Everything You Need to Know About League of Legends Classic

Riot Games just announced the upcoming release forLeague of Legends Classic, the game mode that was teased a while back in a short YouTube skit. After leaks and information coming out before anticipated, the team finally got the opportunity to open up about the experience and what sort of content we can look forward to as we near the official release date.

There's a lot to unpack here, as Riot Games has spoken a fair bit about what we can expect for League of Legends Classic, but there's also a lot of information we don't have available. In this article, we'll focus on what we do know about League of Legends Classic and what sort of content we can expect.

Let's start with the basics:

What Exactly Is "Classic"

The new League of Legends mode is going to be a blast to the past for fans the MOBA who have been enjoying it for years, but it's a bit tough to pin down exactly when "Classic" is. The game has been going for 16 years, with 16 Seasons to show for it, and all sorts of things have changed: maps, reworks, new champions...

It's impossible to pin down exactly one time when League of Legends advanced from classic to modern, and Riot Games agreed with that notion. Instead of choosing one patch, one moment in time, one Season, the approach is going to be a bit different.

The plan is going to be that League of Legends Classic is based on Season 3 of the game, during 2013, with a curated list of changes to ensure that the game remains playable and enjoyable. Instead of rolling everything back, we'll have quality-of-life improvements, including WASD for those who want to enjoy it with the new control scheme.

Summoner's Journey

Before we get into the exciting new-old stuff that we'll be enjoying, it's worth noting that League of Legends Classic will have a battle pass–like experience for players to enjoy. Much like the Mayhem tracks before, the Summoner's Journey progression system will give players a reason to come back, unlocking more content the more time they spend in the game mode.

The Summoner's Journey will be a free track to encourage players to continue engaging with the game mode, getting more BE, and even the nostalgic IP, through progression. There'll also be a paid track for players to enjoy through the Seasonal Pass in the shop, which will include classic skins for players to enjoy — these will return how the characters looked to their original look.

Players can unlock portraits, classic skins, and classic chromas throughout the battle pass, but they'll only be usable in League Classic. There are some skins that'll translate to other modern-day League of Legends modes, like the Rustier Blitzcrank skin that'll be part of the Summoner's Journey, but not everything will translate to current-day game modes.

After League of Legends Classic Level 10, players will begin at Salt, and progress through all sorts of ranks to reach Legend, which will be an honourary rank for players to show off. Riot Games aims to have only a single-digit percent of players be able to reach the prestigious Legend rank, and it's unclear whether this will also progress through the ARAM: Mayhem Classic-ish mode.

How Many Champions Will There Be?

At launch, League of Legends Classic will release with 60 champions, including all of the original 40, alongside another hand-selected 20. That said, that won't be the end of the roster for League of Legends Classic, as new champions will be released for players to enjoy throughout the time period.

At the moment, there is no confirmed list of characters that players can pick up — we've seen a few originals, like the first iterations of Taric, Sion, Pantheon, and Gangplank, but we also know that others will release over the course of the game mode. Many champions will come in their original, unnerfed versions, and though the team seeks to ensure that the game will remain balanced enough, they don't intend to make changes to the original kits unless there is no alternative option.

Here's how Riot Games will decide what happens next:

Classic Updates: The Council

The future of League of Legends Classic will be in the hands of the players, as Riot Games is looking to keep the experience more curated to the players who have been enjoying it and have been around for a long time. To do this, they'll be choosing what happens next through The Council.

For the older players, this will be a bit familiar — everything will be done through community voting, where we'll be able to decide what happens next. Anything minor and balance-wise will be handled by Riot Games — health and general game balance — but the major content updates will be decided by a common vote from the community, which will be weighed according to a few factors.

The Council will be able to decide things like which champion is added next, what skins make it to Classic, and even some gameplay changes. This will be favoured towards the players who are playing Classic the most, based on their Classic Level (more on that later) and how many Seasons they played throughout the years.

Runes and Masteries

The old runes and masteries system is back, though players won't have to fork over thousands of Blue Essence for the mastery pages, each of the runes, and levelling them up individually (as we had to do in the old days). These will all be unlocked through the aforementioned Summoner's Journey, which means that all of the pages, runes, and more will be unlocked for free — no real-money or in-game transactions needed — to play around with.

The plan is to have them all unlocked by the time players hit Classic Level 4, including both Runes and Masteries. It should be a quick enough grind, though we don't have specifics about level acquisition and how long this will take, so we won't know until the game mode proper launches on the live servers.

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That's about all that we know about League of Legends Classic! The game mode will release in Patch 26.15, which, according to the Patch Schedule, will be on the 29th of July 2026.