Clash of Clans just split Legend League into three tiers — Legend I, II, and III — and the one-time Migration Week from April 20–27 determines where you start. Here's exactly how the placement works, what each tier looks like, and what you should be doing right now if you're already in Legend.
Enjoy up to 22% off on Clash of Clans Top-Ups.
3-Minute Delivery for Non-Stop Gaming.
Trusted 4.9/5 on Trustpilot, 10/10 among Players.
Official Partnership Route, Protect Your Game Wallet.
One League Became Three — And Migration Week Is the Only Placement You Get
I've been pushing Legend League on and off since it first launched, and the one consistent frustration has always been the same: a single crowded tier where the player at rank 1 and the player barely holding 5,000 trophies are technically in the same league. The matchmaking was messy, the grind felt endless, and the competitive pressure was uniform regardless of where you actually sat on the leaderboard. The April 2026 update fixes all of that in one move.
Legend League is now three separate tiers: Legend I, Legend II, and Legend III. Each has its own format, its own weekly battle count, and its own promotion system. The rewards stay the same across all three — same star bonus, same league bonus — so you're not losing anything by being in II or III. What you're gaining is a ranked experience calibrated to where you actually sit, rather than throwing everyone into the same pool and calling it competitive. The transition happened through a one-time Migration Week starting April 20, 2026, and where you landed in that window is where you started in the new system. If you missed it or didn't understand what was happening, this guide explains everything. And if you need Gems to prepare for next season's push, LootBar has competitive rates worth checking before buying in-game.
The Three New Tiers — How Each One Works
Here's the full breakdown of all three tiers, their formats, and the placement thresholds that determined where players landed after Migration Week:
Tier | Format | Battles / Week | Promotion Rule | Placement Threshold |
Legend I | Daily tournament (original format) | 8 per day (standard) | Top of leaderboard — highest competitive tier | Top 12,500 players from Migration Week |
Legend II | Weekly tournament | 30 per week | Top 3 promote to Legend I each week | Top 50,000 players from Migration Week |
Legend III | Weekly tournament | 24 per week | Top 5 promote to Legend II each week | All remaining Legend players |
Below 4,900 trophies | Instant demotion | N/A | Dropped to Electro 33 immediately | Automatic exit from Legend entirely |
The most important structural difference: Legend I still runs on the original daily tournament format — eight attacks per day, matchmaking based on trophy counts, with the snapshot system locking in your base layout for the day. Legend II and Legend III switched to a weekly tournament format with a higher total battle count but more flexibility on when those battles happen across the week. For players who found the daily eight-attack pressure of the original Legend League unsustainable, the weekly format in the lower tiers is a significant quality of life improvement.
Migration Week — Why It Was the Most Important Week of the Season
Migration Week ran April 20–27, 2026. The premise was simple: your performance during that window placed you into one of the three tiers when the new system went live. High performance meant starting in Legend I, which skips the climb through II and III entirely. Lower performance meant starting in III and working your way up through the promotion system.
Migration Week Detail | What It Means |
Window | April 20–27, 2026 — one-time placement phase. Does not repeat once the new system goes live |
How Placement Works | Your trophy count and performance during this window determine which of the three tiers you start in when the split activates |
Legend I Threshold | Top 12,500 players globally at the end of Migration Week → placed directly into Legend I |
Legend II Threshold | Top 50,000 players (outside top 12,500) → placed into Legend II |
Legend III Threshold | All remaining Legend players below top 50,000 → placed into Legend III |
Why It Matters | Starting in Legend I skips weeks of climbing through Legend II and III. Starting in Legend III means grinding promotion battles before you reach competitive play |
Layout Tip | In Legend I, you can set a separate defensive layout from your active base — opponents see your active layout on visits, your chosen layout defends. Use a strong war base for defense during Migration Week |
Hero Upgrade Tip | Heroes are always available for defense even during upgrades (snapshot system). Don't delay attacks waiting for hero upgrades to finish |
Loot During Migration | No loot is lost from defense in Legend League. Loot earned by attackers is newly generated — your storages are safe regardless of results |
What 'Performance' Actually Meant During Migration Week
Migration Week wasn't a separate game mode — it was a regular Legend League week, same attacks, same format, same matchmaking. What changed was the stakes: where you finished in the global trophy rankings at the end of the window locked in your starting tier. Players who understood this treated Migration Week like the most important week of the season, maximizing attacks, using their best war compositions, and making sure their defensive layout was actually optimized rather than leaving the default base up.
The thresholds were top 12,500 for Legend I and top 50,000 for Legend II. Globally, that means 12,500 of the highest-trophy players went straight to the top tier, the next 37,500 went to the middle tier, and everyone else started at the bottom. If you're a consistent Legend League player who was pushing hard during the window, the expectation is that you landed where your skill level actually sits. If you were inactive during that specific week for any reason, you likely ended up lower than your actual level and will need to climb through the promotion system to get back.
Climbing Out of Legend III and II — Promotion System
If you started in Legend III, the top 5 players each week promote to Legend II. From Legend II, the top 3 promote to Legend I each week. These are narrow promotion slots — only five and three players per week respectively. The promotion competition within each tier is genuinely high-stakes because everyone in that tier is fighting for a small number of available spots. Attacking efficiently across all 24 or 30 available battles each week is the baseline, but the players who actually promote consistently are the ones who also optimize their defensive layouts and make smart trophy-efficient army choices rather than just spraying attacks.
