Gold rank in League of Legends represents a significant milestone within the game's competitive ranking system. As one of the middle tiers in the ranked ladder, it signifies a level of proficiency and commitment that sets players apart from the more casual player base. Achieving Gold rank means that a player has moved beyond the fundamentals of the game and has started to develop a deeper understanding of advanced mechanics, strategy, and teamwork. In Gold, the average player tends to start converging into a consistent champion pool and role, getting used to their mains and learning their own strengths and weaknesses.
Progressing to Gold rank is often seen as a rite of passage for many players. It reflects a dedication to improving and a significant investment of time and effort. For many, reaching Gold is a validation of their growth and skill in the game, often motivating them to continue climbing the ranks. Additionally, achieving Gold or higher by the end of a ranked season earns players exclusive rewards, such as unique skins and in-game content, further highlighting its importance and desirability.
There’s a good chance that most competent players playing casually will end up somewhere in Gold. It’s the most populous division, with the current 18% of total ranked players.
For many players in League of Legends this is the division they want to be in by the end of the ranked season. Starting at Gold, you start receiving ranked regalia and other rewards at 80 split points, rather than 1000.
If you win 7 or more of your placement matches, then there’s a good chance you’ll be placed in Gold division depending on your previous seasons. If you have a brand-new account then even winning all 10 matches won't guarantee you a place.
If you’d like a breakdown of the populations and percentages across all ranks, be sure to check out LoL Ranks Explained.
Reaching Gold rank in League of Legends places a player within the top 18% of the ranking distribution, making it a moderately challenging tier to attain. Reaching Gold means that you have transitioned from not knowing all aspects of the game to now having a good understanding of the basic mechanics such as last hitting, positioning, and map awareness. In your transition over to Gold, you are introduced to some of the more complicated elements of the game such as counter-picking, teamfighting and objective control.
Unlike Iron, Bronze and Silver, it becomes less likely to solo carry games. If you want to give it a go, buy our pre-ranked Gold LoL Accounts.. Teams at the very least now communicate enough to be able to shut down a snowballing player before they become unstoppable. This is the moment when League of Legends will start to feel like what it really is - a team game.
This doesn’t mean you’ve already hit the apex of laning, though. When moving away from Gold and into Platinum, wave management will start to make a very solid rift between those in the know and those losing LP. Keep developing your champion pool, expanding your matchup experience, and perfecting your micro.
But to begin with, what should you be focusing on when climbing Gold?
It’s a given that throughout our climb to any rank, we must always practice our individual laning. But if you aren’t a smurf, the few habits you need to learn in order to climb from Gold to Platinum involves playing with your teammates. Here’s some tips that we would recommend:
During the draft phase, avoid blindly selecting a champion unless it is considered overpowered or you are a one-trick player. Even high win-rate picks can be counter-picked. It’s way more efficient to have a champion pool rather than a main champion. For example, if you plan to play Master Yi in the jungle at gold elo, you might consider banning Rammus, who is known for countering auto-attack-based champions. Having a strategic approach during the draft will enhance your chances of winning in lane and consequently your impact during the game.
Many games are straight-up lost the moment each teams picks their champions. Try to wind up with a balanced team composition that works well against the enemy team’s. Here’s a small list of things you should be asking yourself when picking your champion:
As a laner, you need to consider the ally and enemy jungler's “pathing”. This is the sequence of camps and movements they will make throughout the map. Do not push your wave when the enemy jungler is nearby. To set up a gank, let the enemy push their lane towards you. In gold elo, players don't pay attention to wave management and will likely continue to hit their creeps; use this to your advantage. When your jungler is about to come to your side of the map, focus only on last-hitting and ping them for a gank. Consequently, you shouldn’t be asking for ganks when your jungler is halfway across the map, or when your lane is pushed up to the enemy’s tower. You should also be aware that you’re more likely to be ganked when you push up, so be sure to be aware of the jungler’s position when pushing up. It also never hurts to set up priority for your jungler, intentionally shoving the wave so that you’re available to fight in river, if you both know the enemy jungler might fight there.
As a jungler, always keep an eye on your lanes and try to predict which lanes will push in the next 30 seconds or so. Waves that are currently being hit by a tower will naturally start to “bounce” back the other way, unless you ping your laner to keep pushing. It’s also important to keep track of the enemy jungler. Be aware on which buffs they’ve got active and whether or not you could take them in a duel. If you can’t, get a read on where they are so that you can occupy the opposite side of the map. If you’re confident you can take them in duels, you should instead be looking to be near the jungler instead, constantly skirmishing, invading and counter-ganking in order to deny them resources as long as you hold an advantage over them.
When fighting, you should know exactly what you’re fighting for. Ask yourself, are you contesting a wave? Are you contesting objectives? Are you denying farm? Or are you simply fighting to pass the time? Coinflip fights are rarely ever worth your time compared to simply farming. Conversely, you should maintain momentum between fights. Don’t fall into the bad habit of “backseating” objectives. If your team is aware the enemy team is doing dragon, it’s useless to show up just to watch them do it. Decide if it’s worth fighting for it. If it’s not, simply let it go and do something else. Farm, do another objective on the other side of the map. Anything but just watching and pinging the dragon pit, really.
