What Exactly is LoL MMR? How Does MMR Work & How to Calculate it?

You play a game of League of Legends, How do you see MMR in LoL? That’s exactly what we’re going to check out.

What Exactly is LOL MMR?

MMR refers to a player’s Matchmaking Rank. So the name basically explains what this score is used for. Your LoL MMR is the reason why you’ve matched up with specific players. It’s the score Riot Games uses to create games that should be evenly matched.

MMR is a value that is given to each player. Those players that have a similar MMR will be matched together. This is completely and utterly independent of your rank. So even if you’re in Gold III you can still get matched up with a bunch of Silver I players – well that’s due to your MMR – Riot didn’t make a mistake there.

MMR in League of Legends

The MMR system in LoL will put two teams of equal average elo rating against each other, so for example if team 1 had one gold player, one diamond player, and three platinum players, the other team would have 5 platinum players to equalize the game MMR and skill level and make sure it’s not an uneven match.

It works like this from the bottom positions to the top positions on the ladder, and on the borders of the ladder (in challenger and iron divisions) it might cause issues due to very few players being there- resulting in prolonged match search times and often uneven games, such as teams being composed in this way

In League of Legends, the MMR system has been used since the beginning of the game, and your elo was visible up until the start of ranked season three, where Riot decided to cover up with a bunch of tiers and divisions to make the game more attractive for new players.

How Does MMR Work?

LOL MMR is an invisible score that players are not aware of. Unlike with LP – League Points – where a player can see their gains and losses after each match. LoL MMR works a little different, but is influenced by your LP in a way as well.

How come it’s also influenced by LP gain and LP loss? Well, easy, if you win, you gain LP, if you drop a game you lose LP. MMR is based on your wins and losses, which means that if you win a lot of games in a row, then you’ll have a higher MMR, which means you get matched up with players of a similar skill level.

The same happens when you lose a lot… only that you get matched up with people slightly worse, which is why you might be playing with Silver players even though you’re in Gold.

How To Check Your LoL MMR

There is no official way to check your LoL MMR through Riot Games. There are third-party MMR checkers which you can use though to try and see where you rank amongst other League of Legends players behind the scenes.

These sites will calculate your MMR based on your solo games. Why? Because the MMR and skill level between pre-mades can differ quite drastically, which would result in skewed – and wrong – data. Therefore, trust those sites which check only your solo games to know your own MMR.

If you ever lose LP after a game, you can use one of the third-party MMR checkers to try and figure out why you lose so many League Points after a game. When playing above the average MMR for your rank, you’ll gain more LP than you lose. Vice versa, when playing below the average MMR for your rank, you’ll lose more LP than gain.

This means if you play above your average and win, you get a lot of LP, but if you play below your average and lose, you’ll also lose a lot of LP. So, even if you can’t directly check your matchmaking rating in League of Legends, just by seeing how much LP you gain or lose, you’ll be able to tell where you stand in the MMR department.

How To Calculate your MMR

The exact formula is hidden somewhere deep within a vault at Riot Games in California. So sadly, we don’t know how exactly matchmaking rating is calculated. We do know, though, that the more often you play, the more accurate it is to your skill.

Also, MMR fluctuates with win and loss streaks. Wins and losses are the most important factor to calculating your MMR and will make it either go up or down. As already explained, this will in turn influence the amount of LP you gain or lose when playing ranked.

So even though we might not be math wizards who know how to calculate it, we know what the key factors of MMR are, and we know that some smart folks out there on the internet have figured it out, and you can easily find out with a 95% accuracy what your LoL MMR is.