I still remember the day I saw the League of Legends box on the shelf at my local CeX (it’s a second-hand media shop in the UK, yes, you pronounce it the C as an S). At the time, I thought, “What a stupid idea, a box for a free game.” I wish I had purchased it all those years ago; well, now you sort of can again.
League of Legends Classic Collector’s Box
So, the box itself comes with a bunch of stuff, including “Founder’s” versions of some of the classic skins. This includes the following digital rewards for League Classic and League Modern:
League Classic Box Defeat
Classic Season Pass
Annie Champion Shard
Alistar Champion Shard
Classic Annie (Founder’s Goth) Classic Chroma
Classic Alistar (Founder’s Black) Classic Chroma
Goth Annie Modern Skin
Black Alistar Modern Skin
Resplendent Explorer Ezreal Portrait
Can’t Chronokeep Me Down Emote
Mighty Metagolem Emote
Kayle Champion Shard
Silver Kayle Modern Skin
Classic Kayle (Founder’s Silver) Classic Chroma
The box also has some physical stuff, including the actual box:
Classic Collector’s Box manual
Totally Legitimate Runeterra map
Classic Rune coasters
Victory/Defeat reversible keychains
Classic Champion Quotes sticker pack
League Classic Box sticker
This limited edition box retails for $89.99 and is being made to order by Riot Games for those who preorder. The orders are set to be fulfilled in December 2026, so there’s plenty of time before they get shipped out.
This is part of a larger collection of goodies people can buy to celebrate the release of League Classic. With the new game mode set to stay for the immediate future, it makes a lot of sense for Riot Games to cash in on the nostalgia, giving people a chance to get some cool limited edition stuff. For collectors, it’s also something they can leave sealed for 20 years and hope it’s worth double the money.
Riot Games developers announced their plan to keep League Classic match history data out of the official Riot API to “preserve the spirit of the mode.” They also ask that League Classic data not be aggregated or displayed to users in any form. , League Classic will also be supported as a valid map type in the Riot Tournament API to allow for the creation and management of community-led League Classic initiatives.
Hi everyone, with the announcement of League Classic we want to share a quick but important update regarding its data. League Classic match history data will not be available via the Riot API and to preserve the spirit of the mode, we ask that League Classic data not be…
— Riot Games Developer Relations (@RiotGamesDevRel) July 28, 2026
League Classic Tier List
Based on PBE testing, we’ve come up with a tier list for League Classic that you can check out here.
League Classic brings back three long-forgotten systems. Here is how Runes, Masteries and old-school items actually work, and why they feel so alien next to the League you have been playing.
League Classic landed on 29 July alongside Patch 26.15, and it included three systems that modern League quietly buried years ago: Runes you buy with IP, a Masteries tree you actually spend points in, and a shop full of items that got deleted somewhere along the way.
If you started playing after 2017, you have literally never touched two of these. And if you were around for Season 3, congratulations, your muscle memory is about to become useful again. So before you load into the old Rift and start panic-clicking, let us walk through what Classic Items, Runes and Masteries do, and how they differ from the League you know.
Runes
Modern runes are free, you pick them fresh every game, and half of them actually do something. Electrocute chunks people, Grasp heals you, Lethal Tempo dumps attack speed into your hands mid-fight. Forget all of that. Classic runes are pure stat sticks.
Before a game, you build a Rune Page, and you fill it with four flavours of rune:
Marks (the red ones): offensive stats. Attack damage, armour penetration, attack speed, that sort of thing.
Seals (yellow): defensive stats. Armour, health, health regen. Your survivability glue.
Quintessences (purple): the chunky ones. Each Quint is worth roughly three of the smaller runes, so this is where the big movement speed, AD or life steal goes.
Riot has made this a lot less painful than it was in 2013, mind. Everything is Tier 3 from the off, you unlock runes just by playing, and there is no upgrading nonsense. You start with three Rune Pages, get two more from Classic Levels, and can buy extras with IP (yes, Influence Points are back, pour one out). Forget to set a page, and you get a sensible default, so you are a little sub-optimal rather than actively griefing your team.
Masteries
If runes are the stats, Masteries are the personality. And if you picked up League any time after the 2017 preseason, this is the bit you have genuinely never seen, because Riot deleted Masteries entirely and folded them into the current rune system. An entire mechanic, gone, and half the player base never knew it existed.
Offence (red): damage. Straight up.
Defence (yellow): tankiness and sustain.
Utility (blue): cooldowns, mana, movement, gold, the sneaky stuff.
