For the limited number of Pro games on 26.16, we’ve been seeing good movement on roaming supports and expect it to trickle down to solo queue over time (especially as players find the strategy less effective over time)
We’ll still continue to monitor this and assess whether stronger swings are necessary, though we don’t want to over-punish regular roaming and a small amount of unconvential roaming strategies is reasonable, so long as they don’t become broadly optimal
Champions
Mages bot overall have lost some amount of win rate across the board, but not a huge amount, which is roughly about the impact expected. Seeing good skews on Poppy and Camille support with support nerfed and Top skews playing out well (in particular). Still monitoring the impact of Hail of Blades on champions more broadly, eg., Yi, Tryndamere, Shaco, etc.
As stated in previous posts/videos, while Xerath bot is a large part of the AP bot meta, we still think AP bots add to good long term variety and add a healthy frustration to the role
That said, Xerath is performing well in both Mid and Bot, especially for average play and is receiving a generic nerf across the board
Vayne top has been a strong champion in higher levels of play and also is a bit over the edge in terms of what we’d consider healthy types of available counterplay in many matchups.
Broadly, ranged tops fill a similar niche to Mage bot, which is to add long term healthy variety to the role, even though it can be frustrating in the moment and that also adds to their satisfaction when overcome.
One of the principles we hold here is that there needs to be counterplay to frustrating experiences; a combination of tactical (moment to moment) and strategic.
For Vayne top specifically, she can be a combination of tanky (with Experimental Hexplate), with a strong laning phase, while scaling well.
Overall, we think Vayne could have a bit of a weaker laning phase when played in top lane, to balance out these other attributes, but she is still going to be baseline on the frustrating side as a ranged champion that can be played top lane.
We don’t think it’s too far off though and Vayne still has a structural weakness of being vulnerable to ganks, especially when she’s pushing a lot and doesn’t provide much team utility.
This change hopefully results in her lane opponents having slightly more health in order to assist with gank attempts or trade back.
Last patch, we made some adjustments to Nasus trying to resolve some of his skew between roles and restore some of the stacking power to Top lane where it is inherently higher risk than Jungle.
Structurally, we felt that balance was off.
While we suspected this change would be over-magnitude, we wanted to get a clean read on the magnitude of this lever for Top vs JG and follow up this patch after seeing how much impact it had.
This patch, we’re reducing some of the net total sustain he gets in Top lane to make hitting those high stack counts a bit more challenging (incidentally, this lever doesn’t affect Jungle as much).
Items
Sundered Sky
Directionally, Sundered Sky and AP Jungle changes have been good, but magnitude is still off
We’re putting another small-moderate nerf in for this patch and hoping to see more movement on AP jungles and Sundered Sky dominance in higher levels of play
Stormrazor
Outside of Stormrazor Jhin, it doesn’t have a large user base and we think it could have more power overall to broaden the user pool
Rasmus “Caps” Winther is the next player added to the League of Legends Hall of Legends. The Danish mid laner becomes the first Western player to be included.
Caps is the most decorated player in European League of Legends history and has for many years been considered the G.O.A.T of the region.
Caps joins the Hall of Legends
There really is no other player in the West like Caps. He’s had longevity in his career, has been loyal to G2 Esports since joining and has carried his side and region more than once.
In his European career, he has picked up 17 LEC titles, and that number only looks like increasing. He was part of the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) winning G2 side, marking the first win for a European side since Fnatic at the very first Worlds.
Speaking about Caps, Riot Games said:
Caps always felt like the player you could never fully prepare for,” said Chris Greeley, Global Head of LoL Esports. “He has that rare ‘it’ factor, the ability to rise in the biggest moments through his playmaking, leadership, and calming presence under pressure. Caps has inspired an entire generation of Western players and earned the respect of fans around the world. He’s not just one of the greatest League of Legends players of all time, he exemplifies everything we hope our esports heroes can be.”
Caps is now the third player to join the Hall of Legends, joining Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok and Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao.
Hall of Legends Event
As with previous Hall of Legends awards, an in-game event will now follow. Caps will be celebrated in-game and out of the game in the coming months.
His official ceremony will take place on August 18, where he will be rewarded with the trophy. For in-game events, those start on September 10. Caps will be rewarded with the Transcendent Tristana skin. There is no confirmation of the second skin, but Sylas is speculated to be the pick.
If you like to spend your time playing ARAM Mayhem and Arena, then Patch 26.16 adds a fair few changes.
