On 29 July 2026, right after patch 26.15, Riot Games launched a new game mode called League Classic. It isn’t a one-off nostalgia event for a few days. It’s a permanent part of the client that takes you back to the Season 3 era, when League of Legends had different items, different runes, different versions of champions and a much slower pace. While the rest of LoL’s content goes out of date with every balance patch, LoL Classic is a frozen era, and this article explains exactly what League of Legends Classic includes, how you get into the mode, what plays differently and how long Riot says it will stick around.
What League Classic is
League Classic is an official game mode made by Riot Games itself, not a fan emulator of an old version of the game. Riot described it as a “greatest hits” collection: not an exact reconstruction of one specific season, but a mix of elements from several old seasons, put together so it works as a self-contained, playable whole. Season 3 forms the base, but some elements reach further back to the game’s very beginnings in 2009, while others go as far forward as 2015, the late cutoff after which nothing newer was let into the mode.
In practice, that means old items, the old rune system split into Marks, Seals, Glyphs and Quintessences, a separate masteries tree on top of that, old versions of summoner spells including Revive, which no longer exists today, and above all the old version of the Summoner’s Rift map, with Wraiths in the jungle and camps placed differently from what you’re used to today. The visuals, however, aren’t entirely faithful, for the sake of playability: Riot applied some modern lighting and textures to the old map and old models so that you, as a present-day player, don’t get lost in it.
It isn’t a one-of-a-kind idea either. Other big online games have taken a similar route in recent years, with an official, permanently maintained server running an older version of the rules alongside the current game, and League Classic belongs to the same category: not a nostalgic event for a few weeks, but a standalone, long-term mode with its own development.
How to get into League Classic
You’ll find the mode right in the game mode selection in the client, next to regular Summoner’s Rift, ARAM and the other modes. You don’t need any special key or unlock. Classic is available to every player with a standard account. Progression in it is separate from your regular account, though: you start at your own Classic level 1 and climb through a separate experience system all the way to Classic 30, earning a separate currency along the way, Influence Points, which mostly longtime players will remember.
Rune pages work differently from what you know in current LoL. You start with three default pages, and you can either earn two more by leveling up or buy them with Influence Points. All runes also start straight at the highest level, Tier 3, so there’s none of the tedious buying and upgrading of individual pieces that the original version of the game required. The full masteries tree only opens up at Classic level 4. Until then you play without it, which is one of the few concessions to modern gameplay that Classic has kept.
You won’t find a ladder in the usual sense, meaning ranked with divisions like in the main game, in Classic. Instead there’s the so-called Summoner’s Journey, a path through the Salt and Wood tiers and finally Legend, which is reserved for the top few percent of the most active and skilled players in the community. Picking your lane position is also handled by a simple preference system instead of a race to type your role into chat, the way it worked back then.
Even with this simplification, Riot kept a few modern conveniences without which today’s players would have a harder time: working matchmaking, the ping system, spell buffering (the option to queue up the next action before the previous one finishes) and optional WASD movement controls alongside classic mouse clicking. So League Classic isn’t pure archaeology without a single change, but a thought-out combination of old gameplay and modern comfort.
What plays differently
Fights in Classic are noticeably slower and more decisive than in today’s LoL. Projectiles and dashes travel more slowly, crowd control (especially the old point-and-click stuns) lands more often and hurts more, and mana costs and ability damage are higher relative to what you have available. In the patch notes, Riot described this difference as an emphasis on “strategy over mechanics”: deciding when to take a fight and when not to matters more than how fast your fingers are.
That’s only a fraction of the differences. A detailed comparison of game pace, itemization, runes and masteries against today’s system, as well as how much Classic will surprise you as an experienced player of modern LoL, is in a separate article on how League Classic differs from today’s LoL.
How Riot balances League Classic
League Classic gets balance changes on the same two-week cycle as the main game, but it runs on its own, separate balance branch. A change Riot makes in modern LoL doesn’t automatically carry over to Classic. The team publishes a separate overview of planned changes for it (the so-called Classic patch preview) and leaves some of the balance decisions to a direct community vote rather than to the internal team alone.
