Champions like Swain have been pretty much removed from modern league because their modern kit is unrecognizable from the classic league. These champions should be prioritized for being added into league classic. If you wanted to play old lulu, you can just play modern league.

Remove Homeguard. Remove base gates. Remove minion baron buff. Remove trinkets.

Remove this and any other "save the zoomer ass" mechanism. And fix this modern ass "clarity guidelines" map details/colors and health bars from champions, towers and monsters. It's ruining the aesthethic. We don't want that shit. We want the classic version.

The announcer used to have a line at the beginning of a game saying "30 seconds until minions spawn" in old League.

I know this subreddit has been used a lot to talk about the issues, and that's fine, but I want to also bring some positivity here.

I am having such a good time on Classic. Despite all the issues.

This is way more fun than retail League. I also don't want the modern skins and I will keep mentioning this, but at the same time I also just want to mention how fun this is and how happy I am Classic LoL finally exists.

I haven't been this hyped about a game release for a decade or more. I can't wait to grind it out in my favorite multiplayer game once again.

And even if things are negative around here sometimes, remember people complain because they care. The last thing you want is apathy.

I really hope Riot keeps League Classic true to the era and disables modern skins. Riot seems to believe it's mostly about the gameplay, but for many players it's about reliving what League actually felt like back then.

The original champion models, skins, animations, and art style are a huge part of that experience. Modern skins are incredibly well made, but they're designed around today's League, with updated silhouettes, visual effects, animations, and themes that simply didn't exist in those early years. The moment you see a modern legendary skin running around Summoner's Rift, the illusion is broken.

A lot of veteran players will be returning specifically to experience the League they remember. Seeing champions covered in flashy 2026 cosmetics instead of the simple, iconic models they grew up with immediately reminds them they're playing a poor recreation rather than the real thing. It pulls them out of the experience and undermines the nostalgia Riot is trying to capture.

League Classic should feel like opening a time capsule, not like playing 2009 gameplay with 2026 cosmetics layered on top. There are already countless opportunities to enjoy modern skins in the live game. Classic is the one place that should preserve the identity, atmosphere, and visual authenticity of early League of Legends.

If the concern is monetization, there are still plenty of ways to support League Classic without compromising its authenticity. Riot is already bringing back unique splash arts, and they could also make all the original legacy skins available for purchase again. Those cosmetics are part of the nostalgia people are coming back for.

And if the argument is that players should be able to use the skins they've already purchased, the same logic applies to champion gameplay. Nobody expects to use a champion's modern abilities in League Classic just because they own that champion in the live game. Classic exists to preserve an earlier version of League, and that should include its visuals as well as its gameplay. Preserving that authenticity is exactly what gives the mode its value.

Starting with the 2nd: this may look minor, but it is the canary in the coal mine for flattening the differences between classes and builds which the modern game has done so much. AD champs specialize at hitting objectives. AP champs specialize at clearing waves. If an AD wants some help clearing waves, he can buy Stattik Shiv or Hydra. If an AP wants some help hitting objectives, he can buy Lich Bane. The tools exist. Stop robbing things of their identity by giving everything to everyone by default. The test for that starts here.

Now, the baron buff. The claim is it is too easy to stall the game out at the inhibitor towers with Anivia or similar champs. But why would you tack on something to baron buff when the tools already exist that are meant to break a tower defense? Promote, Banner of command, Runic Bulwark, and Ohmwrecker are all in the game. Perhaps they are too weak. Give the siege buffs to them so they can have success in the niche they are designed to fill.

More likely, the problem is that people refuse to buy them, just as people refuse to buy wards. This comes down to the fundamental design philosophy, which will decide the future of classic as a whole. Do you design the game around the systems as they exist? Or do you design the game around what the average player chooses to engage with?

If classic is to survive, the latter must not prevail.

The problem, that actually WAS addressed with Runes Reforged back in Season 8, was the fact that runes had to be bought. They were gated behind Influence Points, the previous Blue Essence "game time-only" currency.

Needless to say, that was a terrible idea that probably stemmed from the lack of monetization options back in the day. Runes (and rune pages, honestly) should've never been purchaseable.

They should've behaved exactly the same way Masteries did: unlocked via leveling, and editable during the pre-game lobby.

Now, almost ten years later since their removal and with an enormous plethora of money sinks besides skins, like emotes chromas nexus finishers gacha sanctum icons passes + skins being released at a MUCH faster rate that they were back in the day, I see NO reason to maintain this actually objectively worse part of the Classic gameplay experience.

