As League of Legends (LoL) players, you have certainly come across the abbreviation “MMR” at some point. In this article, we explain what exactly MMR is and why it is so important.
What does MMR stand for? The abbreviation comes from English and stands for “Match Making Rating”, short MMR. In German, it has been translated as “Gegnersuchwertung” and indicates at what rank your opponents are selected. It is a value that is calculated individually for each player.
It is calculated by how well you play in your League of Legends matches. Roughly speaking, a victory leads to a higher MMR than before, while a defeat lowers the MMR.
A victory against stronger opponents increases the MMR more than a victory against weaker opponents. This leads to the fact that league points (LP) and MMR are not equivalent. LP are the ranking points that you can earn by playing in ranked mode. LoL pro Rekkles explains how you can win games to increase your ranking.
Your MMR can thus be higher or lower than your current ranking. For example, if you are listed in the Silver league, it may still be the case that you are playing against Gold or Bronze players in your games. MMR and rank are in a dynamic relationship with each other.
Here we have a short video that shows the correlation between rank, MMR, and LP:
What impact does MMR have?
What you need to know: It was previously mentioned that MMR and LP are related. This only refers to ranked games and ranking. Through positioning and LP, one can infer how high the MMR is. We have already explained which ranks currently exist in this article.
But there is also an MMR in normal games. Here, it is kept secret and is concealed by Riot Games. In normal games or in the ARAM mode, however, the same pattern applies. If you have a higher MMR, you play against players who also have a high MMR. This can be seen in normal games based on the ranking, but this does not always match.
In ARAM, the fast fun mode of League of Legends, many players try out fun things and test their champions completely. This can lead to “safe” victories being lost. This affects your MMR, but only for the ARAM mode.
Your opponents can thus be a mix of players from Diamond, Silver, and Bronze, as they may either place a high value on wins or none at all.
How do I find out my MMR?
This is what you can do: There are some calculators on the internet that want to show you your MMR. They analyze the encounters from your last matches where you went solo into matchmaking. Sites like whatismymmr provide you with a rough orientation.
However, players cannot see the exact MMR, but there are hints by which we can orient ourselves:
- If you have achieved many victories in your last matches, you can assume that the MMR has also risen.
- If you frequently lose in a row, then the value decreases.
- If you focus on only one mode, you can also infer from the opponents and their rankings how you stand with your MMR.
If you gain/lose a similar value for a win and a loss in ranked games, then your MMR has adjusted to your ranking. The system has then determined that your rank is aligned with your skill level.
If your MMR is important to you and you want to play against strong opponents, you can look at the ranking values. After you have completed many games in the mode, you will have a good overview of your MMR.
What do you think about this topic? Is MMR important to you, or do you just play the game for fun? Let us know in the comments.
For more exciting topics on LoL, you can find here: LoL: How many champions are there? Here you can find the list of all champs
