How to Create a LoL Account
To create a LoL account, go to the Riot Games sign-up page, enter an email, date of birth, username and password, pick a region, and verify the email. The sign-up takes a few minutes and the same Riot account works for League, Valorant and TFT. Ranked opens later, at level 30 with 20 owned champions.
How do you create a LoL account step by step?
Five steps, and, to be fair, only one of them deserves real thought (the region, covered below). Everything else is a normal web sign-up.
- Open the sign-up page at account.riotgames.com, or press Play on the League of Legends site, which leads to the same form. If the page loads in the wrong language, use the language selector; it does not affect your region. The game’s own language is a separate setting: you change the language in League later from the Riot Client settings.
- Enter an email address you control. Riot sends the verification link there, and later the password resets, so a throwaway address is a bad idea.
- Enter your date of birth. Riot applies a minimum age that depends on your country, and the date cannot be edited casually later, so enter the real one.
- Choose a username and password. The username is your login only; nobody in game sees it, and Riot does not let you change it afterwards.
- Pick the region, confirm, then open the verification email and click the link. The account is live.
After that, download the Riot Client, sign in, and install League from the client’s game list. The install is large by browser-game standards, so start it before dinner, not after.
Which region should you choose when you create a LoL account?
The one closest to where you play, unless your friends are elsewhere. League accounts are tied to a server, and moving later means a paid transfer in the client at 2,600 RP, more than the price of a legendary skin. So this is the decision to get right the first time.
Two factors pull in different directions. Distance decides your ping, and a 30 ms difference between two servers is the difference between a comfortable game and a sluggish one. Friends decide whether you have anyone to queue with. If your group plays on NA and you live in Europe, you will feel every one of those 100+ ms, and the honest advice is to make your main account where you live and a second one for the friend group (plenty of people do exactly that).
| Region | Good for | Note |
|---|---|---|
| NA | United States and Canada | Largest English-speaking server |
| EUW | Western Europe, UK, Ireland | Biggest European server, mixed languages |
| EUNE | Nordic, Central and Eastern Europe | Shorter queues at some hours than EUW for the east |
| OCE | Australia, New Zealand | Smaller player base, longer high-elo queues |
| BR, LAN, LAS | Brazil, Latin America North and South | Portuguese and Spanish are the default chat languages |
| TR, RU, ME | Turkey, Russia, Middle East | Regional servers with their own ladders |
| JP, KR | Japan, Korea | KR sign-up requires Korean identity verification |
| VN, SEA | Vietnam, Southeast Asia | Separate ladders; check which shard covers your country |
Not sure which server is physically closest? Run our LoL ping test before you sign up. It measures your connection to each region from the browser, which beats guessing from a map. And if you already picked wrong, our guide on switching your Riot account region explains what a transfer moves and what it does not.
Riot ID vs username: which one do other players see?
The Riot ID. Riot uses two names, and new players mix them up constantly. The username is what you type into the login box, it is private, and it is permanent. The Riot ID is your in-game name in the format Name#TAG, shown in lobbies, scoreboards and friend lists, and it is the one you can change. A Riot ID change is free once, then Riot’s support page says you wait 90 days before the next free one.
Because the tag exists, the name itself does not have to be unique. Two players can both be “Shadow” with different tags, which is why a stats site or a friend request needs the full Name#TAG. Our walkthrough on changing your Riot ID covers the rules in detail, including what happens to old names.
What does a new LoL account start with?
Less than most people expect, honestly. A fresh account starts at level 1 with no owned champions, a free champion rotation that changes weekly, and a handful of starter rewards that arrive over the first levels. Ranked is locked. Normal draft, blind pick, ARAM and the Co-op vs. AI modes open up progressively as you level, which is Riot’s way of keeping brand-new players out of queues they would struggle in.
Champions are bought with Blue Essence (BE), which you earn from levelling up, from the battle pass and from disenchanting champion shards. Prices run from 450 BE for the oldest champions to 6,300 BE for newer ones, with a brand-new release costing 7,800 BE in its first week. Riot Points (RP) are the paid currency, used mainly for skins; you never need RP to build a champion pool.
How do you unlock ranked on a new LoL account?
