The start is kind of confusing, let me see if I'm getting this right. They are starting off the pre-season with your previous MMR. This will then give you a chance to gain MMR so when they do a soft reset for S4, you have a chance for a better placement series?
Pre-Season MMR will just be a continuation of S3.
If I am ~1300 MMR right now and did not play anymore games until S4 than the soft reset will drop me down to 1250 . This will be my baseline going into placements.
Placements are your first 10 games of the Season and basically give you inflated amounts of MMR, like up to ~40 points per win/loss, which quickly deteriorates as you play more games. Even though you will be placed after 10 games, the inflated MMR gains/losses will continue for up to 20-30 games (from what was witnessed prior to the MMR going hidden).
If I can win all 10 placements I might assume my MMR jumps an additional ~300 points, I'll be at 1550 MMR and would likely be placed in Silver 1 or Gold V.
If I DO play preseason games and can gain ~250 MMR during it, my MMR after the reset would be 1375. If I win all my placements my new MMR could be around 1675 and I'd possibly be placed in Gold 2 or 3.
Basically playing in the preseason could only mean an additional 100-200 MMR swing on your rating, which is intended, because Riot doesn't want the preseason to have a massive affect on where you place, but in my situation im teetering in low-gold/high silver and if I want to secure a Gold Tier then I might consider playing a bit in the preseason so that I can get over the hump and into Gold a tiny bit easier. Someone firmly in a Tier might not worry as much... Basically if you are in the upper Divisions of a Tier you probably don't need to be concerned with dropping to a lower Tier after placements, even if you don't win all 10.
If you want an idea on your MMR go here:
MMR :: ???~??O?*^?*"?"o ( LOL : ? ) ?*"?*? ???f? (LOL Stats)The site checks your recent ranked matches and the ratings of the groups you were in and figures out what your MMR might be around. (mine is around 1435 which is only 20 points higher than Wizardhawk's
)