Tag: League Classic

League Classic Patch 2 (26.17) focused on improving the game and fixing issues. The next patch, 26.18, will be the first time we get new champions.

We had rumours when the game first released that we would get new champions, but five dropping at once was not expected. There is a theme with the first drop, with all five being Demacian champions.

You will see all five champions on our Classic League Tier List soon.

Five new Champions come to League Classic

Fiora, Galio, Poppy, Shyvana and Xin Zhao will join the roster. As this is League Classic, they are nothing like the live versions, so let’s take a look.

Fiora – Old Fiora was all about duelling and sustaining herself in fights. Her job was to be a 1v1 demon, and she was amazing at it. With high attack speed, and damage on exposed target spots, she could take down anyone.

Poppy – Old Poppy was a very different champion. Diplomatic Immunity has Poppy target an enemy champion, dealing increased damage and becoming immune to all effects done to her by any target but the one she used it on. It was a unique ultimate, and one that felt very old school.

Galio – His passive turned magic resist straight into ability power; he was basically the alternative to Malphite. His taunt remained, with the more damage he soaked up while channelling, the harder he would hit at the end. He is basically the counter-mage.

Shyvana – With Shyvana being the most recent champion to get changed in League of Legends, it’s no shock that her Classic version feels familiar. Her kit is pretty much what it is now anyway, and she’ll feel at home for anyone who played League in the last year.

Xin Zhao – Xin Zhao is another example of a champion that doesn’t feel that out of place. He’s mostly as is in League of Legends proper, just without some of the flair you’d get.

League Classic Patch 3 (26.18) is set to drop on September 10 as five new champions join 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.

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 or patch 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

— Sirhaian (@Sirhaian) July 17, 2026

No Ranked Play

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.