Reaching the good stuff at the bottom of a tree takes 21 points, which is most of your budget, so you are always picking one main tree and sprinkling the leftover nine somewhere else. That is why old League builds were written as numbers. 21/9/0 is your damage-hungry bruiser. 21/0/9 is an AP carry who wants a touch of utility. 0/21/9 is your immovable tank support. Say “21/9/0” to anyone who played back then and they will know exactly what you meant.
Classic Items
Classic brings back nearly every item from League’s first few years, and the shop plays by completely different rules from the one you know. A few things that will short-circuit a modern player’s brain:
Gold per 10 items – Philosopher’s Stone, Kage’s Lucky Pick, Heart of Gold, Avarice Blade: cheap items that passively earn gold every ten seconds. Supports (and greedy junglers, and the legendary Bankplank) would stack several and simply get richer for existing. Filling half your inventory with GP10 was a real, respected strategy.
Snowball items – Sword of the Occult, Mejai’s Soulstealer, Leviathan: dirt-cheap items that stacked stats every time you got a kill or assist, then dumped most of it when you died. Get fed, become a god. Feed, become a very expensive paperweight. High risk, silly-high reward.
Cursed actives – This is the era of Deathfire Grasp, an item whose active nuked a chunk of the target’s max health and turned certain mages into one-shot machines. Actives mattered, and knowing which button to press won fights.
Classic vs modern League
System
League Classic
Modern League
Runes
Bought with IP, slotted into pages as flat or scaling stats. Purely passive.
Free, chosen fresh each game, with active keystones and adaptive effects.
Masteries
A separate 30-point, three-tree talent system you spend into pre-game.
Gone. Merged into the rune system back in the 2017 preseason.
Items
Gold-income items, snowball stacks, wild actives and unstandardised builds.
A leaner shop with mostly settled, predictable build paths.
Currency
Influence Points (IP) for runes and extra pages.
No rune costs at all. Everyone gets the lot for free.
Modern League hands you a clean, free, streamlined toolkit. Classic makes you buy your stats, spend your talent points and build a genuinely weird item pile, then trusts you to make it work. Go set a page, lock in your main, and we will see you on the Classic Rift.
Patch 26.15 notes for League of Legends are here. (Source)
League of Legends Classic
Our newest (oldest) game mode is coming to a server near you! Relive the glory days with League Classic. Marvel at what passed for modern graphical fidelity in the 2010s, outplay your opponents with point and click stuns and using old new items like Heart of Gold…! Classic features 60 champions using classic versions of their gameplay across League’s early history and is an experience that emphasizes strategy over mechanics and stronger consequences, both positive and negative, for your actions. If you want to learn more about League Classic, check out our dev blog here. We’ll see you on the Rift, but be careful, the monsters fight back (use your health potions please)!
Ranked Season 3 Start
Ranked Season 3 will start at 12pm on July 29 local server time. Victorious Ranked Mission (15 Ranked Games won) will be refreshed with season start, and end of S2 rewards will be distributed shortly after S3 start. Shard transfer service will be temporarily off until S2 rewards are granted.
Aegis of Valor
Aegis of Valor has helped make autofill games feel worth playing out, but its loss protection and Mastery requirement created a secondary objective: play for the grade, not necessarily for the win. That’s the opposite of what a Ranked incentive should ask of you. We want every Ranked teammate to share the same goal, which is trying their very best to win the game.
We’re refocusing Aegis entirely around victory: it will no longer reduce LP losses in the case of defeat, and wins will award double LP without requiring a minimum mastery score.
Apex Duo Restrictions
When we brought duo queue back to Apex, our goal was to let more high-ranked players play together without compromising the quality of the ladder. The results were mixed. In Master, duos were generally manageable, but we still saw enough impact on match quality to warrant tighter limits. In GM and Challenger, smaller player pools and extremes of skill give duos an outsized impact on game outcomes, one we can’t consistently offset without creating excessive skill gaps or less competitive lobbies. As our matchmaking systems improve, we’ll keep looking for ways to bring duo queue back to GM and Challenger, but only once we can do so without compromising the fairness and competitive integrity they’re meant to represent.
Master players will now be able to duo, but only with players close to them in rank.
GM, Challenger, and players with GM or Challenger MMR will not be allowed to duo.
For more details on the exact restrictions, see here.
Ever since the loss of Mobility Boots / Symbiotic Soles, Alistar has felt constrained in his gameplay, to the point he’s failing to compete in the current meta even though it favors roaming supports – a space we expect him to excel in.