Put simply, three conditions. Reach level 30, own at least 20 champions, and play 10 normal PvP games. Hit all three and Ranked Solo/Duo appears in the queue list.
Level 30 is the slow part. Each game gives experience based on its length and result, and first-win-of-the-day bonuses add a chunk on top, so a player who plays a couple of games every evening gets there in a few weeks rather than days. The catch is the champion count. Players who spend early BE on two or three expensive favourites often reach level 30 with 15 champions and have to grind more. Our guide on farming Blue Essence walks through the cheapest path to 20.
The 10-game rule applies even if you bought champions or used XP boosts. Riot counts normal PvP games for it. It is a bot-account filter, and it works as intended on legitimate players too, so plan for it.
Why do players create a second LoL account?
Three reasons come up far more than any other. Friends on another server, which the region section already covers. A clean slate for learning a new role, because practising jungle on an account with a Diamond MMR is a miserable way to learn jungle. And a clean MMR after a long losing streak on the main, where months of recovery would be needed to get matchmaking back to normal. Is any of these worth 20 to 40 hours of levelling? That depends on how much you play, and it is the exact calculation behind our level 30 LoL accounts: hand-levelled, email unverified so you set your own, checked before handover, with a 30-day replacement warranty under the conditions in our Terms.
One honest note. Riot’s Terms of Service do not allow buying or selling accounts, which is the reason the warranty exists. Anyone telling you a bought account is “100% safe” is selling, not informing.
LoL account sign-up problems and fixes
The same four issues come up again and again (yes, the spam folder is still number one).
- No verification email. Check spam and promotions tabs, wait ten minutes, then use the resend option. Some email providers delay Riot’s mail more than others; if it still fails, try a different address.
- Username taken. Riot usernames are global across all regions, so common words have been gone for years. Add numbers or pick a different word; remember nobody sees this name anyway.
- Wrong region selected. There is no free fix. Either pay for the transfer once the account exists, or, if the account is minutes old, simply create another with a different email.
- Date of birth rejected. If you are below the minimum age for your country, Riot requires parental consent and will not complete the sign-up without it.
Thing is, most of these cost a few minutes. The region mistake costs real money or a restart, which is why it gets its own section above.
How do you keep a new LoL account secure?
Turn on multi-factor authentication in your Riot account settings as soon as the email is verified. Use a password that is not reused from another site, because the overwhelming majority of “hacked” League accounts come from password leaks elsewhere, not from Riot. Never share the login with a booster or a friend, since Riot treats account sharing as a punishable offence and will not restore an account that was lost that way.
Keep the verified email in your own hands, too. The email is the recovery key for the whole account, and a sign-up done on an old school address that expires next year is an account you will eventually lose. Funny enough, that is one of the most common account-recovery tickets Riot receives.
Can you create a LoL account on mobile?
The Riot account, yes; League itself, no. The sign-up page works in a phone browser, and the resulting account is a normal Riot account. League of Legends runs on Windows and macOS only. On a phone or tablet the equivalent is Wild Rift, Riot’s mobile version with its own ranked ladder, which uses the same Riot login but has separate progress, champions and skins. In practice, you can create a LoL account on your phone and download the PC client later, and the region you choose on the phone is the one the PC account gets.
FAQ
How long does it take to create a LoL account?
A few minutes for the sign-up and email verification. Installing the Riot Client and League takes longer, depending on your connection.
Is League of Legends free to play?
Yes. Creating an account and playing are free. Riot Points are optional and mostly buy cosmetics such as skins.
Can I change my region after creating a LoL account?
Yes, with a paid region transfer in the client for 2,600 RP. Transfers to some regions are not available, so check the client before you plan on one.
What level do I need to play ranked?
Level 30, at least 20 owned champions and 10 normal PvP games played.
Can I have more than one League of Legends account?
Riot allows multiple accounts, each with its own email. Sharing an account with other people is what Riot penalises, not owning several yourself.
Does the same account work for Valorant and TFT?
Yes. One Riot account signs in to League, Valorant, TFT, Legends of Runeterra and Wild Rift, though each game keeps separate progress.
Can I change my username later?
No. The login username is permanent. The in-game Riot ID can be changed, free once and then every 90 days.
