League of Legends Classic launches July 29 with 60 champions

Riot Games announced League of Legends Classic, a recreation of the game’s early seasons, will launch July 29 alongside patch 26.15. The mode will be accessible through the regular League of Legends client and opens with 60 champions in the first wave.

Classic restores the older Summoner’s Rift layout, original items and early metas. Riot highlighted legacy mechanics including Teleport/Revive interactions with Karthus, Hunter’s Machete for junglers, Mana Potions and Crystalline Flasks. Interactions such as stunlock Sion, AP Yi builds and Deathfire Grasp return.

Riot previewed Classic with a showmatch on the main stage before the MSI Grand Final in Korea. The match featured players including William ‘Scarra’ Li and Yiliang ‘Doublelift’ Peng and mixed legacy mechanics with some later visual updates, such as a three-tailed Skarner model. Earlier, Riot Games announced a new Founders skin line that revives four early, rare League of Legends cosmetics with updated visuals.

Executive producer Paul ‘Pabro’ Bellezza traced the project to an internal ‘Thunderdome’ hackathon and described the initial prototype as based on Season Three. He called the showmatch ‘nostalgic’ and noted community requests helped shape the concept.

League Classic includes the original Masteries with Offense, Defense and Utility trees and brings back Runes. Players will start with a base rune page and unlock additional pages and mastery boosts by leveling instead of through a grind.

Andrei ‘Meddler’ van Roon, head of League Studio, wrote on Reddit that the initial champion list is not exhaustive and that additional old-school champions will be added over time up to a planned stopping point around 2013. He confirmed ‘Old Sion’ will be available at launch and noted interest in Urgot and Graves.

Riot plans a public test environment and a developer blog ahead of launch to clarify how skins and later champion additions will be handled. The studio said the community will be able to vote on aspects of the Classic experience; details on the voting system and update cadence will appear in future developer posts.

Players should update their accounts and the League client before July 29 to access Classic. Riot indicated it may add visual toggles or options if demand merits further changes.