If you’ve been playing League of Legends’ or Teamfight Tactics’ ranked modes for some time now, you might have come across a message next to your shield on your profile saying your “Demotion Shield” is “expiring.”
But before explaining what ‘Demotion Shield Expiring’ means, it’s important to understand what a Demotion Shield is in the first place.
After being promoted into a new division or tier for the first time, you’ll gain an effect known as a Demotion Shield, which will prevent you from dropping down a tier or division if you lose additional games. This is done to ensure that you don’t go back to a division after a couple of unfortunate games at your new ranking.
This shield usually lasts for about three games after advancing a division and 10 games after advancing a tier. For Master Tier, however, everything is just three games.
So if you’re in Platinum V, for example, you won’t drop to Gold I for a short period of time. This shield, however, can expire—and that’s what “Demotion Shield Expiring” signifies.
If you lose your next few matches right after being promoted, there’s a high chance you’ll end up dropping a division or tier. Then you’ll be forced to climb back up the ranked ladder again.
After you’ve been demoted, your LP will be set between 25 to 75, depending on how many losses you had when you were at zero LP. More losses will put you at a lower amount of LP.
Thirty champs will have their mana per level increased by 20, including heavy mana users like Anivia, Cassiopeia, Ezreal, Kassadin, and Ryze. With the extra mana on Sheen and other items removed, mana-reliant champions need the extra mana to survive the laning phase and farm comfortably.
Recently, there were huge updates for the upcoming preseason regarding items. The item change should also be beneficial to champions that don’t use mana, like Lee Sin, Akali, and Gnar. Sheen, for example, empowers auto attacks after using an ability. With the mana component removed, the item would be far more efficient on champs that might normally go another route and cause more flexible build paths.
League‘s 2021 preseason includes a massive overhaul to the item system, introducing Mythic items that are class-specific.
Riot described Mythic items as a cornerstone of most builds since they’ll have abilities that can redefine playstyles. These Mythic items look a lot like Ornn’s Living Forge and Masterwork items. Champions will be able to carry one Mythic item at a time, meaning you’ll need to sell one to buy one if you decide to change your strategy during a match.
