Players often use soft reset as shorthand for the yearly ranked restart. Riot’s placement guide says five placement games in each ranked queue apply when you are unranked, including at the start of a new year. The games set your starting tier and division using match results, opponent difficulty, and your prior-year rank. Separately, Riot’s MMR guide says the MMR-above-rank situation happens almost every new ranked season: visible rank starts lower than the previous season while MMR remains at the same spot. Riot does not publish a percentage formula that converts MMR into a placement rank, and it does not describe five placement games for each mid-year split. In 2026, Riot also made a separate Apex-tier reset for current Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger players in six regions. This guide separates the regular placements from that limited reset. Last checked in October 2026. Explore LoL boosting services.
What players mean by a soft reset
Your visible rank is the tier and division shown on the ladder. MMR is Riot’s hidden matchmaking rating. Riot says MMR helps place you on the ladder and match you with similarly skilled players; wins raise it and losses lower it. Your visible rank and MMR are related, but the public support pages do not show an exact MMR value or a universal percentage that survives a ranked reset.
In its MMR-above-rank section, Riot says this situation happens almost every new ranked season: MMR remains at the same spot while visible rank begins lower than it ended the prior season. The placements guide says your starting tier and division depend on match outcomes, opponent difficulty, and rank from the previous year. Players often call that a soft reset because the displayed rank changes while MMR and prior results still inform the climb. Riot does not publish a direct formula that turns those inputs into an exact placement rank.
What Riot says about placements
| Situation | Published rule | What it means for your starting rank |
|---|---|---|
| You are unranked or a new ranked year begins | Five placements in each ranked queue. | Solo/Duo and Flex each have their own five-game placement run. |
| You finish a placement match with a loss | You do not lose LP; the match awards 0 LP on defeat. | The result still contributes to the placement outcome. |
| Your starting tier and division are calculated | Riot considers match results, opponent difficulty, and your previous-year rank. | A win-loss record alone does not map to a guaranteed rank. |
| You have never played Ranked | Swiftplay and Normal Draft MMR also factor into placements. | Riot uses more than the five ranked results for a first placement. |
| You finish placements | The highest possible starting rank is Diamond III. | A prior Apex rank does not raise the published placement ceiling. |
These are Riot’s current placement rules. A record such as 5-0 or 2-3 is one part of the result, not a public rank lookup table. Riot does not give a guaranteed division for each record.
How visible rank and MMR affect LP
MMR stays hidden, so you cannot read an exact value from your profile or calculate a percentage carried over. Riot’s current MMR, rank, and LP guide says wins raise MMR and losses lower it. LP gains and losses help connect that matchmaking rating with your visible rank, so the amounts can differ as the two move closer together.
That explains why two players with the same visible rank can see different LP movement. It does not establish a fixed number of bonus LP, a fixed number of games for the difference to close, or an exact MMR carryover rate. Those figures are not in Riot’s public rules.
For example, a player who goes 5-0 cannot use that record alone to predict the exact starting division. Riot also considers opponent difficulty and the previous year’s rank. The same applies to a 0-5 result: placement defeats award 0 LP, but Riot does not publish a record-to-rank chart.
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The 2026 Apex-tier reset was a separate case
At the start of Season 2, Patch 26.9 reset the visible rank and MMR of current Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger players in NA, EUW, EUNE, BR, LAN, and TR to Master 0 LP. Riot described it as a hard reset for those Apex players in those regions. It was not a reset to Master 0 for every League player.
Riot’s Apex reset announcement gives the scope of that change. It does not publish a general percentage for MMR retention in ordinary yearly placements. Keep those two cases separate: the standard placement guide applies to the new ranked year, while the Patch 26.9 change was limited to the named Apex tiers and regions.
A recent discussion about a new player’s placement rank shows how the visible starting position can confuse players. The post and replies are individual experiences; Riot’s support pages are the source for the published placement rules.
For step-by-step placement preparation, see our placement matches guide. The post-reset climb guide and rank guide cover the wider ladder.
Frequently asked questions
What is a soft reset in League?
It is common shorthand for a ranked-year restart where placements determine a new starting position using match results, opponent difficulty, and prior-year rank. Riot does not publish a universal division-drop formula or an exact MMR-retention percentage.
Do placements happen at the start of every split?
Riot’s current placement guide says placements apply when you are unranked, including at the start of a new year. It does not describe a five-game placement run for every mid-year split. The separate 2026 Patch 26.9 reset applied to current Apex-tier players in six named regions.
How many placement games are there?
Five in each ranked queue. Solo/Duo and Flex each use their own set of five matches.
Do placement losses remove LP?
No. Riot says a defeat during placements awards 0 LP instead of subtracting LP. Match results still help determine the starting position.
What is the highest rank you can place into?
Diamond III. Riot’s placement guide lists that as the maximum starting rank, even for players who previously reached an Apex tier.
Did all ranks have an MMR hard reset in 2026?
No. Patch 26.9 reset the visible rank and MMR to Master 0 LP for current Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger players in NA, EUW, EUNE, BR, LAN, and TR. That reset did not apply to every rank or region.
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