If you’ve played ranked matches in League of Legends, you’ve probably heard the term “MMR”. It stands for “Match Making Rating, which affects what type of players you will end up against. We’re going to help you understand the importance of LoL MMR and how to check your MMR.
League MMR – The Rundown
For those who want the TL;DR version, here’s our quick rundown on LoL MMR
- MMR is designed to put you against players of near or equal skill as yours.
- MMR is separate from your ranked position, and is not visible in-game.
- If your MMR is too high, the system will increase your LP gain to help you climb to a more appropriate division.
- If your MMR is too low, the game will make the climb harder, and will even take more LP from you if you lose games.
- All info on MMR values are community-made estimates based on an older ranking system.
- When queuing with a teammate, your group’s MMR is the average value of each member’s personal MMR.
That’s just the summary; for a better understanding of League MMR, let’s take a closer look at how the system works.
LoL MMR – It’s NOT Your Rank
It’s a common misconception that a player’s MMR is the same as their current rank. For example, a player may (wrongly) claim that he has Platinum I MMR. The truth is that your rank and your MMR are two different stats. They are closely related but not one and the same thing.
This is easily noticeable if you tend to play unranked matches more than ranked ones. For example, a player is put in Gold III after finishing their placements matches. However, they kept playing unranked games, and eventually kept winning enough matches to raise their MMR. Consequently, the Gold III player is now getting matched against other players that have already climbed to Platinum and Diamond in their unranked games.
Important note: You have completely separate MMR in ranked and normal games
It’s possible to have a very high unranked MMR but still remain at a low division if you’re not playing enough ranked games. However, climbing the ranks will always result in an increase in both your unranked and ranked MMR. We’ll have more info on how to check MMR later in this discussion.
You can check your MMR using this website
MMR and LP Gain
Your LP (League Point) gain is the most important thing affected by your MMR. When climbing the ranked ladder, you need to get enough LP to be able to qualify for promotion. Winning nets you more LP, while losing causes you to lose them.
A high MMR will increase the amount of LP you gain for winning a ranked match. This is the system’s way of getting you closer to a rank that more closely reflects your MMR. Think of it this way: if you’re that Gold III player that’s good enough to keep up with platinum and diamond players in unranked matches, you would win consistently against players within your ranked division. This will cause win streaks that will increase your MMR. To compensate for the discrepancy between your MMR and your rank, the system will increase your LP gain to help you climb faster.
How much: considered “too high” or “too low” for your rank? A lot of people have made rough estimates, usually with conflicting results. For the record, Riot has not released any specific info about associated MMR values for each rank and division.
For example, here is an (outdated) estimate of MMR for each rank. Take note that this LoL MMR chart was made before the introduction of the Iron and Grandmaster Divisions in Season 11
Bronze
- V: 0-839
- IV: 840-899
- III: 900-959
- II: 960-1019
- I: 1020-1089
Silver
- V: 1090-1149
- IV: 1150-1209
- III: 1210-1279
- II: 1280-1349
- I: 1350-1409
Gold
- V: 1410-1479
- IV: 1480-1539
- III: 1540-1599
- II: 1600-1659
- II: 1660-1719
Platinum
- V: 1720-1779
- IV: 1780-1839
- III: 1840-1899
- II: 1900-1959
- I: 1960-2019
Diamond
- V: 2030-2099
- IV: 2100-2159
- III: 2160-2229
- II: 2230-2269
- I: 2270-2329
Master: 2330-2500
Challenger: 2500 and above
Knowing Your MMR
If you’re asking about how to check league MMR, you’ll have to look into each of your matches. Here’s a quick step-by-step guide to help you get started:
Using a Third-party League MMR Checker
- After finishing a match, look up your personal stats with a third-party MMR checker. You can find a LoL MMR checker by doing a simple Google search.
- Look at your match history, depending on the League of Legends MMR checker you picked, you may be able to check out other players in the match.
- Look at the current ranking of each player. If most of the players are ranked higher than you, there’s a good chance that you are too high for your current rank.
- For a better estimate of your MMR, repeat the same method over a series of matches, preferably in normal matchmaking where players are not restricted by their ranked positions.
- Remember that different MMR checkers will most likely give you different MMR values.
Using LP Gain as Reference
- If you are gaining more than 20LP per match, it means your MMR is relatively high for your rank. Winning streaks will make the system think that you are too good for your current division and will help you climb faster.
- If you’re gaining around 10-19LP, your MMR is average. However, the game still thinks you are winning more matches.
- If you’re only gaining single-digit LP values, it means your MMR is matched to your rank. At this point, you’ll need multiple win streaks to improve your LP gain.
- If you’re losing more NP than you are gaining, then it means you’re MMR is too low for your rank. The game will think you are out of your league so it will keep you from climbing easily.
LOL MMR – How It Affects Team Queue
MMR lets you face people that are as close to you as possible in terms of skill, but what if you are playing with a premade group? In order to keep things fair, the system calculates the average value of each member’s MMR. Because of this, the system looks for another queued group that has a similar average MMR.
What does this mean for your team? If, for example, you have a diamond-level MMR player teaming up with a gold-level MMR player. As a result, your team is more likely to match you with platinum-level MMR players since your average MMR is around that level. For ranked queues, it’s much better to team up with a player with an MMR as close to yours as possible to avoid getting mismatched.
How Does LoL MMR Work – Conclusion
That wraps up our discussion on how MMR works. We hope this has helped you gain some insight on how you are getting matched with other people across all queues. Do you think the MMR system is good or does it need improvement? Let us know in the comments section!