In practice, this means a champion that is strong in today’s LoL can be weak in Classic and vice versa, since the two versions are judged independently of each other. Patch 26.18 from 9 September 2026, for example, buffed Gangplank and Heimerdinger and slowed down Anivia without affecting their modern versions in the main game in any way. If you only follow the regular LoL patch notes, it’s easy to overlook the Classic community with its own balance rhythm, so it’s worth following separately.
How many champions League Classic has and what’s been added since launch
At launch on 29 July 2026, the mode included 60 champions: the original 40 characters from 2009 plus another 20 who were added to the game between 2009 and 2013. Right in the announcement, Riot admitted that “60 champions can’t fully capture the early era of the game” and hinted that it would keep adding more characters from the same period.
You’ll find the complete, always up-to-date list right in the client, in champion select for the Classic mode, where the game shows you straight away who is available and who isn’t yet. How builds worked in Classic and which champions play completely differently there than today is covered in the article on champions and builds in League Classic.
Who League Classic is for
The most obvious audience is nostalgic players: people who played League of Legends around 2012 or 2013 and want to experience again the items, runes and feel of the game that today’s client stopped offering long ago. For them, Classic is a straight-up time capsule: the same item names, the same rune names, but a completely different experience from the one they’ve gotten used to over the last ten years.
The second group is just as large, maybe even larger: players who only came to the game after 2015 and never experienced the old era of League of Legends firsthand. For them, Classic is a way to see for themselves where today’s systems came from and why Riot reworked itemization, runes and game pace so many times over the years. Understanding the old version makes sense for modern players too, because it shows what problems today’s systems actually solve.
Riot itself also positions the mode more as casual fun with friends than as a second competitive environment next to the main ranked system. Without a classic ladder with divisions, it lacks the pressure that makes ranked play stressful. So it also suits people who want a break from today’s fast, aggressive LoL and want to play a slower, positional version of the game with no strings attached.
Third, Classic is also worthwhile for players who want to better understand the principles behind today’s systems. When you see what itemization or runes looked like before Riot gradually simplified and reworked them, you also get a better grasp of why the current version looks the way it does: what specific problem of the old system it solved and what the game lost or gained with that change.
How long League Classic will be around and what Riot has promised next
Right at launch, Riot admitted that the first version has limitations. The patch 26.15 notes said that duo queue doesn’t work at every ladder tier yet and that this “will continue to be addressed as matchmaking systems improve”. This kind of gradual fine-tuning shows that Classic isn’t a finished, closed project for a few weeks, but a mode Riot wants to keep investing in.
Precisely because it’s a frozen era and not a copy of the current balance, it makes sense to expect League Classic to stay long-term, unlike seasonal events that disappear after a few weeks. Nobody can guarantee that, though, so the best place to follow any changes to the scope or future of the mode is the official patch notes.
FAQ
On 29 July 2026, together with patch 26.15.
It’s a game mode inside the standard LoL client, available to every player with their own account. You don’t need to download or unlock anything separately.
60 at launch: the original 40 from 2009 and another 20 from 2009 to 2013. Riot has announced it will gradually add more from the same period.
Not in the classic sense with divisions. Instead, there’s Summoner’s Journey progression through the Salt, Wood and Legend tiers, with Legend reserved for only the most active part of the player base.
No. All you need is a League of Legends account. You’ll find Classic right in the game mode selection in the client.
Riot is building it as a permanent part of the game with its own balance branch and patches on the same cycle as main LoL, not as a time-limited event. Only further official announcements will confirm its exact future, though.
Both. The team has its own plan of changes, independent of the main game, but leaves some of the balance decisions to a direct community vote.
Information verified as of 9 September 2026, for patch 26.18. A detailed comparison with current LoL is in the article on how League Classic differs from today’s LoL, while specific champions and old builds are covered in champions and builds in League Classic. For an overview of today’s roster, see the article on champions in LoL; the current game’s rune system is explained in the article on runes, and the other game modes are summed up in game modes in LoL. For the complete hub overview, head to the League of Legends section.