Introduction
After the Season 5 resets occurred on the 21st, everyone's been diligently grinding through their placement matches. However, after finishing their first 10, many first time restarters are left a bit bewildered. What exactly happened?
Placement Matches
Regular Placement Matches
In generally, when a player reaches level 30 they enter into placement matches, which quickly escalates their MMR in one direction or another. This amount slowly declines as they play more games. For instance, one would find that soon after exiting placement matches, he would gain or lose nearly 40 LP per game. For comparison for those of you that don't play ranked, normal gain/loss is about 13 LP.
Season 5 Reset Matches
Meanwhile, for the Season 5 reset, you may notice if you look up your teammates before or after the game starts, most of them seem to be hovering around the same league and division before everyone was reset, even after losing or winning a few games in a row.
Conclusion
MMR was likely "normalized" but for the majority left alone and true "placement" matches were not implemented. Usually, Riot caps out everyone at a certain amount, and depending on your previous ranking, you get a proportion of that cap.
Speaking of which, if anybody is wondering, the highest you can achieve after 10 placement matches is Platinum I, even if you were challenger before reset.
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Division/League S5 Placement: [ex: Platinum 4]
Goal Division: [Optional]
Conclusion
MMR was likely "normalized" but for the majority left alone and true "placement" matches were not implemented. Usually, Riot caps out everyone at a certain amount, and depending on your previous ranking, you get a proportion of that cap.
Speaking of which, if anybody is wondering, the highest you can achieve after 10 placement matches is Platinum I, even if you were challenger before reset.
So close.
Meanwhile, to start up a discussion, feel free to post your placement match results in the following format in the comment section, and I'll start compiling them into a table:
Division/League S4: [ex: Diamond 5]
Placement Match Score: [ex: 5-5]Division/League S5 Placement: [ex: Platinum 4]
Goal Division: [Optional]
| S4 Division/League | Placement Matches | S5 Division/League |
|---|---|---|
| Bronze 3 | 7-3 | Bronze 3 |
| Bronze 2 | 6-10 | Bronze 5 |
| None | 7-3 | Silver 5 |
| Silver 5 | 6-4 | Bronze 3 |
| Silver 5 | 9-1 | Silver 4 |
| Silver 4 | 7-3 | Silver 2 |
| Silver 4 | 5-5 | Silver 5 |
| Silver 4 | 8-2 | Bronze 3 |
| Silver 3 | 5-5 | Bronze 3 |
| Silver 3 | 4-6 | Bronze 2 |
| Silver 2 | 5-5 | Bronze 2 |
| Silver 2 | 6-4 | Silver 2 |
| Silver 2 | 5-5 | Silver 3 |
| Silver 1 | 7-3 | Silver 5 |
| Silver 1 | 5-5 | Bronze 5 |
| None | 8-2 | Gold 3 |
| Gold 4 | 4-6 | Silver 4 |
| Gold 4 | 4-6 | Silver 4 |
| Gold 2 | 8-2 | Plat 5 |
| Gold 1 | 0-10 | Silver 3 |
| Platinum 5 | 3-7 | Gold 5 |
| Platinum 5 | 7-3 | Platinum 4 |
| Platinum 5 | 7-3 | Platinum 4 |
| Platinum 3 | 6-4 | Platinum 4 |
| Platinum 3 | 4-6 | Gold 1 |
| Platinum 2 | 7-3 | Platinum 2 |
| Platinum 1 | 7-3 | Platinum 2 |
| Diamond 5 | 3-7 | Platinum 3 |
| Diamond 3 | 8-2 | Platinum 1 |
| Master I | 6-4 | Platinum 1 |
| Challenger | 5-5 | Platinum 1 |