What Is My MMR in League of Legends?

League of Legends is a competitive video game in which different players have different ranks. These ranks represent their level of competence and are used to match them against opponents of similar strength.

For example, a Bronze player will never be asked to play against a Diamond player. Only players of similar rank will be asked to compete against each other.

But below your current LoL rank there’s a number that codifies your overall skill. This number is called MMR or matchmaking rating and gets transferred from one season to the next.

Your rank is reset at the end of each season, but your MMR remains and will be used to determine your new rank at the start of the new season.

Unfortunately, Riot Games will not allow players to know their exact MMR, but its value can be approximated using various tools.

If you’ve ever wondered “what is my MMR in LoL?,” this guide will show how to find it.

The Difference between MMR, Elo, and LP

In League of Legends, you are given a visible rank based on your Elo. The higher your Elo, the better your rank.

To move from one rank to the next, you need to get promoted. This requires you to reach 100 League Points and then win the majority of your promotion matches.

Every time you win a match you earn League Points. Every time you lose a match, you lose League Points. Once you get to 100 LP, you get the opportunity to get promoted.

But if you lose matches and get to 0 LP, you risk being demoted.

Your Elo also changes based on your results. But it changes relative to your hidden MMR. The higher your MMR, the fewer points you gain for each victory.

The lower your MMR, the more points you receive. That’s because the system’s goal is to help you get to the Elo that best reflects your level of skill.

If you win matches that you should lose, you get more points because the implication is that you are considerably better than the system had evaluated.

However, if you lose matches that you should win, you will lose a lot of points because the matchmaking system regards you as being weaker than it previously thought.

Your Elo, LP, and rank are all visible and you can check them inside the game. You just need to go to your profile and all the information is there.

MMR, on the other hand, is not available because Riot Games wants to be able to assess your level of skill based on a higher number of variables and not just based on your win rate.

The LoL Ranks

LoL ranks are to a large extent a reflection of Elo. The higher a player’s Elo, the higher their rank. This is how many players compete in every LoL rank division:

Iron IV: 0.37%
Iron III: 0.58%
Iron II: 1.1%
Iron I: 2.0%
Bronze IV: 5.5%
Bronze III: 5.2%
Bronze II: 6.7%
Bronze I: 7%
Silver IV: 11%
Silver III: 7.2%
Silver II: 8.1%
Silver I: 6.5%
Gold IV: 12%
Gold III: 5.1%
Gold II: 4.5%
Gold I: 3.1%
Platinum IV: 5.6%
Platinum III: 1.9%
Platinum II: 1.4%
Platinum I: 1.8%
Diamond IV: 0.7%
Diamond III: 0.33%
Diamond II: 0.44%
Diamond I: 0.26%
Master: 0.18%
Grand Master: 0.026%
Challenger: 0.011%

As you can see, the higher you climb, the fewer the players.

How to Find Your League MMR

Nobody knows exactly how MMR is calculated. However, you can use a League MMR checker to discover the approximate value of your account’s MMR.

You might discover that your MMR is considerably higher than you thought, or perhaps considerably lower.

Whether you agree with the tool’s assessment or not, what’s important to realize is that LoL MMR is calculated since the creation of your account.

This variable has tracked everything you’ve done over the months and years you’ve been playing LoL and it shows you how skilled Riot Games thinks you are relative to other LoL players.

If your MMR is significantly lower than your Elo, that may give you an answer to the question: “why do I receive so few Elo points when I win a game and why do I lose so many Elo points when I get defeated?”

However, it’s often the case that your MMR is higher than your Elo. In this situation, the system regards you as a better skilled player who simply happens to have a lower rank because of reasons outside of your control.

Maybe you got really unlucky and were part of teams full of players who are relatively weak for their rank.

Whatever the reason may be, if your MMR is high, the system’s goal will be to bring your Elo higher until it matches it. And to do this, it will reward you more generously when you win games.

What Is Taken Into Account When Your MMR Is Calculated

Even though nobody knows exactly how Riot’s MMR algorithm works, we suspect that MMR changes after every match based on the result but also based on your individual performance.

If you win the match but perform poorly, you’ll probably get much fewer points for your victory. Likewise, if you lose but you’ve done a great job, you’ll likely lose fewer points. The question then is this: what does it mean to do a great job?

The answer is almost certainly role-dependent. If you’re a support, then you’re obviously not expected to get kills or deal a lot of damage.

But if you’re playing Mid or Bot, then you are supposed to deal a lot of damage to enemy champions and buildings. Otherwise, your impact on the game is insignificant.

The better you play your specific role, the higher your rewards in case of a victory and the lower the penalties in case of a defeat.

Tips for Improving Your LoL MMR

If you want to increase your LoL MMR, you should follow these simple principles:

Master One Role and Stick to It

The biggest mistake made by novice players is to change their role every game. When you first start playing League of Legends, experimenting with the entire game is perfectly normal and will allow you to learn the champions faster.

But after the first 300-400 games, you should figure out what you enjoy playing the most and then specialize.

If you play one role for 1000 games in a row and spam 5-10 champions, at the end of those 1000 games you will have mastered many of its elements and more than half a dozen LoL champions.

This knowledge will then allow you to move on to the next phase: getting a deep understanding of the game’s strategic and tactical elements.

You cannot focus on the bigger picture if your mind is 100% occupied with the specifics of your champion.

Only after you’ve mastered that part and can perform every action on autopilot will you be able to say to yourself during the games: “I wonder what the enemy team is doing and what the right approach would be to win in this particular situation.” Until that point, there’s simply too much information to process.

When you try to master a set of champions, try to play one champion each day or each week. Spam it and force yourself to play him under various circumstances. Doing this will teach its strengths and weaknesses, power spikes and limitations.

Every champion in the game can be strong if it’s played masterfully. But you can’t do that unless you accumulate at least several hundred games with it.

Learn from the Best

If your role is Mid and you have 10 champions that you play in that role, study what the best LoL players do during games. Furthermore, study what the best champion specialists do.

There are people in the LoL community who have more than 1000 Zed or Yasuo games. Those people play these champions with much greater skill than you.

Watching their games from their own perspective will give you valuable insights into what can be done with a given champion and how you’re supposed to use it in every situation.

At first, don’t worry too much about specific combos. You can learn those later. Worry about map movements, item builds, power spikes, positioning in fights, and so on.

You cannot do everything in a flawless way from the first try. The goal is to make gradual improvements until you’ve perfected each component of your game to a high level.

Every individual part of LoL has great depth and mastering it takes time. But if you take the game apart, you can master enough of its pieces to thrive and greatly increase your MMR.