If you’ve ever moved to a new country, wanted to queue with friends playing on a different server, or just been fed up with high ping ruining your ranked climbs, you’ve probably wondered how to change region in League of Legends. Riot doesn’t make the process immediately obvious, and there are a lot of common misconceptions about what you’ll lose, how much it costs, and whether you can swap back whenever you want. I’ve done three region transfers over the past six years for work moves and cross-country friend groups, so I’m breaking down exactly what you need to know before you hit that confirm button.
How to Change Region in League of Legends: Full Step-by-Step Walkthrough
First, you don’t complete the region transfer process through the League of Legends client itself. You’ll need to log into your official Riot Games account via a web browser to access the account transfer tools. The entire process takes less than 10 minutes to complete, and transfers usually process within 15 minutes unless Riot’s servers are experiencing high traffic.
You’ll get a confirmation email as soon as the transfer goes through, and you can immediately log into the LoL client on your new region once that email arrives. Don’t try to log into your account while the transfer is in progress, as that can corrupt your account data and delay the process. You can only transfer once every 3 months, so don’t make this decision on a whim if you think you might want to swap back soon.
Key Things to Know Before You Complete a Region Transfer
A lot of players assume they’ll lose all their account content when they transfer, but that’s not the case for most items. First, your ranked rank and MMR do not transfer to the new region. You'll have to play 10 placement matches again to get a new rank on the new server, which is a bummer if you just hit Masters on your old region, but it makes sense to keep matchmaking fair for players on the local server.
All your owned champions, skins, emotes, ward skins, and loot content like hextech chests and orange essence are fully transferred to your new region. Your RP does not carry over though, so spend any remaining RP before you transfer, because you won’t be able to access it on the new server. I made the mistake of not spending my 1200 RP before my first transfer to EUW, and it’s still sitting on my old NA account years later, so don’t skip that step.
You should also test your ping to the new region first before you pay for the transfer. There are free online ping testers for all LoL servers, so run that a few times at peak playing hours (usually 7pm to 11pm local time for the region) to make sure you’re not going to be stuck on 150+ ping every game. Region locks for specific events or promotions don't apply after transfer – you'll be eligible for all events running on your new server as soon as your transfer is complete.
Common Reasons to Change Your LoL Region (And When You Shouldn't)
The most common valid reason to transfer is when you’ve moved permanently to a new country, and your ping on your old region is consistently over 100, which makes competitive play almost impossible. Even 80 ping can make it harder to land skill shots or react to ganks in time, so a transfer will make a huge difference to your gameplay experience in that case.
Another good reason is if most of your real-life friends play on a different region, and you’d rather queue with them than climb solo on your old server. You can also transfer if you want to try playing on a more competitive server, like KR or EUW, to test your skills against stronger opponents and improve faster.
So when shouldn’t you transfer? If you just want to play with a friend for a weekend, it’s way cheaper to make a smurf account on their region than to pay for a transfer and wait 3 months to swap back. If you’re planning to move back to your original region in less than 3 months, don’t transfer either, since you can’t swap back before that cooldown ends. If you have a lot of ongoing event progress on your current region, wait until the event ends to transfer, because that progress won't carry over to the new server.
How to Fix Common Region Transfer Issues
If your transfer is taking longer than 2 hours, don’t panic – sometimes Riot’s system gets backed up during peak hours or big game updates, and it doesn’t mean your account is broken. Wait for the confirmation email before you try to log in, because logging in mid-transfer can corrupt your account data and make the process take even longer.
If some of your skins or loot content is missing after the transfer is complete, submit a ticket to Riot support with a list of the missing items, and they’ll usually restore it within 3 business days. Riot keeps a full log of all your account purchases and earned content, so you won’t lose those items permanently even if they don’t show up right away.
If you’re getting higher ping than expected on your new region, check that you selected the correct server during transfer – a lot of people mix up EUW and EUNE, or NA and LAN, which causes way higher ping than expected. You can also run a traceroute to the server to see if the issue is with your internet provider, rather than the server itself. You can't reverse a region transfer once it's confirmed, so if you picked the wrong server by mistake, you'll have to wait 3 months and pay for another transfer to fix it, or contact support immediately if you catch the mistake within 10 minutes of purchase.
At the end of the day, figuring out how to change region in League of Legends is pretty straightforward once you know where to find the option, but the pre-transfer checks are what make the difference between a smooth swap and a frustrating mistake. Take 10 minutes to test your ping, spend leftover RP, and confirm you really want to switch before you pay the transfer fee, and you’ll be queuing up on your new server with all your favorite skins in no time. If you’re still unsure if a transfer is right for you, try making a free smurf account on the target region first to test the ping and player base before you commit to moving your main account.