Riot Games has published a developer video tackling long-standing suspicions among League of Legends players regarding the game’s ranked matchmaking system.
The video, released on October 2nd via Riot’s official Korean channel, featured Matthew ‘Phroxzon’ Leung-Harrison, the Lead Gameplay Designer for League of Legends. Phroxzon addressed one of the most persistent community claims: that after a winning streak, the system deliberately assigns weaker teammates to force a 50% win rate.
Phroxzon stated this was false, explaining: “We only match people based on their skill. And we want to make sure that every match feels like it’s fair, which means that each team has an equal chance to win. And that means 50% win rate.”
According to Riot, perceived win or loss streaks are a natural by-product of the system rather than an intentional design. As players climb in ranked play, they are matched against higher-skilled opponents, which can result in more challenging matches.
Phroxzon added that matchmaking also prioritises keeping queue times low, which can occasionally broaden the skill spread in games.
“Lower queue times can typically mean that the spread of ranks that you see in your games can be bigger,” he said. “And this can look like the match is worsely matchmade than what it feels like.”
Despite this, Riot emphasised it does not deliberately assign weaker teammates to reduce wait times.
Smurfing and Boosting Crackdown
The developer also highlighted its commitment to reducing smurfing — when experienced players use alternate accounts — and boosting, the practice of artificially raising another player’s rank. Beginning with patch 25.18, Riot has implemented detection safeguards aimed at identifying such accounts with high accuracy. The company stressed that the measures are designed to punish offenders without wrongly affecting innocent players.
“Our ultimate goal is to get rid of smurfs and boosters in the ranked ladder,” Phroxzon said. “Over time we’re going to make sure that this rollout gets more and more aggressive.”
The video forms part of Riot’s effort to expand developer communication in Korea, one of League of Legends’ most competitive regions, as well as addressing a long-held suspicion about the game across the game’s global playerbase.
Riot confirmed it would continue to refine its matchmaking systems, with a focus on fair team balance, autofill parity and improved queue times. The company reiterated that matches are not manipulated to enforce specific outcomes, but instead designed so both teams enter with an equal chance of winning.
