Ranked splits & rewards in 2019

Riot Games has recently unveiled new plans for the upcoming 2019 Ranked season through a fairly detailed official post. The ranked season as we know it has been left untouched ever since the beginning, with an entire season lasting almost a year without any breaks in between, excluding preseason. Riot is planning to add two breaks in the middle, effectively splitting the season in three parts. Doing so the game will completely change, as it prompts players to be more active on ranked, instead of stagnating at a certain level after promos and safely claiming the same amount of rewards as their peers of the same rank. In order to obtain rewards for each split, a player must accumulate “Split points”, which can be collected through ranked play. The rewards for that specific split will be unlocked only by reaching a set thresh hold for these “Split points”.

The “ranked armor” is a new introduction that aims to incentivise players to play in each split. Special add-ons can be earned only by accumulating “Split points”. These “ranked armors” will appear throughout your profile, lobby, loading screen and your friends’ friend list when they hover over your name.

These splits simply exist as a guideline, to offer players rewards, and they are not a soft reset of MMR rank or division. The post explains that this would make ranked too “grindy”, which is true, considering the current ranked reset often sets players back a few ranks. As Riot are intending players to be more active within the season, there will be no downtime between splits like there are between each season.

While the pacing of ranked, along with its rewards will change dramatically, Riot Games intends to keep its signature Victorious skin line. Riot admitted that they had considered lowering the bar of the Victorious Skin Line below gold, however, they have decided against in order to maintain the exclusivity and significance of the skin line.