This patch, we’re launching a set of Bel’Veth changes that are aimed at making her gameplay pattern a bit less focused around her early game, in order to allow her to fulfill her fantasy as a late game scaling champion. The major changes here are making her Q at early levels function more like a regular dueling ability in order to reduce just how heavily she can put certain champions behind with early invades. Historically, this Q tuning has caused us to repeatedly balance around her very early strength at a loss to many of her other more core functions. While we acknowledge that there’s a subset of Bel’Veth players who love this capability, broadly, we think it’s paying too many tradeoffs for the rest of her audience. We are looking to move some of her early game power to her mid and late game by leaning more on her evolution fantasy and her stacking mechanic. We believe that high moments like having form until death when you have gotten enough stacks feels like a transformative yet exciting moment that lines up a bit more with her kit expectations.
Base Stats
Attack Speed: 0.85 ⇒ 0.67
Attack Speed Ratio: 0.85 ⇒ 0.67
Attack Damage: 60 ⇒ 55
Basic Attack Damage Modifier: 75% ⇒ 100%
Attack Cast Time: 0.25 ⇒ 0.22
Total Attack Animation: Adjusted to feel better at lower Attack Speeds
Armor: 32 ⇒ 28
Armor Growth: 4.7 ⇒ 5
Health: 610 ⇒ 580
Health Growth: 105 ⇒ 110
Model Size: 100% ⇒ 95%
Passive – Death In Lavender
Attack Speed After Spell Cast: 20% minimum / 40% maximum for 2 attacks ⇒ 20% for 3 seconds
Attack Speed per Stack: 0.28% minimum / 1.1% maximum ⇒ 0.1% minimum / 2% maximum
Damage per Strike: 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 (+8% Attack Damage) (+8% On-Hit effects), increased up to 300% based on missing Health ⇒ 10 / 12 / 14 / 16 / 18 (+12% Attack Damage) (+12% On-Hit effects), increased up to 100% based on missing Health
Number of Strikes: 6 + 1 per 33% bonus Attack Speed ⇒ 6 + 1 per 40% bonus Attack Speed
Target Swapping: Passive removed when swapping targets ⇒ Passive no longer removed when swapping targets
Maximum Epic Monster Stacks: 10 ⇒ 8
Passive Application Requirement: E and Q required Bel’Veth to have attacked the target first ⇒ E and Q no longer require Bel’Veth to have attacked the target first
Despite the recent buff, Kai’sa remains weaker than expected, especially late game for a marksman who is supposed to hyperscale to make up for her short range. We’re tapping up her scaling to help her output as she nears her final form.
Locke continues to climb the mastery curve, so we’re continuing nerfs to keep him in line. Particularly, we observe his early game to be clearly over, even for a snowball reliant assassin, and we also want to avoid W 2nd max as optimal as it gives him too much safety for the risks he should need to take.
Maokai has gradually faded out of both top and jungle play since our last major work on him. We think that ultimately his top laning experience is not the greatest for all parties involved, so for now we are mainly focused on buffing his jungle back up, where we think he has a fairly unique output as a zone controlling tank.
We overshot last patch with the R buffs, and after re-assessing what he looks like with a meaningfully stronger ult, decided to instead revert the R buff entirely in favor of improving his ability to catch and keep opponents in his range. Accounting for the bugfix for his R, we believe these two adjustments to his E will be a net positive from 26.13 and will keep an eye on his performance.
Naafiri remains a hot topic in the meta, both for solo queue and pro play. While we are quite happy with how many people have taken her up since her rework, she’s still on the strong end, especially when she really gets the ball rolling with back-to-back-to-back ultimates.
Endless Hunger’s addition to the game has given Riven an extremely potent new tool that fits her play pattern almost perfectly. While we feel we’ve gotten it into a fairly good spot among most users, Riven is notably overperforming. Targeting her R’s AD scaling (heavy synergy with Endless Hunger haste, mid quest scaling) will impact all her spells and how unstoppable her snowballing can feel, while still leaving a lot of room for her high moments.
R – Blade of the Exile
Bonus Attack Damage Ratio: 25% ⇒ 20%
R – Wind Slash
Bonus Attack Damage Ratio: 60% minimum / 180% maximum ⇒ 55% minimum / 165% maximum
After his buff in 26.12, it was clear that we moderately overshot our target. We’re pulling back the chains a tad to prevent him from bullying too hard.
Since our direct and systemic adjustments, the bear has been hibernating from dusk till dawn for a couple patches… we’re giving him more chances to gap close, especially for laners, without raising his already thrilling ceiling of spell chaining.
We believe that Zac brings unique gameplay and class diversity to the jungle. That said, his presence in the jungle has fallen quite a bit over the more recent patches. We believe giving him a bit more opportunity to execute on his distinct gank angles as well as a bit of durability in a team fight can help lift up our favorite secret weapon.
