League Classic Guide for Returning Players
I still remember buying rune pages with real currency and losing a lane before minions spawned because I forgot to set one. That version of League is back, officially, inside the same client you already have open. League Classic went live on July 29, 2026 with patch 26.15, and after two weeks of reading people argue about it, most of the confusion comes down to four things: what is actually in it, what it costs, why your tracker shows nothing, and whether any of it holds up in 2026.
What League Classic Actually Is
League Classic is a game mode inside the regular League client that recreates how the game played around Season 3. It launched July 29, 2026 with patch 26.15. There is no separate download, no separate account, and no private server involved.
This is not one patch pulled off a backup drive. Riot took bits from the first four seasons with Season 3 as the anchor, and the newest thing in there comes from late 2015. Executive producer Paul "Pabro" Bellezza said in the Riot dev blog that they started with Season 3 and then asked what else belonged in the room. Worth knowing before you queue, because it sits behind the most common complaint about the mode. People show up expecting one exact patch, find a mix, and the mix is on purpose.
How to Play League Classic
Open the client, pick League Classic from the mode selector, queue up. You get three queues: PvP draft, Co op vs AI, and customs. Your live account gets you in with no level gate, and everyone starts Classic progression from zero.
All 60 League of Legends Classic Champions and Roles
League Classic launched with exactly 60 champions, the original 40 plus 20 more picked from 2009 to 2013. Every one of them runs an old kit rather than a modern one. Sorted by where they actually got played back then, the roster splits like this.
| Role | Picks | Champions |
|---|---|---|
| Top | 15 | Cho'Gath, Dr. Mundo, Gangplank, Garen, Jax, Kayle, Malphite, Nasus, Olaf, Pantheon, Singed, Sion, Teemo, Tryndamere, Wukong |
| Jungle | 11 | Amumu, Evelynn, Fiddlesticks, Jarvan IV, Lee Sin, Master Yi, Nunu, Rammus, Shaco, Skarner, Warwick |
| Mid | 17 | Ahri, Anivia, Annie, Brand, Corki, Gragas, Heimerdinger, Karthus, Kassadin, Katarina, Lux, Malzahar, Morgana, Nidalee, Ryze, Twisted Fate, Veigar |
| Bot | 8 | Ashe, Ezreal, Kog'Maw, Miss Fortune, Sivir, Tristana, Twitch, Vayne |
| Support | 9 | Alistar, Blitzcrank, Janna, Leona, Lulu, Sona, Soraka, Taric, Zilean |
Roles were looser then than the table suggests. Gragas turned up mid, top and jungle depending on the week, Nidalee and Ryze moved between mid and top, Twitch and Fiddlesticks jungled as often as they laned, and Annie, Brand, Lux and Morgana all pulled support duty. The number worth staring at is bot lane. Eight marksmen out of sixty, because the old roster simply had fewer of them, which is why support and ADC were locked together far harder than they are now.
Champions you already own on your live account are playable in Classic immediately. The rest unlock through Classic Levels, the Classic shop, or free rotation. Anything Riot adds later stays inside the same era, and the dev blog put the ceiling in three words: no Yasuos allowed. If you want to check who actually existed back then, the champion release order settles it quickly.
Old Champion Kits in LoL Classic
Champions use their original kits, not reverted numbers on modern kits. Riot Meddler confirmed it plainly when he said yes, they were doing old gameplay kits.
In practice that means AP Sion with a point and click stun, Skarner before the spires, and Gangplank who denies minions instead of dropping barrels. These are not nostalgic reskins. AP Sion mid was a real thing people banned, and playing against it now feels exactly as stupid as it did then, which is the point. A decade of reworks removed most of these kits from the game entirely, so for anyone who started after 2015 this is the only way to see them.
LoL Classic Runes and Masteries Explained
Runes and masteries are back as separate pre game systems, and every rune comes at Tier 3 quality with no upgrade path. You buy them with IP and slot them into rune pages before you queue.
Rune slots open as you climb Classic Levels: marks at 4, seals at 6, glyphs at 7, quintessences at 8. You start with three rune pages and earn two more through Classic Levels, with additional pages at levels 13, 17 and 20 or for 1500 IP. Individual runes run 500 IP for marks, seals and glyphs, 650 for the minor versions, and 1250 for a quintessence, and the full price list sits on the LoL wiki. Masteries are faster: all 30 points across Offense, Defense and Utility unlock by Classic Level 4, and a default page exists so you cannot accidentally queue with nothing.
Riot cut the worst part of the old system, which was tier grinding. Back then a maxed account was flat out stronger than a fresh one before the game even started, and nobody misses paying twice for the same rune at a lower quality. The good half survived. Your page is a real decision you make before champion select instead of something you click in a lobby dropdown.
