After the end of every season in League of Legends, the Preseason takes place for the next two to three months. Many people tend to think about this period as the time when ranked games shouldn’t be played. But, besides the main fact that LP isn’t gained here, other factors should have been considered.
The easiest way of determining whether “playing preseason is worth it” is by dividing and highlighting some critical pros and cons of this question. So we will review some important reasons why playing Preseason could be worth it. And some reasons why it shouldn’t make a big impact on your gameplay.
You Follow the Changes of the New Season and Everything It Brings
Every new season in League of Legends brings many changes to the game, from minor things like visuals, loot system, and skins to bigger ones like champion reworks, items, runes, and the bounty system.
For someone new to the changes, it will take some time to adapt to them, especially if you play ranked. If you start playing ranked and are not used to what we mentioned above, you can do more harm than good. The chances of losing the games will be a lot higher than winning them. We all know that playing League of Legends without the proper knowledge and understanding isn’t good at all.
Most of the items and runes for tanks, mages, and assassins are subject to changes brought by the new season. Of course, this automatically entails the fact that the meta also changes. And we all know how important is the new Meta.
So the conclusion about this first question is that playing Preseason ranked can help you better understand and adapt to the inevitable changes to the game. Of course, this isn’t a must, and you could just start from the beginning of the season, but it is highly recommended for someone who is in serious competitive play.
Even in Preseason, You Get Better.
The Preseason doesn’t change the fact that playing the game more makes you improve and become better. Overall, the intensity of the matches becomes really serious through the time of Preseason, which means the atmosphere and intensity of games become much more challenging than usual. This has more good sides than bad ones.
As the game and the players become more demanding, so does the environment in which you play. It means you will have to improve and improve to win. You will start to pay more attention to things you didn’t do before. You will strengthen your fundamentals and knowledge about the game, which will result in you becoming better.
Besides the overall improvement, you will get by playing ranked in Preseason. There is also one important factor. Not pausing for three months will keep your skills 100 percent sharp.
This applies to all things, not just League of Legends. A break of three months can have a significant impact on the way the game is played. Of course, we all need a break sometimes, but such a long period of not playing can only result in losing certain instincts and feelings that you had when you were playing the game with total concentration.
Playing Preseason Ranked Effects Your Mmr
One of our favorite things Riot has given us is that the MMR system does not get excluded during the Preseason. So even though the ranked season has ended, Riot still keeps score of your MMR.
For people who don’t know what it is or how it works, the concept is pretty straightforward:
The MMR system has one task: to follow and keep track of your wins and losses (especially the ones in a row). By doing some sort of complicated calculations, it gives teams of equal average Elo rating opponents. The point is to make sure the match isn’t uneven. The more games you win, your team becomes better. The more you lose, you get to play with the worst of the worst.
Now, back to the point. If you keep winning games in ranked Preseason, it will increase your MMR. And by the start of the new season, the MMR you had at the end will probably stay the same. So this can mean a lot of help, especially for people who want to go seriously competitive.
From the previous examples, anyone more familiar with the game knows that the MMR system is fundamental if you plan to get out of hard stuff or rank up fast.
So, playing ranked Preseason will affect your MMR, and if you do good, the system will reward you with good matchmaking when the new season starts. And besides those things, a better MMR means you will gain more LP instead of losing it. But be careful, as you can positively influence the system, you can also have a bad one. This results in things being contrary to the above.
So, overall, these are some of the most significant gains you get from playing Preseason ranked in League of Legends. All of this above will help you to continue improving and adapting to the gameplay that the preseason changes.
The Downsides of Playing Preseason Ranked.
There aren’t too many downsides to this matter, but skipping them wouldn’t be right. The first and most important thing that occurs when you play ranked Preseason.
First, we need to mention that you don’t get any LP while playing Preseason ranked. There’s not much to say about this one besides that some people get bored when not able to rank up for three months.
The second thing we need to mention is the MMR system. As said above, the MMR system is activated through the Preseason. But also, one crucial factor you need to consider is that the game becomes intensive these three months, so if you don’t manage to do good, your MMR will fall. This automatically means ranking up and getting LP gains will be more challenging.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, you get many benefits while playing ranked Preseason. Primarily, you will improve your gameplay and game experience, adapt to the changes, and improve yourself.
But Ultimately, the decision of whether to play or not to play depends on your priorities. If you want to take a break and spend time doing something else, that’s more than welcome.