The item has been near bottom pickrate since release, and the distance between it and the next least popular Lethality item is quite far. We’re making it both more accessible and slightly stronger on its less noticeable effect, because we find that lethality users putting more of their gold into utility and progressing the team game is healthy in the long term.
Terminus is meant to be one of the premium capstone items for scaling On-Hit builds, but has been more of a mid game spike item than a true late game scaling option, leaving the on-hit space a bit sparse for options later on.
Yun Tal Wildarrows has fallen significantly over this year from its spot as the go-to scaling crit item. We believe the game continues to benefit from its function as a scaling option, so we are buffing it up to compete with the broader array of early crit items currently on offer.
Cost: 850g ⇒ 750g
Attack Speed: 40% ⇒ 45%
Runes
Jack Of All Trades
Different statlines are much more accessible with items like Endless Hunger/Gluttonous Greaves/DHelm, and even though we love players shooting for creative builds to utilize JOAT, it definitely has room to be weaker both early and late while still giving a ton of bang for your buck.
Adaptive Force at 5 / 10 stat breakpoints: 10 / 25 ⇒ 8 / 20
With League Classic here, it’s time to look at how to actually get into the game. Thankfully, the process is fairly simple, though we can only help you get into the game; flashing over the Wraith camp wall is on you.
League Classic is keeping everything super simple. It’s all going down within the standard League of Legends client.
What is League Classic
If you can imagine it, think back to Season 3 of League of Legends; that’s what League Classic is. This is pre-reworks, runes and masteries, Influence Points, stacking HP potions, and even mana potions. The key difference is that the pace of the game is much slower. Riot Games has talked about Yasuo being “The Wall” for League of Legends, so we are pre-Yasuo.
League Classic released with 60 champions, with at least 4 champions expected “soon” according to Riot Meddler (Graves, Urgot, Jinx, Nami). Thus far, if a champion came out after 2013 (pre-Yasuo), they won’t be added to League Classic. League Classic sits alongside URF or Arena as a Featured Game Mode. If you want the deep dive on every returning rune, mastery and item, check out our everything we know about League Classic.
League Classic Champion select
No Extra Download Required
Let’s be honest, we’re all sick of downloading more games, more different clients for games or 40GB patches that add one new map. Sure, League Classic is coming in a patch, but you won’t even notice it. Just grab the League Client, and away you go. Head to the Featured Game Mode and you are set.
Getting Into League Classic
Download the League Client orpatch up – Make sure your client is on the latest patch. If League is already installed, it will have grabbed the update by itself; just let it finish.
Hit Play – Same button you always use.
Pick League Classic in the game mode picker – That is the bit where you normally choose Ranked, ARAM, or TFT.
Choose your queue, lock it in, and off you go – Pick how you want to queue, add your friends, and get gaming.
League Classic Game Modes
One really key bit of information: League Classic is a for-fun mode, not an entirely new game with ranked. Riot has kept things simple with just three versions of League Classic, but realistically there is just one actual competitive mode.
PvP Draft is the main event. A single draft queue, bans and all.
Co-op vs AI for warming up or learning the older kits without the pressure of real opponents.
Custom games for full control, or for dragging your mates into a lobby.
Instead of LP, you get Summoner’s Journey, an achievement-style progression that runs from Salt all the way up to Legend and unlocks at Classic Level 10. Riot reckons only a single-digit percentage of players will ever hit Legend, so the top stays exclusive; but this isn’t an MMR grind. Curious who is actually strong before you queue? Our League Classic tier list is already tracking the early meta so you can dodge the coin flips.
Riding along on the same patch is ARAM: Mayhem Classic-ish, a retro-flavoured spin on Mayhem with its own separate queue. Heads up though, champions keep their modern kits there rather than their Classic ones, and it is a limited-time mode, so it will not be sat in the queue list forever.
And that is genuinely all there is to it. No hoops, no separate downloads, just pick it from the mode list and go. Round up the old squad, dig out that 1% crit rune, and find out whether your muscle memory held up better than your knees do.
Old Runes, old Masteries, old Champions, old memories. League Classic is coming to bring the nostalgia. Here is everything we know so far about League of Legends Classic ahead of its July 29th release.
We’ve had WoW Classic, Old School RuneScape, and now it’s League of Legends to finally bring us League Classic. Fans have been crying out for it for the past few years, and it’s finally here. I sadly remember when League of Legends released, so having it now be called Classic is pretty sad. That said, it’s great to get a chance to go back to these simpler times to try an old classic.
League Classic at a Glance
Release date: 29 July 2026, launching alongside Patch 26.15.
