Riot makes League Classic skins free, reverts to Season 3

Riot Games is reversing its plan to charge for Classic Skins in League of Legends Classic and is rolling the mode’s content back to a Season 3 cutoff. The changes follow player feedback during Public Beta Environment testing before the mode’s global launch on July 29.

In an update shared shortly after League Classic went live on the PBE, game director Brian “FeralPony” Feeney announced that all available Classic Skins will be unlocked at no cost for every player. In Classic, those skins will become the default look for champions that have them in their LoL account, replacing the modern base model. The decision follows criticism of the previously announced 500 RP (about $5) price for each Classic Skin.

League Classic recreates earlier versions of the game with champion abilities and items from older seasons. Riot had initially planned to set the cutoff at the start of Season 4, near the release of Yasuo, and early PBE builds included elements reaching into Season 5. After testing and feedback, the studio will now anchor the mode to Season 3 to better reflect the 2009–2013 period of the game.

Not every champion in the launch roster-roughly 60-will have a Classic Skin on day one, and some modern skins will remain usable in the mode. Feeney noted that the team is working to bring back earlier voice-over lines where possible. Addressing the scope of that effort, David “Phreak” Turley explained in a Reddit post: “Porting over VO is incredibly labor-intensive because not all regions had League at the same time, and our VO systems aren’t set up to have a different number of lines in one language and not another. Which means to enable old VO in locales that have it, you have to redo the entire VO suite for every localization to ensure there’s the same number of lines.”

Riot is also adjusting select champion kits based on player requests from the PBE. One near-term change will restore Katarina’s 2012 design in an upcoming test build. The team may incorporate specific elements from later seasons when they provide clear improvements, while keeping the overall ruleset tied to Season 3.

Some contemporary quality-of-life features will remain in place. Riot plans to keep the newer ping system to avoid disrupting players who switch between modern League and Classic. The company also clarified that Classic uses the legacy bounty system for kills and shutdowns, displayed through the current user interface.

League Classic will launch on July 29. At launch, eligible champions in the mode will default to free Classic Skins, and gameplay will reflect Season 3-era mechanics informed by public testing feedback.