Unnecessary skirmishes also deplete your resources for no useful reason. For example, imagine you are the ADC and you win a fight using your flash in the process. Two minutes later, you don't have flash available for a dragon fight. The enemies all use their flashes to engage on you and you die. Your death because of having wasted flash on an unimportant skirmish lead to your team losing both the teamfight and the objective.
Instead of fighting, consider safely farming and saving spells for objectives instead. Farming is crucial and often more important than constant fighting. Aim to consistently farm to out-level and out-itemize your opponents, which will empower you to solo carry the important teamfights.
Everytime an opportunity to skirmish comes up, simply ask yourself. Would I be making more gold and experience by simply farming while this is going on? Is it worth risking losing a duel to get 300 gold, when you could make that exact amount of gold (and even more experience) by farming two waves for 0 risk?
The number of games required to reach Gold rank in League of Legends, and subsequently to get out of Gold, can vary greatly depending on several factors, primarily your Matchmaking Rating (MMR), win rate, and consistency of performance. After the initial placement matches, your rank is determined by your performance in those games and your hidden MMR. If your MMR is higher than your current rank, you'll gain more LP per win and lose less per loss, accelerating your climb. Conversely, lower MMR means slower progress. Assuming an average win rate of around 50-55%, and starting from a mid-Silver rank, it could take roughly 50-70 games to reach Gold.
Again, this largely depends on your MMR**.** However, taking an average of 25 LP per win and 20 LP per loss, it takes around 170 games at a 50% winrate, 153 games at a 55% winrate, 136 games at a 60% winrate and 116 games at a 75% winrate. Depending on how lucky you get on placements, this could take 10 less or more games.
Yes, players can demote from Gold to Silver in League of Legends. The demotion process is influenced by two main factors: consistent losses (LP loss) and inactivity (rank decay). Here are the conditions and mechanics involved:
Gold IV, III, II, and I players can duo with anyone from Silver IV to Platinum I. Keep in mind, when you queue as a duo, the matchmaking system takes the average MMR of both players into account. Playing with duos with a higher MMR than you will land you against teams with a higher average MMR. The system tries to create a fair match, which can sometimes result in facing slightly stronger or more coordinated opponents if there are duos on the opposing team as well. Two duos in Gold with relatively high MMR are more likely to be facing high Platinum tier teams, for example.
You can earn Victorious skins just by playing Ranked, earning Split Points, and reaching at least Honor Level 2. How many games you'll have to play/win, however, depends on your rank. If you're Iron, Bronze, or Silver, you'll need 1000 Split Points for that split's Victorious skin. If you're Gold or higher, then you'll only need 80 Split Points.
If you're not sure where you stand, hover over the above icon in your Ranked page to see how close you are to getting that split's Victorious skin.
This makes it possible for any player to get a Victorious skin! Just remember: your Victorious skin chromas will be based on your final rank for that split, so there's always a good reason to test your limits and see just how high you can go!
This skin is exclusive to that season and cannot be obtained afterward. The specific champion that receives the Victorious skin changes every year. Sadly, Victorious skins from previous are not, and likely will never made to be, available if you didn’t get them in their respective season. The only way to get them after the fact is purchasing or acquiring accounts that already have them. Here’s a list of the ones available at our Skindex.
For a more complete list of all Victorious skins and more information on each of them, be sure to check out our page on Victorious Skins and our full Skindex.
Players who finish in Platinum, Diamond, Master, Grandmaster, or Challenger receive additional chromas for the Victorious skin, representing the highest rank they achieved. These only became a thing after Season 7, with Victorious Graves having the first Victorious chromas.
A special summoner icon is awarded to players based on their highest rank achieved during the split.
Ranked Regalia—the visual representation of the ranks you earn throughout a season—comes in two flavors: Crests and loading screen borders.
Crests display your current rank and appear on your profile, the loading screen, and as an optional border to your Summoner icon in the pre-game lobby.
Loading screen borders display your current rank for the queue you're in (in normals, this is your highest Summoner's Rift rank). You'll also be able to click players in the loading screen to see more information about their ranked status and champion mastery.
The system takes into account your highest rank achieved during the season. As long as you hit Gold, have Honor Level 2, and 80 Split Points, you will receive the Victorious Skin. However, if you gained 80 Split Points and then demoted from Gold, your goalpost will be shifted to 1000 Split Points.
Your division chromas also depend on your rank at the end of the season, so demoting before the end of the split will keep you from getting the chroma.
Gold rank embodies a dynamic challenge. Here, you're no longer just learning the basics; you're honing your skills to a finer edge. It’s on their way to Gold that newer players finally cement themselves into a consistent pool, and get to the line that denote the casuals from those who take the game more seriously.
Although the cosmetics are markedly sweet, climbing the ranks in Gold isn't merely about securing bragging rights—it's about mastering your gameplay and finding yourself in more challenging games against difficult opponents.