Where: inside the existing League of Legends client, no separate download.
Era: anchored to Season 3, but described by Riot as a “greatest hits” of early League rather than one exact patch.
Champions: 60 at launch, with more from the 2009 to 2013 window arriving later.
Not Included: Yasuo
Systems: old Runes, Masteries, items, Summoner Spells, IP and the original Summoner’s Rift.
Queues: one PvP Draft queue, Co-op vs AI and customs. No Ranked.
Progression: Classic Levels plus the Summoner’s Journey, from Salt all the way up to Legend.
New toy: The Council, a community voting system that decides what Classic gets next.
So what actually is League Classic?
At a basic level, League Classic has taken a time machine back to LoL Season 3 and put it inside the current League client. That slightly oversimplifies things, of course, but it’s roughly the idea here.
Season 3 is the anchor, but the mode pulls bits from across League’s early years. Every Summoner Spell comes back, including Fortify, which is not a sentence I expected to type in 2026. Almost every item from the first few years returns, alongside a big chunk of the roster running pre-rework kits. And there is one hard rule Riot committed to in writing: no Yasuos allowed.
That is not a joke about the playerbase; it is a design thesis. Classic is trying to rewind the combat pacing that changed when high-mobility champions started arriving. Missiles and dashes are slower. There is significantly more crowd control flying around. Abilities cost more mana and hit substantially harder, so committing to a fight actually means committing to a fight, rather than dashing out of it three times and going for a coffee.
Oh, and Mana Potions. That’s the Tweet.
Worth a note here. League Classic is not trying to do what WoW Classic did. That means this is not a “Patch 2.5” lock-it-in situation. Riot has used Season 3 as a base and built off of that. Crucially, a bit like Blizzard did with WoW by having Cataclysm as a breakpoint in what “Classic vs Retail” was. Riot has done the same with Yasuo. Riot Meddler confirmed the champion and rework cutoff for Classic is pre-Yasuo, and the dates make the line a sharp one: Jinx arrived in October 2013 and is eligible. Yasuo arrived that December and is not.
When does League Classic come out?
League Classic launches on 29 July 2026, tied to the Patch 26.15 rollout. As with any patch, servers go down and come back region by region rather than everywhere at once, so your exact “I can queue now” moment depends on where you play.
It has been on PBE since mid-July, which is where a fair chunk of the pre-launch drama has already played out. More on that shortly.
The Rift you remember, minus the eye strain
Classic runs on a rebuilt version of the original Summoner’s Rift. No alcoves, the old jungle layout, with Wraiths (plural) back where they belong. Buffs have their little friends again; they hit noticeably harder than modern camps, and they respawn much faster, so bring Health Potions, or play Warwick.
Riot has not shipped it as a raw asset dump, though. Lighting, shadows and textures have all had targeted work done to improve clarity, which is the sensible call. Nostalgia is great right up until you lose a teamfight because you genuinely could not see what was happening.
All 60 champions in League Classic at launch
The launch roster is the original 40 plus another 20 hand-picked champions released between 2009 and 2013. Riot has said more champions from that same window are coming, but Classic will never include the full modern roster. The smaller pool is deliberate: if you have been away for years, you are not being asked to relearn 170 kits before you can play a game.
If you already own a champion on your main account, you have them in Classic immediately. If not, they unlock through Classic Levels, the Shop, or the free rotation.
Ahri
Alistar
Amumu
Anivia
Annie
Ashe
Blitzcrank
Brand
Cho’Gath
Corki
Dr. Mundo
Evelynn
Ezreal
Fiddlesticks
Gangplank
Garen
Gragas
Heimerdinger
Janna
Jarvan IV
Jax
Karthus
Kassadin
Katarina
Kayle
Kog’Maw
Lee Sin
Leona
Lulu
Lux
Malphite
Malzahar
Master Yi
Miss Fortune
Morgana
Nasus
Nidalee
Nunu & Willump
Olaf
Pantheon
Rammus
Ryze
Shaco
Singed
Sion
Sivir
Skarner
Sona
Soraka
Taric
Teemo
Tristana
Tryndamere
Twisted Fate
Twitch
Vayne
Veigar
Warwick
Wukong
Zilean
Champions above who have had visual, graphical, or audio updates since the Classic era, champions who’ve had VGUs (Visual and Gameplay Update) since the era, Sion being the headline case, have had VFX, animation and sound reworked backwards to match their Classic kits, and every base model got the old inked outlines.
Early meta read: our LoL Classic tier list currently has Fiddlesticks, Jarvan IV, Master Yi, Kassadin, Corki, Ezreal, and Leona sitting at S+ off PBE data. That is PBE data, though, so expect movement before and after launch.
