Most ranked games run a soft reset: your visible rank drops, but your hidden matchmaking rating is pulled toward the middle of the ladder, not wiped. League of Legends pulls MMR toward 1200, roughly Silver 2 to Gold 4, then runs five placement games in which wins move MMR more than ordinary wins. Valorant's Act 6 reset, shipped in patch 13.08 on October 13 2026, runs one placement at a regular Act start and caps placement at Ascendant 3.
A soft reset is a pull toward the middle, not a wipe
The word reset misleads players every season, because nothing is actually reset. Your visible rank drops, but your hidden matchmaking rating survives, pulled toward the median of the ladder. In League of Legends that median sits near 1200 MMR, which is roughly Silver 2 to Gold 4, and the pull is proportional: a Diamond player drops further than a Silver player, because the Diamond player has further to fall. A Bronze player barely moves at all. The system is designed this way so that the first weeks of a season are not a lottery, and so that a returning player is not thrown into lobbies they cannot compete in.
The reason placements feel rigged is that placement wins move MMR more than normal wins. League runs five placement games, and each one shifts your rating by more than a regular ranked win would, because the system is still uncertain where you belong. Win four of five and you land higher than your reset MMR alone would suggest. Lose four of five and you land lower, and the gap between those two outcomes is wider than a normal five-game stretch. The games are not rigged. They are weighted, and the weighting is what makes a 4-1 placement feel like a promotion and a 1-4 placement feel like a demotion.
Related reading on this site: Home and Aim Assist in Cross-Play Lobbies: Why Console and PC Players Keep Arguing cover the neighbouring problems in more depth.
Valorant changed the placement math in Act 6
Valorant's Act 6 reset, shipped in patch 13.08 on October 13 2026, changed how the season starts. A regular Act start now runs a single placement match instead of five, and the highest rank you can place into is Ascendant 3. Players in Immortal and Radiant also saw their ranked rating cut by 90 percent at the reset, which compresses the top of the ladder and forces the best players to climb back through the ranks they already cleared. The message from Riot is that the top of the ladder should be earned every Act, not held over from the last one.
The single placement is the part players argue about most, because one game now carries the weight five used to share. A loss in that one match can drop a player further than a 1-4 placement run used to, and a win can lift them further than a 4-1 run. Riot's reasoning is that the reset already did most of the work by pulling ratings down, so the placement is a check on where you stand, not a fresh evaluation. Whether that feels fair depends on whether you won the one game that counted.
Rocket League runs ten placements and shows you the number
Rocket League takes the opposite approach to Valorant. Every playlist runs ten placement matches after a soft reset, and since Season 22 the game lets players toggle their MMR display, so the hidden number is no longer hidden. Ten placements give the system more data than one, which means the landing rank is steadier, but it also means a bad placement run takes longer to play through. A player who loses six of ten in Rocket League has spent an evening on placements. A Valorant player who loses the one placement is done in half an hour.
The display toggle matters more than it looks. When players can see their MMR, the reset stops feeling like a punishment and starts looking like arithmetic: the number moved toward the middle, the placements moved it back, and the visible rank follows the number. The games that hide MMR leave players guessing why they landed where they did, and the guess is usually that the system is rigged. It is not. It is a soft reset with weighted placements, and the weight is the whole story.
Frequently asked questions
What is a soft reset in ranked games?
It is a season start where your visible rank drops but your hidden matchmaking rating is pulled toward the middle of the ladder instead of being wiped. High-ranked players drop further than low-ranked players because they have further to fall.
Why do placement wins matter more than normal wins?
Because the system is uncertain where you belong after a reset, so each placement game moves your MMR more than an ordinary ranked win. In League of Legends, five placement games decide the landing rank, and the swing between a 4-1 and a 1-4 run is wide.
How many placement matches does Valorant run now?
One, at a regular Act start, since Act 6 shipped in patch 13.08 on October 13 2026. The highest rank you can place into is Ascendant 3, and Immortal and Radiant players had their ranked rating cut by 90 percent.
How many placement matches does Rocket League run?
Ten per playlist after a soft reset. Since Season 22, players can also toggle their MMR display, so the hidden rating behind the placement is visible.