While some of the shine was taken off ARAM and Arena thanks to the release of League Classic, the two modes are getting plenty of love, especially Mayhem.
ARAM: Mayhem – Fighters finally get some love
Riot’s decided fighters have been getting bullied in extended fights, so there are two new Gold Augments to help them. Upgrade Ravenous Hydra makes your spells apply cleave with no cooldown and chucks in 18% lifesteal on top.
Shark Bait got a proper glow-up (base damage 120-350 now, and it eats 30% of missing health instead of 20%). Nature is Healing has been reworked so each bush has its own cooldown and heals the second you step in.
Snowbomb’s radius is 30% chunkier with a longer knockup, which is going to feel dreadful to be on the receiving end of. Locke also gets a tidy buff across the board: more damage dealt, less taken, and 20 tenacity out of nowhere. Upgrade Sundered Sky is the other new Augment. It reduces the item’s per-target cooldown to 5 seconds (down from 8), grants an extra 9% missing health healing on empowered strikes, and immediately gives you 500 gold.
On the nerf side, Critical Missile and the Skilled Sniper snipe range both got trimmed. So don’t be shocked if your old comfort picks feel a touch weaker.
Arena: Bravery Wednesdays are back
Bravery Arena is returning, and it’s landing every Wednesday alongside Crowd Favourites. Each Wednesday, you either roll the dice with Bravery or pick from your Crowd Favourite pool (the more champs you own, the more options you’re offered).
Balance-wise, this is a “lift the strugglers” patch. Rek’Sai is the standout: her maxed tunnels now have a 0-second reuse cooldown, so she can pop in and out, plus a healthy healing buff on top. Gnar’s tired time is gone entirely, meaning you’re mega-Gnar-ing and back again constantly. LeBlanc, Volibear, Shaco, Poppy and Warwick all got meaningful bumps too, so expect to see a lot more of them.
Now You See Me got a fun upgrade as well. At level 2 it leaves a clone where you vanished from, which is exactly the kind of “wait, which one’s real” nonsense Arena lives for.
Getting tapped down, Aurelion Sol, Bel’Veth, Sona and Soraka, with Three Sacred Treasures and Nesting Doll reined in on the Augment side.
After evaluating his most recent state, we don’t think that Nasus Jungle is in need of a nerf right now (though he is present and popular, which is fine for a champion to be).
Nasus is a champ with quite a shallow mastery curve and a starting high level of proficiency for novices, so his high winrates can be misleading.
We do think Nasus top is in need of a buff however, and so the current set of changes are targeted at giving a relative buff to Nasus top, while being power neutral on Jungle.
Azir has been pretty absent from both the Pro meta and showing low winrates in regular play, so we’re looking to give him a buff.
We’ve been noticing a bunch of players experimenting with Press the Attack, and after investigating further, it looks decently strong. That said, we’re still looking to buff him a moderate amount.
Giving a top focused buff to Gwen (where the healing will be more impactful) and also some scaling buffs to Kennen.
We don’t think Kennen’s lane needs a ton of extra help and haven’t liked it too much when he’s a super lane dominant pick; would rather he be picked for having huge ults.
Bel’Veth has been showing up pretty strongly for many players especially in the average skill bracket and is receiving a regular play skewed nerf (late game skewed).
It’s also trying to add a bit more power at specifically the level 6 spike.
Mages Bot and Approach for 26.16
The big change in 26.16 is about the bot lane mage meta. Riot Phroxzon has given us an early preview of what they plan to do.
Mage in Bot Lane Pro Meta
Mages in Bot Lane Pro Meta
While Mages Bot at MSI only represented ~20% of picks (and often felt like much more), we have been seeing a significant uptick in their presence and priority at EWC and Kespa Cup and it seems only likely to continue increasing.
This presence has also started to trickle its way into Ranked play in a major way.
Only a few months ago in March, we were seeing a significantly Enchanter and range dominated support meta, which also resulted in ADC and hyper carries in bot lane being very powerful.
These champions benefitted a lot from the Season Start 2026 changes; from things like the ADC quest hyperscaling with Enchanters + changes to nerf roaming in the support role generally.
So in Patch 26.11, we made some adjustments to buff melee supports, nerf ranged supports, especially Enchanters.
But at the same time, some certain chefs were also cooking some clever ways to bypass some of the anti-roaming and lane swap controls that we added into the Support quests at the start of the year.
