With the new patch, Riot Games has made changes to the League Points (LP) in League of Legends, but only for players below the Emerald rank. A developer has commented on this.
What has changed? The latest patch 14.4 of League of Legends brings a significant change: a reduction in the league points you gain or lose when winning and losing ranked games. But only for all players below the Emerald rank.
League points (LP) are crucial for your rank. You gain LP for a win and lose LP for a defeat. This reduction of gained and lost LP aims to improve the player experience.
Before the update, players below the Emerald rank received an average of +28 LP for a win and -28 LP for a loss. With the new patch, this average is now 25 LP. This average value can vary due to your MMR.
What is the intended effect? This is intended to help players in the lower ranks have a fairer experience, especially regarding their progress and rank changes. It should make it easier to demote from tiers. According to Matt Leung-Harrison, the change is also meant to allow players to rise consistently.
Here you can view the X-Post:
Why was the change made? The decision to reduce LP gains was made by Riot Games (according to lead gameplay designer Matt Leung-Harrison) to address certain issues that arose in connection with the ranked system.
He explains:
At the beginning of the season, we wanted to increase the LP gain below Emerald, so players could climb faster if they performed well. For the vast majority of players, that was great, but for a small percentage , it would lead to negative LP gains.
Matt Leung-Harrison via X
According to Matt Leung-Harrison, the emergence of negative LP gains can be attributed to various factors, including demotion protection or the messing up
when resetting the Elo – for which he apologized.
The protection from demotion is appreciated as it gives players a second chance to prove they really belong in the rank. However, it also leads to a discrepancy between the rank and actual skill.
With the latest patch, changes were also made to the support items, which has probably made a champion even stronger: A champion performs so well as a supporter on the bot lane that players are calling for a nerf