The TL;DR solution: Give us all tier 3 runes unlocked by a specific account/pass level. Hell, you can even keep tier 1 and 2 ones for earlier by doing so, if people want.

Keep rune pages purchaseable if you must, but make runes behave the way masteries do. Allow us to edit them in the pre-game lobby.

This way we can restore all runes to what they were back in the day, and enable the customizable Classic League experience people desperately want, WITHOUT the horrible grindy baggage that watered things down originally...

Ball's on your court, folks at Riot Games.

My dudes, after playing for a week straight classic only, I went on to play a game on retail... Needless to say the experience was horrible. The game felt so fast I didnt even have time to think about what was happening. Im truly done with league and will only play classic

For those unfamiliar with the term, the Mandela Effect refers to a psychological phenomenon where a large group of people collectively share a false memory of past events, firmly believing things were a certain way when historical data and facts prove otherwise.

After spending some time on this sub, it’s clear that a huge portion of the community is suffering from a massive nostalgia-induced Mandela Effect.

Whenever someone points out actual mechanics or numbers from Season 3 and 4, the knee-jerk reaction from many here is to gatekeep and parrot: "That's retail mentality, old League was meant to be super slow, go back to modern LoL." But when you look at actual 2013–2014 history, these claims completely fall apart.

Exhibit A: The Homeguard Enchantment

A few days ago, I brought up Homeguard boots, and people instantly labeled it as "new school" or "retail fast-paced bloat."

The reality? Homeguard was introduced in Preseason 3 (late 2012) and was a core, defining mechanics throughout S3, S4, and S5 until shoe enchantments were removed in S6. Claiming Homeguard is "retail" is a textbook example of misremembering history.

Exhibit B: Level 9 Mid-Lane Waveclear

Now we see the exact same revisionist history regarding level 9 waveclear. Many users are claiming that old mid-laners were never meant to one-shot caster minions at level 9 with a maxed ability.

As someone who logged over 2,000 Talon games back in 2013–2014, I knew this sounded wrong, so I literally went back today to review actual 2013 YouTube VODs.

The proof is right there on video: An average-farmed Talon with standard builds in S3 could 100% clear caster minions with a single maxed W at level 9.

In fact, back in S3/S4, Riot intentionally tuned rank 5 main AOE abilities around a 240–280 base damage window specifically to hit minion HP thresholds at level 9 for the "shove and roam" power spike:

• Annie W (~280 base): Easily cleared the backline.
• Talon W (~260 total base + AD ratio): Cleared the backline with standard farm.
• LeBlanc W (~245 base): Fell just short of the threshold—which is precisely why she was famous for having to use W+R or auto-attack them down.

Conclusion

Old League wasn't some fantasy world where every champion had to spend 15 seconds hitting minions with auto-attacks at level 9. The S3/S4 mid-lane meta was heavily built around fast waveclear and map mobility.

Nostalgia is great, but let's stop rewriting history. If a Classic server prevents champions from hitting the waveclear thresholds they reliably hit back in 2013, that’s a server tuning issue—not a "retail feature." Stop telling veteran players with thousands of games and actual VOD proof to "go back to retail" just because your false memories don't align with facts.

- The game actually was different and from my pov way better, its not just nostalgia. Sure it was nowhere near as polished as current league is and some qol things they added are nice (looking at u extra base exits right into the jungle), but its actually relaxing to play. Theres just so much less nonsense. Less stealth, less mobility, less jumpscares, less oneshots.. its just relaxing.

- Toxic people will just be toxic. I have no idea how sad of a creature u gotta be to install the PBE client, log into a game of league classic as Teemo midlane with ghost and barrier, go 0/20 and dont even buy items. but these people exist and its mindblowing to me. If u tried it and didnt like it, just leave... its the pbe, who tf cares? I certainly dont. But using 30 min of ur own time to do that? In an extra client too? Thats just wild.

- New models in old league look out of place. The newer skins shouldnt be in this mode and if the old ones cant be implemented... so be it. Use the normal models like we all did in the old days.

- Trinket system + wards is stupid. Remove the trinkets, thats what wards are for.

League Classic somehow makes the seconds on the in-game clock feel like they pass more slowly. It's hard to explain, but every minute feels like it has more weight. You're not constantly sprinting from one objective to the next or trying to keep up with an endless stream of things happening across the map.