Items, Runes and Masteries are back; the grind is not
Items: nearly everything from League’s first few years returns. Filling half your inventory with Gold per 10 items is, regrettably, on the table. Riot specifically namechecked Deathfire Grasp, Atma’s Impaler and Frozen Mallet. And Zz’Rot Portal, which they announced with the enthusiasm of someone admitting to a crime.
Runes: you pick Runes before you queue, and they meaningfully change how a champion plays. The brutal part of the old system is gone, though. Everything unlocks at Tier 3 as standard, no upgrading, no buying individual Runes at increasing cost. You start with three Rune Pages, earn two more through Classic Levels, and can buy additional pages with IP, which is back purely for Classic. Underused Runes have been given some love, so more of them are actually worth slotting.
Masteries: Offense, Defense and Utility trees, 30 points. Fully unlocked once you hit Classic Level 4, which is not exactly a grind.
Thanks everyone for your feedback on League Classic!
We updated the VFX of several champions with their old visuals. It's been fun to basically undo years of my work. 😆
Videos for Classic-ified VFX for Amumu, Anivia, Blitzcrank, Leona, Lulu, Malzahar, Tryndamere, Veigar and… pic.twitter.com/zJuszFqzx0
At launch, there is a single PvP Draft queue, Co-op vs AI, and custom games. There is no Ranked ladder, and Riot has made it clear they don’t want to add one. Classic is about fun with friends, not the climb.
The modern positional preference system has been added, however. So gone are the days of “mid or feed.”Ideally, you get your first pick and not your last, but be prepared to play the ones in between.
League Classic Levels
Classic Levels are a free, permanent, one-time progression track that everyone has. Playing games levels it up, and it hands out Runes, Masteries, access to the Summoner’s Journey, IP, Blue Essence, Rune Pages and cosmetics, including a Rustier Blitzcrank skin. Think account levels, but for Classic.
The Summoner’s Journey unlocks at Classic Level 10 and is the closest thing Classic has to a ladder without being one. You start at Salt, climb to Wood, and keep going up to Legend. Riot reckons only a single-digit percentage of players will ever hit Legend, so there is a real flex at the top for anyone who wants it, without forcing everyone else into a ranked mindset.
Passes, Classic Skins, Chromas and Portraits
Oh, you thought there wasn’t going to be a Battle Pass? Of course there is, because no one is doing this for the fun of the game.
Classic Skins restore how champions looked between 2009 and 2013. Miss pre-rework Evelynn’s original visuals? That is what these are for. Classic Chromas layer even more 2009 energy on top, including the original Tundra Warwick. Portraits are a brand new cosmetic that swaps out loading screen splash art for alternate illustrations, ranging from designer doodles to full reinterpretations, and they rotate so you can show off a collection while your team loads in on a potato.
Classic Skins, Classic Chromas, and Portraits only work inside League Classic. Many of the skins already in your collection will work in Classic at launch, with Riot expanding that list over time.
Note: When the PBE first dropped, the Classic Champion looks were locked behind the paid skins. Now, the default is the Classic look, with old voice lines added where possible.
The Council: you get a vote
The Council is a community voting system that shapes where Classic goes next: which champions get added, what Classic skins get made, and even selected gameplay changes.
Access unlocks through Classic Levels, and voting power scales with how much you actually play Classic. Riot keeps hold of game health and balance, but the direction of the mode is being handed to the people playing it. If you have watched Old School RuneScape’s polling system over the years, the shape of this will be very familiar.
The modern bits Riot kept
Classic is not a time capsule of 2013 infrastructure, thankfully. Riot confirmed the following stays modern:
System
What you get
Matchmaking
Modern matchmaking, not 2013’s
Servers
Current server infrastructure and performance improvements
Pings
The full modern ping wheel
Spell buffering
Retained
Controls
Optional WASD movement
Balance
Regular updates, but with a Classic-specific balance philosophy
Classic is not going to be balanced towards the live game’s standards. Riot’s stated aim is preserving what makes the mode feel distinct, which realistically means living with some old-school nonsense rather than patching it flat.
ARAM: Mayhem Classic-ish is coming too
Launching alongside Classic is ARAM: Mayhem Classic-ish, a retro-flavoured spin on Mayhem with its own queue, separate from both ARAM and regular ARAM Mayhem.
Champions keep their modern kits, not their Classic ones, because Augments were built and tested against modern kits and Riot did not want to pull development time away from Classic itself. What you do get is the 60-champion Classic pool, old-school items, Classic-inspired Augments, mirror matchups since both teams draw from the same pool, and a new map based on the original Rift rather than the Howling Abyss.