Classic Summoner's Rift and Old Items
The mode uses the original Summoner's Rift, complete with wraiths, the old jungle layout, and faster buff respawns. The shop carries items that have been gone for over a decade, including Atma's Impaler, Frozen Mallet, Heart of Gold and Deathfire Grasp, along with every old summoner spell.
One detail gives away how the mode was put together. Heart of Gold got removed at the start of the Season 3 preseason, Deathfire Grasp survived well past that point, and the two never sat in the shop together in the live game. In Classic they do. That is not a mistake, it is the greatest hits idea showing its seams, and once you spot it you stop expecting the mode to be historically exact about anything.
The map will catch returning players hardest. The current Rift was rebuilt from scratch in late 2014, so anyone who started after that has never played the version this mode uses. Camps sit in different spots, vision works differently, and the jungle wants completely different pathing.
Does League Classic Have Ranked
No. League Classic has no ranked queue, and Riot has not announced one for later. At launch you get a PvP draft queue, Co op vs AI, and custom games.
The replacement is Summoner's Journey, a progression track that unlocks at Classic Level 10 and runs from Salt through Wood, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond up to Legend. You play five placement matches when it opens, and Riot expects only a single digit percentage of players to ever reach Legend. The dev blog framed the whole decision in one line, calling Classic a place to have fun with your friends rather than a sweaty ranked grindfest.
Summoner's Journey Explained
Journey is not a ranked ladder wearing a different name. There is no LP, no promos, and no MMR you can look up, because the data never leaves Riot in the first place. If a site offers to explain your Classic ranked ladder or sell you a Classic MMR boost, it is inventing both.
Classic Pass Price and Rewards
Classic Pass: Act I costs 1550 RP, which comes to 11.99 in euros or your regional equivalent. Act I started with the July 29 launch, and the last day to spend Classic Coins is September 22, 2026 at 11:59pm PT.
The pass does not work like a normal battle pass. You earn Classic Pass Coins by playing and then spend them on the rewards you actually want, which means two people can finish the same pass with completely different loot. Unspent coins do not carry over. Rewards across both tracks include IP, Blue Essence, rune pages, emotes, titles, portraits and seasonal cosmetics.
Are Classic Skins Free
Yes. Classic Skins are the default look for every champion that has one, unlocked for free. This is worth stating clearly because a lot of pages still say otherwise. Riot originally planned to sell them at 500 RP each, players pointed out that these are the free default models from fifteen years ago, and Riot backed off before launch on July 16. Classic Chromas still cost 300 RP and require the matching skin, and portraits run 950 RP for champion portraits or 1150 RP for the art doodles.
LoL Classic Levels and IP Explained
Classic runs a separate progression track from 1 to 30 with IP as its currency, and none of it touches your live account. Your rank, your Blue Essence, and your champion unlocks stay exactly where they are.
The Classic Levels track is free and one time, feeding you runes, mastery points, IP, Blue Essence and cosmetics as you go, with the Rustier Blitzcrank skin waiting at level 30. Champion ownership works one way only: what you own on your live account is available in Classic, but anything you unlock in Classic stays in Classic.
How Long Levels 1 to 30 Take
Riot has not published XP numbers, and the figures floating around on boosting sites are not sourced to anything. What we do know is where the milestones sit. Masteries finish at level 4, Summoner's Journey opens at 10, and the last skin drops at 30, so everything that touches gameplay lands early and the rest is cosmetic. Anyone quoting you an exact match count is guessing.
Why OP.GG Does Not Track Classic
Riot does not send League Classic match data to the Riot API, so OP.GG, U.GG and every other tracker are blind to the mode by design. Riot Developer Relations stated on July 28 that Classic match history would not be available through the API, and asked that Classic data not be aggregated or displayed anywhere.
So two things. The CLASSIC gameMode string in the API still means an ordinary Summoner's Rift game and has nothing to do with this mode, so anyone claiming to read your Classic games from it is reading normal games. And there is no reliable win rate data for Classic, which makes every Classic tier list an opinion rather than a measurement. Some of those opinions are informed, but none of them are backed by the numbers a normal tier list is built from. Our MMR checker does not cover Classic for the same reason, since there is no Classic MMR to read. The Tournament API is the one exception, where Classic is supported as a valid map type.
Champion Mastery is the loose end here. Riot never said either way, but Classic runs its own level system, uses the old mastery trees, and sends nothing to the API, so mastery points almost certainly do not move.
