League of Legends reintroduces duo queue in High Elo to Ranked Solo/Duo ladder

With the release of patch 26.01 on January 8, the 2026 League of Legends season has officially kicked off! Season 16 is expected to inject new life into the game with a myriad of new items, notable gameplay changes, and a new Demacia-themed Summoner’s Rift. For the competitive players, this brings a highly requested feature back: the return of Duo Queue for High Elo.

According to the 26.01 Patch Notes, Duo Queue rules are as follows:

This feature was teased back on the Dev Update released on December 1st, 2025. By reducing queue times, encouraging and rewarding playthroughs through autofill, implementing a fairer matchmaking AI, punishing lobby griefing, and modifying how dodging works, Riot Pabro and Riot Meddler believe the necessary changes have been made to reintroduce Duo Queue.

There are a couple of regions that will have different ways of implementing Duo Queue. For the Chinese servers, the lowest band player must be Diamond 1, and duo queueing will be allowed up to Master, yet Grandmaster and Challenger will be Solo Queue only. Meanwhile, Korea will keep High elo in Solo Queue only.

Both servers will have a period of MMR exemption for patch 26.01 up until their Solo Queue only tiers. For example, a Korean player who has achieved Master MMR can still play Duo Queue if he has not reached Master tier