It is explicitly a limited-time mode, so it will not be sat in the queue list forever.
What we still do not know
Whether Classic is permanent. Riot has talked about future champions, Seasonal Passes and Council votes, all of which imply longevity, but it has not been formally labelled a permanent mode.
Which champions come next. Meddler has mentioned excitement about adding Graves and Urgot, Jinx, and Nami but additions run through The Council, so the roster’s future is genuinely up for grabs.
Whether Ranked ever arrives. Not at launch, and Riot’s framing suggests they are in no rush.
What might still change. The skins reversal happened in under a week. There is still time on the clock.
League Classic goes live on 29 July with Patch 26.15. Time to call the squad, dig out that 1% crit Rune, and find out whether your muscle memory survived thirteen years.
League Classic arrives with Patch 26.15 on Wednesday, 29 July. Here is when it goes live where you are, why Korea gets to play before you do, and what time you should actually be sat at your desk.
Old Rift, old runes, old masteries and sixty champions, but no Yasuo. League Classic is nearly here, but what time can I click the play button?
League Classic ships as part of Patch 26.15 on Wednesday 29 July 2026, inside the League client you already have. Unlike Runescape and WoW Classic, League Classic is going to be inside the “retail” version of League of Legends. Effectively, this is a game mode like ARAM or Arena.
LoL Classic Release Times
League Classic is set to release alongside Patch 26.15 when it is released in your region. That’s the simple way to look at it, anyway. This isn’t a global release; people in Korea, OCE, and Japan will have it before people in Europe and North America.
League Classic release times by region
Servers typically go down in the early hours and come back roughly three hours later, with Patch 26.15 confirmed fully live by 12:00 noon server time. The UTC column is the one to screenshot if you are co-ordinating a five stack across time zones.
Servers
26.15 fully live (local)
In UTC
OCE
12:00, 29 Jul (Noon)
02:00, 29 Jul
KR
–
03:00, 29 Jul
JP
–
03:00, 29 Jul
SEA / TW
–
04:00, 29 Jul
RU
–
09:00, 29 Jul
TR
–
09:00, 29 Jul
EUNE
–
10:00, 29 Jul
EUW
–
10:00, 29 Jul
BR
–
15:00, 29 Jul
LAS
–
15:00, 29 Jul
LAN
–
18:00, 29 Jul
NA
–
19:00, 29 Jul
A note for those in the UK: as you have to play on the two EU servers, you are -1 hour on CEST time.
Classic is not the only thing landing on the 29th
ARAM: Mayhem Classic-ish is also dropping in Patch 26.15; it will drop the pool down to 60-champions, but modern kits will remain. The mode will also include a few Classic-flavoured items and new unique augments. It will also allow for Mirrow matchups, which will likely cause chaos.
Patch 26.15 is also doing plenty of ordinary heavy lifting. It kicks off Season 3, hands Bel’Veth a near-total rework aimed at weakening her early game so she scales properly, and takes another swing at Locke, who is still bullying the mid ranks harder than Riot intended. Our full Patch 26.15 breakdown has the numbers, and the official 26.15 patch notes go live the day before, which, as always, will be live on U.GG.
League of Legends Classic is coming soon, and to celebrate, Riot Games is offering up a host of global showmatches. Sides from the LCS, EU LCS, LPL, LCK, and more will compete in throwback matches. These matches are full of legendary regional talent taking to the LoL Classic rift.
The NA LCS is the first to host an event, pitching up TSM vs CLG, while the EU LCS is often for themed rosters. Every region is taking part, so let’s take a look at what is going down.
LCS Classic: TSM vs CLG
Things kick off with the LCS, which will cast two legendary rosters to face off. TSM and CLG are two of the most iconic in the LCS’ storied history. The rosters certainly check out, with legandary players from the past coming together.
Schedule: 1 PM PT July 24th
Stream: Lolesports.com
Rosters:
Lane
TSM
CLG
Top
Hauntzer
ZionSparten
Jungle
TheOddOne
Xmithie
Mid
Hai
Pobelter
ADC
Zven
Doublelift
Support
Xpecial
Chauster
On-Air Talent:
The voices and faces bringing you this Friday's League Classic #LCS Showmatch:
The EU LCS returns for one last outing, and rather than pitching two legendary teams, the EU LCS is going for two ideas. Dynasty vs Legacy. For many fans that grew up watching the Fnatic legacy days, having Rekkles and Yell0wStaR back together will be worth the price of admission alone. Given his more recent time as a Support, seeing Rekkles at a high level on ADC will be a nice throwback. Though, Rekkles is also the most recently active pro, we suspect he will be the freshest.