What resulted was 2 major swings towards roaming supports and away from ADC bot (it’s an interesting thought experiment for what would have happened if we had changed nothing about the First Stand Enchanter meta and had the roaming developments play out).
While we overall like Mages bot being viable in some capacity, what we’re observing now is arguably too far of a swing in the other direction, players are familiar with and we still want to support ADC as being a primary supported class there.
All of the previously listed dissatisfactions with gameplay that led us to nerf support roaming in Season Start 2026 still stand and in that set of changes, we intentionally went a bit lighter on some of the anti-lane swap, anti-support roaming controls to avoid overly punishing either accidental roaming or unique playstyles.
We’ve also heard a lot of the Pro Player complaints about the meta and are taking that into consideration.
We don’t want to force them to suddenly completely swap subclasses by suddenly making ADC and that learnt skill expression unviable, so it’s a fine balance.
That said, for those who want to learn it, we want to encourage and allow for skill expression of Pros to play a variety of things resulting in more flexible comps, dynamic lanes, etc. and greater champ variety long term.
Mage Bot in Regular Play
Mage Bot in Regular Play
A lot of this “excitement” has also made its way to regular play.
Players have been excited to try out Mages bot. That said, not everyone is excited about that; Mages represent a natural counter to ADC for a decent chunk of the game duration and people trying to replicate the Pro Play Support roaming style often causes more grief to their lane partners than benefit.
Overall, we like that Mages are playable bot as it adds to a lot of variety in the lane and the games that players play.
However, too many mages bot with them being too powerful in certain cases results in undermining a lot of the mastery and expectations of what can be played in the lanes.
We’re not looking to adjust this power dynamic significantly as a result (eg. Mages have earlier spiking, smoother scaling curves. ADC have later & stronger scaling, but sharper successes and failures), but we are looking to address some of the magnitude of differences to make some of them less extreme.
Flattening the differences between Mages and ADC bot so they have the same smooth builds, the same amount of mana, similar levels of spikes, etc. is a quick way to make it so there’s no class differentiation, even if it would “solve the problem”.
The profile of Mages in bot lane is also quite dissimilar to how they manifest in Pro Play.
For several years now, Mages bot like Brand, Swain, Ziggs, Veigar, Seraphine, Xerath etc. often don’t win by allowing a support to roam (especially historically), they often win by either poking you out with the support or 2v2 killing especially in average play.
They also have higher winrates on account of having higher starting winrates for first time plays compared to ADC, shallow mastery curves and favorable matchups in some (but not all) cases against ADC.
Their winrates as a result, I think are misleading for their true power level, in the same way that one shouldn’t be alarmed by Malphite having a 52-53% winrate (high winrate as a novice, low skill growth).
What is Changing
What are Riot doing?
In 26.16 we will be making some targeted adjustments to these dynamics; some examples.
Straight nerfs to support roaming using already established levers (starting at upping out of lane support gold/xp penalty from 25% until level 3 >>> 33% until level 5.
Some underpowered ADC tools will get buffs (Berserker’s Greaves, Fleet).
Buffs to ADC base MR, nerfs to MR growth.
Buffs to Heal.
We’re also testing a variety of speculative things; will share more later in the week once we’re more firm on tactics.
Next week, we will share a clearer understanding of upcoming changes, including specific details about who and what will be impacted. For now, it appears many ADCs will receive buffs.
Roaming Supports
Another big area of change is the roaming support issue in LoL. Riot clearly likes that supports can roam, but not that you have to. This is mainly a pro meta issue, but these things tend to bleed into normal games eventually.
Roaming Supports
While the Roaming Support gameplay can be interesting when seeing it every few games, the current state of it is a bridge too far.
Many supports in the current Pro Play metagame are defined by their ability to leave the lane at level 3 and worse is copycats in regular play thinking they’re able to do it and griefing the whole game over it.
As mentioned above, we also think the gameplay patterns of this are pretty undesirable.
We’re making some targeted adjustments to the support role quest to penalize some of these roaming behaviors and targeted anti-support skewed nerfs to Poppy, Camille and Hail of Blades (which is predominantly used by many of these champions).
For Camille in particular, we’re looking to move some of her power from support to Top lane.
For now, we’re not looking to nerf the comeback XP as we want to see how impactful the out of lane penalty is and the comeback XP plays an important role in anti-snowballing + helping players who accidentally disconnected (among other things).
In theory, extending the out of lane penalty will also mean that supports are returning to lane around level 5, which also reduces the impact of the comeback XP at the relevant XP breakpoints.
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.
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.
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.
