In 2013, at the start of the Season 3, League of Legends introduced new ranking system based on Tiers and divisions. Since then, the system has been tweaked several times and new features have been added, such as Iron and Master. One of the features of such a system over an old MMR system was addon of Demotion shield that applied after every successful promotion. In this article we cover history of demotion shield, what it is and how to get rid of it.
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What is Demotion Shield
League of Legends ranking system requires players to play promotion matches between tiers. This also used to be the case between divisions inside a tier, but has been removed at the start of the Season 11 preseason. It is there to help players avoid instant demotion back to their previous tier. No one would like to sweat in a five-game promo matches just to demote again after a one loss. This is where demotion shield comes into action. It makes it extremely hard to demote between tiers and is everyone’s friend.
When did Demotion Shield first appear?
With the new ranking system implementation in 2013, promotions and demotions were added to the game. Some features like demotion shield were added as a way to balance things out and make League rankings less grindy. It used to protect a player for 5 matches after they promoted to a new division, meaning player could lose 5 games in a row at 0 LP (if they have just promoted) and they would demote on the next loss at 0 LP. Whether that loss comes instantly after 5 games, or 15, demotion is going to occur. Demotion shield does not protect the player for more than five games. This mechanic was removed from the game with removal of promotional matches between division within the same tier with the start of Season 11.
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What does Demotion Shield do?
In order to make League of Legends grind less frustrating, Riot games introduced Demotion Shield as a way for players to protect their rank, at least temporarily. While division demotion shield was set at 5 games after each successful promotion, demotion shield between tiers such as Gold and Silver works differently. According to the Riot Support page, you are given a 10-game shield when you promote a whole tier, twice the size of a division one. In reality it appears to be much longer.
When does Demotion Shield expiring appear?
In order to understand it we have to add a new term to our vocabularies, which is MMR. We have talked about it more here, but to keep it short, MMR is your true rank. It is a hidden number that decides on your LP gains and average ranks of players in your games. It is extremely important when it comes to demotion between tiers as it seems it is responsible for them. Once your MMR stars dropping way below your current rank, for example if you are Gold 4 and you are playing with Silver 2 players, after some time Demotion Shield Expiring message will appear when you hover over your rank. You can check if you have it right now by going to your profile. Once it appears you can count up to 10 losses at 0 lp and then expect a demote. We recommend to take caution after 5 as well since it is not consistent.
It is also possible for it to appear if you had just promoted to a new tier and you did not lose yet. This is an extremely rare scenario which would require you to rank up while getting around 10 LP per a win, and losing 30. Thus, you’d need an extremely high win ratio for such a feat.
How to get rid of Demotion Shield expiring message?
While the answer is simple, its execution isn’t. You just have to win more than you lose. Due to a big discrepancy between your MMR and your League Rank you should expect lower LP gains and higher LP losses until it balances out. Many players call this ELO hell, a place where you are stuck for a long period of time and many games. Try to focus on yourself, play when you are in a good mood and do your best every game. Your teammates will feed off of your positivity and they will help you get out of the elo hell and to get rid of the demotion shield expiring notification.
Decays
Except by losing, players can also demote by not playing actively. Although, this is exclusive for ranks above D4. Master, Grandmaster and Challenger players will start losing 250 LP per day after their 10 game bank runs out until they demote to Diamond. In order to add more games to their bank they just have to play more, but they can not hold more than 10 games at the same time. Up until Season 2021 Diamond players would demote after 28 days of inactivity. Now, they have a bank system as well but it is less strict. They gain 7 days of bank per 1 game played, and can hold up to 28 days at the same time. After they run out, they will start losing 50 LP per a day until they demote to Platinum, or they play a game.
Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron players do not have to worry about this happening to them. If you have received any kind of message regarding decays it was most likely a bug. Furthermore, decays are turned off by default during the preseason. Although it sometimes happens for decay message to appear anyways, you can just ignore it if you do not feel like playing.
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Reduced LP loss
One of the Riot’s newest features to the game is a consolation LP reduction. It is a system that detects if a losing team was at a disadvantage by having an AFK player. If your team indeed had a leaver, you will be eligible to lose less LP than you normally would for such a game. Unfortunately, if your friend’s internet ran out neither of you will see the affect of it. Furthermore, every player has a set amount of LP they can get reduced per week, so after a certain point your reduction will be smaller and smaller. Hopefully Riot will increase it in the future, or at least show what that number of LP is publicly. At the current time we were not able to get a hold of such information.
My Rank is lower after a Server Transfer?
Such indirect demotions can, and certainly do happen. After you transfer to a new server, you will not be assigned a rank until you play your first game. Each server has a different MMR, meaning that, for example 1300 MMR is Gold 4 on NA, it might be S1 on EUW. This can lead to such happenings, but it can also mean that if you transfer from EUW to NA you will be up by 1 division. Note, this was used only for example purposes and varies case to case.
Conclusion
Bad losing streaks can happen to anyone. Riot gave us demotion shield to help us get our head back and not let tilt and emotions affect us. In those games that you have demotion shield expiring active, do your best and never give up because every game is crucial. Every loss could mean you being closer to a demotion, and every win could make the notification disappear.