Which ranks can duo together - duo queue explained

Regardless of your rank in League of Legends, you’ve certainly found yourself in a situation in which you cannot duo queue with your friend because of your rank difference. It’s a frustrating situation, especially if you’re unaware of the exact restrictions that apply to each rank. While these restrictions can be frustrating if you’re yearning to play with a friend whose rank is higher or lower than yours, keep in mind that you can play normal games 

Generally speaking, it’s hard to keep track of which rank can duo queue with one another, given the fact that flex and solo queue has different restrictions. Additionally, Riot doesn’t help with this confusion either, given the fact that they’ve changed these rules about a million times, and they constantly change them with each passing ranked season. So here are the current rules:

Which ranks can duo queue together

First of all, it’s important to understand that different ranks have different restrictions and that Riot implements these restrictions to maintain the integrity of the Solo queue. The table we’ve presented below shows which ranks can duo queue together.

We’ll begin at the bottom of the ranked barrel, where the restrictions are much looser than in high elo.

Iron and Bronze players can duo queue with anyone up to Gold, which gives them a lot of wiggle room to play with friends that are more skilled at the game than them. Silver players have the most theoretical flexibility as they can play with anyone that’s ranked up to Gold I. This trend of flexibility continues until you reach Platinum, where you can play with anyone who is Gold, but you can only play with a Diamond player if he’s within two divisions of you. Diamond players have really tight restrictions, as they can only play with players that are within two divisions of their current rank. Last but not least, solo queue really means solo queue for anyone that’s ranked Master, Grandmaster, or Challenger, as they cannot duo queue at all. 

Which ranks can play ranked Flex queue together

Formerly having a rank restriction system of its own, the Flex queue had a rank restriction system similar to the one that exists in the Solo/Duo queue. Thankfully, in order to alleviate the frustration of the player base because of the rank difference restriction system, Riot decided to make the Flex queue live up to its name and become really flexible with its rules. Starting from late season 10, Riot removed the rank restriction from the Flex queue altogether, making it the perfect place to play with all of your friends, regardless of their rank, while enjoying a competitive environment. Theoretically speaking, an Iron player can now enjoy a ranked game with his Diamond friends without any restrictions.

Why do these rules exist?

At some point in your League career, or even while reading this article, you might have found yourself scratching your head, wondering why these rules even exist in the first place. Luckily, we’re here to help.

Matchmaking

Undoubtedly the biggest reason the division restrictions even exist is because of Riot’s attempt to create fair and accurate matchmaking. If you’re unfamiliar with how matchmaking works or the logic behind it, the basic concept is to create fair and balanced teams by matching players of similar skill levels. The matchmaking system accomplishes that by matching players with similar ranks and divisions. To put things into perspective, if a Bronze player could duo queue with Challenger, it would be virtually impossible to create a fair match where players of similar skill levels face off on every lane. Additionally, it would be difficult to fairly distribute LP and MMR gains/losses after the game concludes. All in all, without these rank restrictions in solo/duo queue, it would be impossible to create fair games where both teams have a similar chance of victory.

Duo abusing and duo boosting

The other major problem with lifting duo restrictions is the fact that any player could get duo boosted by a friend who’s much more skilled. Practically speaking, someone who is stuck in Silver could constantly play with a friend that’s Master and win games because of poor matchmaking and the fact that the Master player would carry the game. Furthermore, there would be a lot of duo abusing where you would run into Bronze support / Challenger Ad carry bot lanes, which results in a generally unfun experience. 

How to play with your friends if you’re blocked by these restrictions

All in all, ranked restrictions can be extremely pesky sometimes and we’ve listed some of the solutions that you can use in order to play with your friends, regardless of their rank.

Purchase a smurf account

One of the options you can rely on, especially if you want to play with a friend whose rank is Iron-Gold, is to buy a smurf account from a trustworthy website with years of experience and satisfied customers. All of our smurf accounts have untouched, ranked-ready MMR, which means you’ll be able to play with your friends that are ranked lower than you and have an account that you can play on whenever you want to de-stress from your solo queue experience.

Play flex queue

As we’ve previously mentioned, Riot removed any and all flex queue rank restrictions in Season 10 which allowed friends to play with each other regardless of their rank in a competitive environment. It’s fair to say that flex queue is the best way to play with your friends unless there are four of you…

Play a normal game or an ARAM

While it may not be what you want to hear, it’s sometimes what you need to hear. Normal games and ARAMs aren’t all that bad and even if you’re the biggest ranked enthusiast, playing a normal game once in a while won’t hurt you. Generally, League’s player base doesn’t like playing normal games because of the fact that there is no real reward behind the game mode because there is no LP risk. That being said, the fact that you cannot lose LP makes normal games much more relaxing than ranked. Some would even argue that ARAM is the most stress-free way to play League and enjoy it. Additionally, normal games and ARAMs are the only way you can play with a friend who hasn’t reached level 30.

Purchase an elo boost

This may be the last resort for some players who want to queue with their friends who are higher elo than them, especially with the questionable morality behind this practice. Elo boosting is generally frowned upon by the League community, and it outright breaks the Riot’s terms of service, but in this day and age, you can purchase elo boosts to any rank that your heart desires.