Riot Games is preparing major updates for Ranked in Season 1 of 2026, and the team wants climbing to feel “a little more fair,’ which means addressing long-standing issues like dodging, autofill, and slow queue times. To support that goal, Riot is overhauling several systems at once, from how players enter matches to how those matches play out. The update focuses on speeding up the overall experience, reducing frustration in champ select, improving role assignment, and giving players clearer rewards for effort.

Whether someone is trying a new role, fighting through tough lobbies, or playing quick Swiftplay games, the new season seems to be built to make progression more transparent, and each match feel more meaningful from start to finish — starting with Aegis of Valor

Autofill and Aegis of Valor

Riot is improving autofill to better match players by role, but when that isn’t possible, the system will at least balance the number of autofilled players on each team, helping games feel fairer overall. And for autofilled players who actually try to win their game, Riot is introducing Aegis of Valor. Players who earn a mastery grade of C or higher receive no LP loss on a defeat or double LP on a win.

“[Aegis of Valor give] a bit more security when they play in an unfamiliar role and an incentive to try hard in these games,” explained Matthew Leung-Harrison, Lead Gameplay Designer on League. “We want to give players an incentive to actually play out those games and make those experiences a lot more satisfying.”

Dodging an autofill game just carries the autofill to the player’s next game. At Master tier and above, dodging now counts as a full loss and affects both LP and MMR. In their Ranked 2026 dev blog, Riot said that autofill exists to “keep your queues going,” otherwise players would see “extremely long queue times for mid lane especially.” Though Riot then admitted that autofill can lead to frustration in players. Aegis of Valor is a change introduced to mitigate a bit of that frustration and give players who try hard enough an extra reward.

Champ select and queue time improvements

Riot is shortening Champ Select and removing the ability to ban a hovered ally champion after testing the feature in NA and OCE. “We believe that being able to play the champion you want is more important than your ability to lock anyone out of the game when it’s in direct conflict with what your teammate wants, especially when it’s not guaranteed that it’ll show up on the enemy team,” said Riot.

These changes, combined with back-end improvements, are expected to speed up queue times by 40 to 50 percent, depending on the region. As mentioned before, “Apex players” will see dodging carry full LP and MMR penalties, which Riot believes will reduce long “doom lobby” chains, since most dodged games eventually form anyway. Duo queue is returning for high ranks — except in Korea — so Challenger players can now duo with anyone Diamond I or higher.

Skill Distribution and Climb Indicator

Riot is adjusting low-MMR brackets to reflect today’s player skill, which has improved over the past 15 years since League ranked has been active. Leung-Harrison said that nowadays bronze players are “familiar” with wave management, know most abilities, time management, and so Riot will recalibrate low tiers to actively reflect the skills of players within them.

Additionally, Riot is adding a Climb Indicator that appears in the loading screen to show when a player’s MMR is higher than their visible rank. “A frustrating experience is being in a Plat lobby and seeing a Silver player in your games—it often feels like you have someone who shouldn’t be on your team,” said Riot. “But the reality is that very often this player just started their climb a bit later than everyone else and actually does belong in that lobby. So this indicator will help show when someone’s rank just hasn’t caught up to their MMR.”

Swiftplay changes

Swiftplay will inherit most of the global gameplay changes from Summoner’s Rift, which include items, crit updates, and vision updates, but it will keep its shorter match length so games remain quick and fun. Players now start at level 3 with extra gold — similar to ARAM — which allows matches to ramp up faster and action to begin sooner.

Void Grubs and Rift Herald no longer spawn to improve the speed of the game. For the same reason, Dragons now appear earlier, the Elemental Rift starts sooner, and Sudden Death begins earlier. Role Quests will not appear in Swiftplay, however, Riot says the mode will remain a great place to experience new items, turret changes, and class updates without the pressure of Ranked. Swiftplay aims to give players a faster, lighter way to practice the new season’s gameplay while still feeling meaningful and rewarding.