League Classic Roadmap and New Champions
Riot put out a schedule running through October, with balance changes every patch and new champions arriving in waves of three.
| Date | Patch | What lands |
|---|---|---|
| August 12 | 26.16 | First three new champions |
| August 26 | 26.17 | First Council vote and new runes |
| September 9 | 26.18 | Second champion wave |
| September 23 | 26.19 | Second Council vote |
| October 7 | 26.20 | Classic Pass Act II |
Riot has not named the August 12 trio. Dataminers found Akali, Shen and Kennen ahead of the patch, which would make the first wave entirely Ionian and entirely energy based, but that is a datamine and not an announcement. The Council is the community half of this, a voting system unlocked through Classic Levels that decides future champions, skins and some gameplay changes, while Riot keeps balance for itself.
ARAM Mayhem Classic-ish
Riot launched a second mode the same day. ARAM: Mayhem Classic-ish uses the Classic map, Classic items and Classic themed augments, but the 60 champions play their modern kits rather than their old ones, since the augments were built and tested against modern kits. It runs as a limited time queue with no end date announced.
Where League Classic Goes Next
Nobody at Riot has said what happens after Act II. But another game already went through this exact thing, and that story is far enough along to be useful.
The Chronoshift Shutdown
For almost five years a group of fans built Chronoshift, a legacy server that rebuilt a 2011 patch so people could play it again. In April 2021 Riot's legal team sent a cease and desist, demanded the source code, and made the project scrub its own promo. The developers complied and Chronoshift died, leaving behind a fairly ugly public argument about a company taking a fan project apart.
What aged strangely is what its players were asking for. One of them wrote a long breakdown after around 150 games, tore into everything that was broken, Deathfire Grasp included, and finished by saying he hoped Riot would build an official version one day with light balance changes so newer players could see it. That is League Classic, described four years early.
Five years later Riot built the same thing themselves. And according to the League Classic wiki entry, one of the developers on Classic is Riot Norak, who worked on Chronoshift before Riot shut it down. Make of that what you want, but it does explain where the know how came from.
Will League Classic Get Season 4
Probably not, and Riot's own rule is the reason. The content ceiling sits at the pre Yasuo era, Yasuo arrived at the very end of Season 3, so moving into Season 4 means walking straight through a line Riot drew in public.
The useful comparison here is World of Warcraft, because Blizzard already ran this entire sequence. At BlizzCon 2013 executive producer J. Allen Brack answered a question about legacy servers with the line that followed him for years, telling the crowd they think they do, but they don't. In November 2017 the same man walked on stage and announced WoW Classic. It went live in August 2019 and did not stay one thing for long: Burning Crusade in 2021, Wrath in 2022, official Hardcore realms in 2023, Season of Discovery with rewritten rules later that year, Cataclysm in 2024, fresh anniversary realms that November, and Mists of Pandaria in 2025.
That split into two paths. One moves forward through expansions, the other runs side modes with different rules and fresh starts. Riot already built the plumbing for the second one. The Council votes on what gets added, the pass runs in seasonal acts, and ARAM: Mayhem Classic-ish arrived on day one instead of years later the way Blizzard's side modes did. My read is that Classic grows sideways into seasonal rulesets and fresh starts long before it ever grows forward into Season 4. That is a guess and not an announcement, but it is the path everything already built is pointing at.
Is League Classic Worth Playing
Yes, if you understand what you are signing up for. Go in expecting a preserved museum piece and you will be annoyed within an hour.
The honest version is that half of what came back was removed for good reasons. Deathfire Grasp deleting a carry from full health was not deep, AP Master Yi was not fun to play against, and Kassadin blinking around the map unchecked is the reason he got reworked. Riot did fix the parts that were purely bad, so you get modern servers, modern matchmaking, spell buffering and optional WASD movement underneath the old rules, which means the clunk you feel is the design and not the netcode.
The reason it is still worth playing is that the old game asked different questions. Mana mattered, so poking cost you something real. Missiles moved slowly enough to dodge. Nothing was balanced around dragon souls, so lanes and skirmishes decided games instead of an objective timer. That version of League had real problems, and it also had a feel the current game gave up on purpose. Playing it now is the only way to find out what that trade actually bought.
LoL Classic FAQ
Is League Classic permanent? It sits in the client as an ongoing mode with a seasonal roadmap rather than a two week event, though Riot has never formally labelled it permanent.
How many champions are in League Classic? Exactly 60 at launch, with three more arriving on August 12 and further waves every two weeks after that.
Does League Classic have ranked? No, and Riot has not announced plans to add it. You get Summoner's Journey instead.
How much does the Classic Pass cost? 1550 RP for the Act I premium track, roughly 11.99 USD.
Do Classic games show up on OP.GG? No. Riot does not publish Classic match data through the API, so no third party tracker can display it.
Does Classic progress affect my main account? No. Classic Levels and IP are separate. The only crossover is that champions you own on your live account are playable in Classic.
