League of Legends: 2019 Pre-Season Update, Will Rankings Be More Chaotic?

The 2018 season of League of Legends has officially ended, and that means: The pre-season has begun. Just like last year, when Riot used the pre-season to test the new rune system, a list of changes awaits us this year.

There’s a lot to watch out for, especially the two that Riot is about to roll out in the pre-season – one is a ranked mode and the other is for the game itself. Ranked has new tiers, new turrets, more gem updates, and new champions. Instead of trying to test all updates on PBE, let us do it for you.

Below is a summary of the list of major updates in the 2019 pre-season.

Schedule

Version 8.23 ​​– November 21

Version 8.24 – December 5.

Version 9.1 – January 9.

Version 9.2 – January 23.

Gameplay version 8.23

Pillars

Starting in 2019, turrets will have armor and you will have to destroy it to be able to deal damage to the turret. These armors only last early game, and are designed for external turrets and encourage players to push lanes. Each layer of armor will give you money for destroying it, but it will also increase armor and magic resistance when destroyed. But don’t worry, this defense bonus only lasts as long as the armor is on the turret, and the armor only lasts until 14 minutes.

When armor breaks, turrets gain 20 seconds of temporary resistance, which Riot calls a “Bulwark buff”. All of this along with basic stat changes are meant to prevent players from destroying turrets too quickly in the early game, but turrets will become more easily destroyed after 14 minutes. The end result is logical. Theoretically, this is a stable equilibrium step.

Gem

In 2018, the new rune system allows you to choose 2 runes, and depending on the rune you choose, you’ll get the extra stats of that rune. In 2019, the stat bonus won’t depend on the rune you choose. After this change, you will not receive any additional stats from the rune of your choice, but instead this bonus will depend on your choice and is called a secondary stat.

The secondary stat will be selected separately in the rune section and you can choose from three different shards. Depending on the shard you choose, it will have armor, magic resistance, health, attack speed, ability power, attack, and adaptive power. It’s like a combination of the 2018 rune system and the old rune system. The idea is that the influence of the rune you choose will determine your playstyle. Riot’s success here is reducing your reliance on runes but still having an impact on the meta.

Resistance Generals

Sejuani, Ornn, Galio received a massive buff and exceeded normal stats. Also considered a minor rework, with Ornn’s changes being mostly full rework. Sejuani’s control is reduced, but his base stats and damage are increased. Galio’s Q clear minion has been greatly reduced, but his damage as a percentage of health has been increased and his control is also greatly reduced. Ornn’s passive has been redesigned and the mechanics of “Blow Fire” have been revised.

Why these changes and especially Ornn, the champion that was rarely used during the year? And Riot realized that the skill gap between pros and amateurs was too big, so it was difficult to balance. These changes will narrow that gap, but won’t weaken the champion.

Theoretically, after these changes it should not strangle the meta of pro gamers when they get a little bit of power.

tempo

There are dozens of changes related to minions and turrets so that Riot can adjust the tempo of the game. It’s a long list of PBE changes, but the main problem is that minion damage is pretty low, their resistances are slightly increased, Baron and minions are buffed and minions won’t get stats plus if your team’s average level is higher than your opponent’s. Another specific change is reducing the respawn time of Baron, dragons and millennial dragons, which will have a big impact on the game.

Riot’s success in this change is to make the ability to flip the bet from the weaker teams in the game, and also make the team leading to win faster. Those two things at first seem to compensate for each other but when Riot says it will make the game end faster – when a team has 10,000 gold difference and a bunch of turrets and lives. Usually, the flips are gone, so the teams that already have the advantage will grasp the victory is just a matter of time fast or slow.

Ranked Mode- Version 8.24

Rank rank

There are three main changes to the ranked mode for the 2019 season, with some minor changes to ease the climb and make it more rewarding. Two of the three major changes are in tiers with past tiers being Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master and Challenger. Next year, Iron Corps will be added under Bronze and Grandmaster will be between Master and Challenger.

Not only that, the current rank is only four levels instead of five. Yes, that means no more veteran Dong V. This change makes climbing ranks easier and faster. In the past, a bit of skill improvement made it easy to jump from Gold V to Gold I, but jumping from Bronze IV to the next tier is a bit of a problem. With less levels and 2 more steps, the ranking ladder becomes more stable, less steep instead of difficult and steep as before and easier to jump.

Division in ranking

This is a small change to the ranking system, but it’s something gamers have been asking for for years now. In the following year, the rank in the ranked matches from the first match will be displayed and only you will see your rank. When you win or lose you will receive ranking points and the system will arrange you into the appropriate rank. In the end, winning and losing ranks gets more complicated and after the final draw you will officially have your rank.

As a result of this, you will know the rank you will achieve during the ranking but there will be no change in the rank on your profile. By knowing your rating when rating, this change will not affect your morale in getting an official rating. This is a positive change, useful for gamers.

Rank by location

The third and final change is about positional ranking, but just to be clear, Riot didn’t have a development plan early enough to update this with the changes above. Instead, Riot has found a way to address players’ concerns about the ranking system, and it will be tested on a regional basis in 2019, based on the latest update from Riot. Judging by its use in the update, there’s little chance it won’t appear or at least in 2019 but it has too many flaws to be noticed.

Basically, to make gamers only go one way satisfied and not feel disadvantaged, Riot wants to add exclusive ranks for positions in the game. This may not be seen as an addition to your current system, but will completely replace your current ranking. As everyone thinks, such a big change will be met with a lot of feedback, most of which will be negative, which explains why this is only 2nd and 3rd in Riot’s priority. Riot’s goal is to test it in a few regions early this year, so stay tuned for exciting news about this new tier.

Split the season

This is another positive change because it doesn’t affect rank climbing but also makes climbing better, but still needs a lot of attention. Basically, instead of just having one long ranked season, next year the ranking will be divided into three parts. Your MMR won’t reset mid-season like it did at the beginning of the season, but climbing the ranks in each section will determine your end-of-season rewards. Riot will interfere a bit.

This division is like giving you a checkpoint to review your rank climbing process. In other words, this does not change your rank, its purpose is to help you get your results in a few months instead of a long year.

Reward

The tier rewards have been changed, but don’t worry, the Glory skin will still be there but there are lots of useful things you can accumulate over the next year. Adding to the bonus is ranked armor, shown in the image above.

Your ranked armor will show your current rank, and your rank in the rank split for the season. The back banner will show the rank of the previous season. In other words, if you rank silver for 3 times during the season, your ranked armor will have a little extra silver added to each sub-season you join. If you were Bronze last season, your banner will be bronze all year.

The points you earn in the mini-seasons will be distributed when the mini-season ends instead of the end of the year and only need to be won to get the accumulated points. To get the most valuable rewards, you will have to participate in all three mini-seasons, but Riot is still vague about the rewards that will be distributed to each person.

According to Dotesports