Schedule: July 25, 4:30 AM PT – 1:30 PM CEST
Stream: Lolesports.com
Rosters:
Lane
Team Dynasty
Legacy
Top
sOAZ
Kev1n
Jungle
Cyanide
Araneae
Mid
Froggen
Alex Ich
ADC
Forg1vengre
Rekkles
Support
Nyph
Yell0wStaR
On-Air Talent: TBD
LCK League Showmatch
For now, we don’t have the full details, just when the event will be. But with legendary rosters and players in abundance, we look forward to what we see.
Schedule: August 4th
Stream: Lolesports.com
Rosters:
Lane
Team 1
Team 2
Top
TBD
TBD
Jungle
TBD
TBD
Mid
TBD
TBD
ADC
TBD
TBD
Support
TBD
TBD
On-Air Talent: TBD
LPL League Showmatch
The LPL has not confirmed the rosters at this time, but there’s plenty to choose from.
Schedule: July 31
Stream: Lolesports.com
Rosters:
Lane
Team 1
Team 2
Top
TBD
TBD
Jungle
TBD
TBD
Mid
TBD
TBD
ADC
TBD
TBD
Support
TBD
TBD
On-Air Talent: TBD
LCP League Showmatch
For now, we don’t have the full details, just when the event will be.
Schedule: August 1st
Stream: Lolesports.com
Rosters:
Lane
Team 1
Team 2
Top
TBD
TBD
Jungle
TBD
TBD
Mid
TBD
TBD
ADC
TBD
TBD
Support
TBD
TBD
On-Air Talent: TBD
CBLOL League Showmatch
For now, we don’t have the full details, just when the event will be.
Schedule: July 25 – 9 AM PT – 6 PM CEST.
Stream: Lolesports.com
Rosters:
Lane
CNG
PAIN
Top
Leko
Mylon
Jungle
Revolta
Sirt
Mid
Rakin
Kami
ADC
Kalec
brTT
Support
Alocs
Dioud
On-Air Talent: TBD
LATAM League Showmatch – Creators & Ex-Pros
The LATAM region is bringing in creators to face off against former pro players.
Schedule: August 7th
Stream: Lolesports.com
Rosters:
Lane
Team 1
Team 2
Top
TBD
TBD
Jungle
TBD
TBD
Mid
TBD
TBD
ADC
TBD
TBD
Support
TBD
TBD
On-Air Talent: Barbakahn
We’ll update this post as we get more details about each region’s matches.
Morde’s ult changes from last patch were really cool
However, they overshot in magnitude and we haven’t been super happy with the ult gameplay after seeing it on live, losing a lot of the tension in whether or not he will successfully 1v1 them and also making Morde feel a lot weaker outside of his R moment
One of the core concepts of the Juggernaut class is that they should have windowed moments of target access, but should have on average less continuous target access than other classes (eg. lower base movespeed for example)
We think that Morde could do with more target access broadly, but through this type of windowed access, hence buffing his E
Since the release of Gluttonous Greaves + a lot of healing from Endless Hunger buffs and the surrounding ecosystem, she has risen to the top of the pack
As a light fighter broadly, she’s having the shape that we think is reasonably healthy, though long term, giving her more choices in the first slot other than Axiom (eg. more durable paths as well) would be broadly desirable (though she synergizes very well with the ability haste there), that would allow her to have other modes of success that aren’t just one shotting her target
Alistar has been closer to the bottom of the pecking order for the melee support. That said, our meta adjustments to move melee supports up relative to ranged supports has been reasonably successful, so we’re pretty happy with how that’s played out
Locke
Locke is still pretty strong; he has been tapering off in the lowest skill brackets and the high skill brackets, but in the “skilled” skill brackets (around Emerald/Diamond), Locke is able to both take over the game and also not throw it
At the higher skill brackets, he can snowball but needs to play very well without throwing as he falls off sharply
At the lower skill brackets, the executional demands and constant throws can make him fall off faster
Overall, we feel his release has landed well
Systems
Bastionbreaker has been a pretty niche item and is pretty expensive to deviate for a strategic output. We’re looking to make it more accessible.
Jack of All Trades nerf was also pushed to this patch; it has been a bit too strong and too present, especially for users that opt into strong defenses and are able to also supplement that with strong offence.
Sundered Sky has been strong and meta-defining at the highest levels of play for quite a while now, so we’re looking to take a pass at the fighter item system, now that we’re out of the tournament windows.
Notably, we think it’s been suppressing a bit of meta diversity, especially for things like AP jungle or Tank JG. Part of that is intentional, but the magnitude is a bit off
