we wanted to increase LP gains below Emerald rank so that players can level up faster if they are performing well.
– This was a good thing for most players, but for a small percentage of them it resulted in negative LP gain.
Why do negative LP gains occur?
– Negative LP gains exist due to relegation protection or because we made a mistake in the reset (again, apologies for last season).
– We love getting relegation protection to give players another chance to prove they really belong in this tier!
– Because matches are so variable, we want to reduce the impact of random matches where the enemy plays like the middle random faker, where you had a series of good matches and one bad one, or you got pissed off, etc.
In most cases, protection from relegation is a good thing.
However, there are two extreme situations, even with a 50% win rate, that can result and usually cause a negative LP gain (desynchronization between your rank and your actual skill).
I go up -> I go down in a hurry (Situation 1)
– In this first situation, due to more wins, the player can climb and reach a slightly higher peak than expected.
– Maybe his champion had a good patch, played really well, got lucky, etc.
– If this is indeed his new level and he maintains it, no problem.
– However, if this is not the case and the player returns to his initial level, imagine rolling a bowling ball down a hill that tracks the player’s skill.
– Ideally we want the ball to hit the bottom at a decent speed, but it keeps hitting the rocks (relegation protection) and slowing down its landing.
– He will eventually reach the bottom, but more slowly than he should.
Lose a lot to a limit of 0 LP (Status 2)
– When players often lose by 0 LP at the level limit, their skill decreases, but their rank cannot be maintained, because it hits the wall of 0 LP.
– This results in a growing mismatch between their skills and their position.
– If this condition persists and the player is demoted, he will likely have a negative LP gain for a while until his LP corrects itself.
conclusion
– Lowering the LP gains a bit will make the climbs a bit more consistent (a bit lower on the peak streak, but if you go back down, it won’t be painful) to help with the first situation mentioned.
– Making relegation a bit easier would help the second situation (especially since we made promotion easier last season).