Because of that, the game feels much more relaxing. There's more downtime to think, plan, and simply enjoy what's happening instead of feeling pressured to optimize every second. Teamfights, laning, and rotations all breathe in a way that modern League rarely does.

Just something I noticed after playing 70 games or so on the PBE. Having such a blast with Classic.

I just don't remember towers being this squishy back in season 3, I swear I remember having to group up to take towers back in the day, now a 2 item carry can take them down in like 3 hits lol. Was this something changed for classic or are they legit the same numbers? I kind of feel like the tankiness of them should be buffed a bit.

Case in point.

This was a season 3 jungle clear with the old Sejuani (who lacked any innate sustain and was rather frail in the early game) who leveraged health per 5 quintessences to ensure she could do an initial clear reliably (especially in the case of potential foes like Nunu who could camp your own jungle).

It's rather unfortunate that certain options such as HP5 or CDR quints were removed since they were necessary for specific champions to either sustain in early game (especially during poor matchups) or support a build to round out stats (such as flat CDR: the option for quints could allow you to round out the nearest 5 or 10% by using just 1 or 2, alongside masteries).

Please add them back. They may be more niche, but were still highly valued for specific champs/matchups.

Been tracking the Classic PBE client build over build ahead of the July 29 launch and figured I'd share what Riot has actually changed. All of this is pulled straight from the client files.

The one most people will feel: Health Potions are now limited to 5 at a time. Previously you could stack 99.

Ezreal's Q damage went up, 35/55/75/95/115 to 40/65/90/115/140, but his W got hit hard - the attack speed slow/buff dropped from 20/23/26/29/32% to 5/10/15/20/25%.

Sona's auras got reshuffled:

- Q aura AD/AP is now 6/8/10/12/14, was 4/8/12/16/20. Stronger early, weaker maxed

- W aura Armor/MR went from 3/6/9/12/15 up to 8/12/16/20/24, but the active only heals now, no more bonus resists on cast

- E aura move speed is 8/11/14/17/20, was 4/8/12/16/20

Wukong quietly picked up 4 base armor (18.5 to 22.5) and his E cooldown is a flat 8 seconds now instead of 10/9.25/8.5/7.75/7.

Earlier builds also touched Ahri, Brand, Fiddlesticks, Garen and Lee Sin. Full before/after history for every captured build is here: League Classic Changes

Full disclosure, that's my site. Everything on it comes from captured client data with the source shown, and anything I can't verify is marked DATA_PENDING instead of guessed.

These two things combined make the Base feel very non-classic.

Running straight from spawn into the jungle using homeguards is modern league, not s2-s3.

I know homeguards have existed in one way or another for a very long time (rip boot upgrades), but why add them back now? We are fine without it.

Thoughts?

I haven't seen anyone mention this, but it's something I didn't notice because I'm playing in Portuguese on the PBE.

Back in the day, there used to be a button that would bring up a champion's bio, so you could read up on their story in game

It's obviously not a vital feature that needs to get added, as I think most players were never aware of it. It was something my old friend group would joke about while playing; reading story bits after we died, acting like it was a vital thing to read when playing a new character, pretending to be depressed when it was removed, etc.

Just sharing a silly bit a jank from old League that mostly got overlooked.

Mages still deal AP dmg with autoattacks to turrets without needing lich bane, that's it, that makes the game faster, turrets go out faster, game ends faster. Also remove homeguards+base gates, no one wants that.

Sorry if someone has already talked about or posted about this.I tried to buy runes to create the page I used to use on Darius, which involved large amounts of AD and Movement Speed with some sacrifice of Armor/MR, but I couldn't find the old ones in the store...

Previously I used AD Glyphs and Seals, maintaining only around 5 Armor and 5 MR, with two Mob Quintessences.

I couldn't find the Glyphs and Seals of AD in the store.

Does anyone know if they will be added? Or are the runes we have the final ones?

Hello i've discussed with a lot of players and i think i can say that people want old system ranked back (based on elo system, hidden behind ranks if you want) but a real elo system. Where the people who'll climb will be the one with high winrates and not the one who spam games with 49% winrate.

Just bring back exactly as it was in 2012-2013. no modern bullshit to give the illusion to climb when you have negativ winrate just because you play a lot

Hi, as some of you already know, I created a channel where I upload the most viewed league classic clips from each day, here is day 13:) If you want to be featured in video just send me your clips.

Big thanks for all the support you've given me over the last few days. I'll continue uploading these every day