What Changed Beyond Legend League
The Legend League split was the headline, but the broader Ranked Mode changes that came with it are worth understanding — especially for players in the lower competitive leagues who found the old system too demanding:
Change | What's Different From Before |
Inactivity Window (new) | Zero penalty for up to 4 weeks of inactivity — previously even a short break could demote you quickly |
Post-Inactivity Demotion Pace | After 4 weeks, demotions happen gradually — only once every 4 weeks. Not a sudden drop |
Battle Requirements (Titan 25 to Electro 33) | Fewer battles required to maintain rank in these higher leagues — reduced grind for non-Legend players |
Demotion Warnings (new) | Clear on-screen warnings now show before a demotion happens. Previous system gave unclear or no notice — players were often surprised by sudden drops |
Defensive Buffs (Legend I) | Defensive buffs remain active in Legend I — attacking in the top tier is intentionally harder. Offensive skill matters more than base strength here |
Legend Shield (unchanged) | Still available in Legend I — prevents defenses (and trophy loss) but blocks attacking. Effects apply to full League Days only, not partial days |
Trophy Reset (end of season) | Trophies above 5,000 still reset to 5,000 at season end. Deducted trophies convert to Legend Trophies — permanently saved to your profile |
The Inactivity Change Is Bigger Than It Looks
Four weeks without demotion sounds generous until you remember what the old system was like. Previously, even a short break — a holiday, a busy work week, anything that kept you offline for a few days — could start the demotion clock almost immediately in the higher leagues. Players who had spent months building to a tier they were proud of would come back after two weeks away to find themselves several leagues lower. The new four-week grace period completely changes the risk calculation of taking a break. You can step back for a full month and return to the exact same rank you left. That's a genuine quality-of-life shift, not just a number change.
After the four-week window, demotions happen gradually — once every four weeks rather than a cascade of drops. The old system could spiral quickly once it started. The new one gives you time to re-engage before the losses compound.
How to Play Legend I Specifically — The Mechanics That Matter
The Snapshot System and Defensive Layouts
Every day in Legend I, a snapshot of your chosen defensive layout is taken at the start of the League Day. That snapshot is what opponents attack — not your live base. The consequences of this are worth understanding. Any traps in your snapshot are always armed, regardless of whether they fired in a previous defense. Your heroes are always available for defense even if they're mid-upgrade in your actual village. And any upgrading defenses remain active at their current level in the snapshot, not at zero.
The layout choice also opens up a useful strategic option. Since visitors to your village see your active layout rather than your snapshot layout, you can set an inferior or intentionally weak active layout as a decoy — opponents copy what they see when visiting, not what actually defends. Your real war base sits in the snapshot, untouched. This has been a standard Legend League tactic since the snapshot system was introduced and it's worth using properly rather than leaving your default base as both the visible and defensive layout.
Legend Shield — When to Use It
A Legend Shield prevents defenses for the day, which means no trophy loss from opponents attacking your base. The trade-off is you also cannot attack while shielded. Shields apply to full League Days only — buying one mid-day means it takes effect at the start of the next day. The same delay applies when dismissing an active shield.
The decision of when to use a Legend Shield comes down to one question: is protecting your current trophy count worth more than the stars and trophies you'd earn from eight attacks? Late in a season when your ranking position matters, or when you've hit a threshold you need to maintain, a shield makes sense. In the middle of a season when you're still climbing, skipping attacks to avoid defensive losses is almost always the wrong trade — attacks generate more trophies than defenses cost in most Legend League weeks.
Legend Trophies — The Permanent Record
At the end of every Legend League season, trophies above 5,000 reset back to 5,000. The deducted trophies don't disappear — they convert into Legend Trophies, which are permanently saved to your profile and cannot be lost. These function as a cumulative record of how long and how well you've competed in Legend League, visible on your profile regardless of your current trophy count. The longer you stay in Legend and the higher you push, the more Legend Trophies accumulate. It's a long-game status system that rewards sustained Legend League participation rather than just single-season performance.
What the Meteor Golem Meta Means for Legend I Attacking
Supercell's March 24 design update specifically acknowledged that Town Hall 18 produced a concentrated meta around Meteor Golem, which forced one of the fastest post-release balance fixes in the game's history. The defensive buffs remaining active in Legend I means that attacking in the top tier is intentionally harder than in the lower tiers — the format rewards genuine offensive skill, not just army strength.
For players pushing Legend I during and after Migration Week, this means army composition matters more than it did in a less defense-buffed environment. The community consensus post-Meteor Golem nerfs has been shifting toward more flexible attack strategies rather than leaning on a single dominant composition. Root Rider hybrids, LaloBlimp variations, and Super Witch Smash are showing up consistently across high-level Legend I attack logs. The shift away from pure Meteor Golem dependency is making the meta more diverse, which is exactly what Supercell said it was going for in the design update.
Final Thoughts
The Legend League split is the most meaningful structural change to CoC ranked play since the mode launched. Three tiers with their own formats, a placement system that actually reflects where players sit skill-wise, and a promotion path that creates genuine competitive incentive at every level — it's a better system than one crowded league trying to accommodate everyone from rank 1 to rank 50,000.
Migration Week was the one window that mattered most, and if you made the most of it, you're starting the new era in the right tier. If you didn't, the promotion system from Legend III and II is designed to let skill actually show over time. Either way, the ranked experience going forward is more deliberate and less punishing than anything the game has offered before.
For Gems ahead of next season's Legend push or to grab the Gold Pass, the Clash of Clans top up page on LootBar has the rates I use — consistently better than in-game. See you at the top of the leaderboard, Chief.
