When is League of Legends Classic Really Taking Place?

Riot Games has finally opened up about the upcoming League of Legends Classic, as the YouTube Dev Update for the game mode has launched. The seven-minute-long video touches on topics that we were wondering about, like when we can expect it and more, but most importantly, we learned the definition of "Classic" as per the developer's standards.

When the word Classic started being thrown around, it was really difficult to talk about what sort of content we could expect. League of Legends has been out for 16 years, and so much content has changed throughout the years that a lot of it — some might say most of it — is unrecognisable.

Originally launched with 40 champions, the pool of playable characters has increased to a whopping 173, as Locke, the Ashen Exorcist, launched with Season 2 Act 2: Pandemonium. The entire map has been reworked, there are new dragons, Baron looks different, there are new objectives... everything has changed, but it's changed gradually throughout the years, and it's impossible to say one "turning point" that saw League of Legends turn into the modern behemoth we know today.

This is where it gets interesting — pinning down "Classic" for Riot Games was a difficult challenge as well. Whether you're a purist and believe Classic should date back to the original patch the game launched with or you believe Classic should be at the peak of retro League of Legends, it seems that Riot Games' answer to that is "yes".

Classic is going to focus more on a framework than on one singular update or patch. Instead of going back to a specific time, Riot Games instead opted to create a new "Classic" for players to experience, which is based on the foundation of League of Legends Season 3, back in 2013.

Now, this doesn't mean that League of Legends Classic will be set during the third Season, but instead, it'll be based on a foundation set in that game mode. This will also come with 60 champions for players to take control of (from the release 40), with a curated list meant to make the experience more enjoyable for newcomers while keeping true to the retro veterans remember.

This will also be updated over time, as Riot Games will be establishing a community-voted update plan, where players can choose what happens next in League of Legends Classic. This will be weighted per account, meaning that the more Seasons a player partook in — for instance, I've played almost every Season since Season 2 — the more their vote will count towards what happens next, such as who gets released.

So while the framework is "Season 3-ish" and the release will be "a curated list of some champions with more to come", the future will be decided by the players. With Classic being a limited-time game mode, this will ensure that Riot Games gets to focus on what the majority of players — especially seniors and veterans who have stuck for years — want to enjoy, since condensing 16 years of updates into one game mode is, frankly, impossible.