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Riot is overhauling how ranked works in 2026, and the LoL ranked 2026 changes hit the parts players complain about most — autofill, dodging, duo queue, and now a hard reset for the entire Apex Tier. Here's everything changing with Patch 26.9 and Season 2.
Ranked Season 1 ends April 28, 2026 at 23:59 server local time. If you have a rank target for this season, you have a hard deadline.
Season 2, codenamed Pandemonium, launches April 29 at 12:00 with Patch 26.9. It runs for 6 patches instead of the usual 8 — a shorter, tighter season.
A full reset happens at the season boundary. LP, placements, and visible rank carry over differently based on where you finished Season 1.
This is the biggest structural change Riot has made to high-elo ranked in years. When Patch 26.9 goes live on April 29, all current Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger players in NA, EUW, EUNE, BR, LAN, and TR will have their visible rank AND MMR reset to Master 0LP.
No soft reset. No carry-over. Everyone in Apex Tier starts at the same point and climbs from scratch.
Riot's reasoning: inconsistent matchmaking configurations since January created volatile LP swings that corrupted ladder integrity. Rather than patch around it, they're wiping the slate. 🎯
The LP economy gets a full overhaul too:
Expect wonky matchups for a few weeks as ex-Challengers and ex-Masters share lobbies while the system recalibrates. Riot estimates several months before the ladder fully stabilizes.
Season 3 will serve as a "final reconciliation pass" for Season 2 rewards — so your end-of-season standing still matters even mid-climb.
Source: Riot Games
Getting autofilled into a role you don't play and then losing LP for it is one of the most frustrating parts of climbing. Riot's fix is Aegis of Valor.
When you are autofilled, you now get a choice on the result: win and earn double LP, or lose and take zero LP loss. The Aegis shield persists until you win a game — it stays on even if you queue again without being autofilled next time.
This matters because it removes the silent LP tax that autofill used to carry. Before, a forced role loss hit your LP and your hidden MMR simultaneously. Now the shield absorbs that downswing.
There is one wrinkle: support and jungle mains who queued into their primary role also receive Aegis occasionally — Riot's acknowledgment that those roles have historically been under-rewarded relative to their carry counterparts.
If you want to see how champion performance shifts after this rolls out, the LoL meta updates live from patch to patch.
Dodging to avoid a bad lobby has always had a cost. In 2026, that cost gets significantly higher at the top of the ladder.
At Master tier and above: a single dodge is now treated as a full loss. You eat the LP penalty, you lose MMR, and your autofill protection does not reset. Riot is treating dodge abuse the same as an actual defeat.
Below Master: the change is smaller. Autofill no longer resets when you dodge — that carryover applies regardless of rank. But the full-loss treatment is exclusive to Apex Tier.
The reasoning is straightforward. High-elo players were using dodging as a tool to manage their autofill exposure and farming favorable queues. Combined with the new Apex Tier Reset, Riot wants Master+ lobbies to have real stakes from champion select onward.
Duo queue had been restricted at the top of the ladder for years due to boosting concerns. In 2026 it comes back — full duo access at every rank including Grandmaster and Challenger.
Riot's stated reasoning: "The risk is lower. With recent boosting detection and matchmaking improvements, the tradeoff no longer justifies the restriction."
If you play on a platform like Amber.gg where ladders run with actual prize pools and no hidden MMR distortions, this change makes it easier to queue with your duo partner at any rank.
Flex queue has always had a messy relationship with Solo/Duo rank. Players could perform well in Flex and accidentally inflate their Solo placement, or vice versa.
The new hard constraint: Flex will never pull your Solo MMR or rank upward. They can diverge — your Flex rank can be higher — but it no longer bleeds upward into Solo/Duo.
The goal is cleaner brackets. Fewer situations where a Diamond Flex player queues into Platinum Solo because of shared MMR.
Champion select timers — reduced by roughly 30 seconds — rolled out with Patch 26.1 and are now live.
The Apex Tier Reset and all Season 2 changes (Aegis of Valor, duo queue at all ranks, Flex rank separation) activate with Patch 26.9 on April 29, 2026.
Allied champion banning in champ select has also been removed — you can no longer ban a teammate's hover.
For the full picture of what Season 2 brings beyond ranked — new keystones, returning items, WASD in ranked — see the LoL Season 2 Pandemonium guide.
Taken together, these LoL ranked 2026 changes push in one direction: make the system reward actual play. The Apex Tier Reset is the most dramatic of the lot — resetting 800LP and 400LP thresholds simultaneously is a hard reset of competitive standards, not just a seasonal refresh.
If you want a ranked environment where your skill translates directly into results — no autofill RNG, no LP volatility from matchmaking bugs — compete on Amber.gg where every game carries real stakes.
