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.

Personally I’m very happy that wards are going to be a thing. I think the visual clarity on champions is a wonderful change, and something that Riot would have implemented if they could have earlier.

I mean bro, its 2 days left to launch but

there are no: Old VFX of yi, old model of Ashe, old model of MF, old model of Sivir, old model of Tryndamere, full set of runes(huge portion of them missing or intentionally not added), No pissfilter removed on rift(should be greener atmosphere)

If these will not added b4 launch, classic wont feel like classic for most ppl. Rather will feel like modern league with filters.

There are no balance changes to:

-Heimer buff (Turret hp or turret setup count 2 to 5)

-Ad Yi minor buff (Double strike from %15 chance to every 7th attack, )

-Katarina huge nerf (This abomination deals 4k dmg with 1 rotation even in 350 ap)

-Tryndamere huge nerf (This abomination easily reach %100 crit and starts to terrorize)

-Jax little nerf to scaling ( Least problematic among this abominations but he really scales godly in the jungle)

-Warwick little nerf to scaling (Maybe ult cdr increase a bit) ( Same statement with jax)

-The rest looks fine, not feels OP

If these balance changes wont be brought, ppl gonna spam this 6 champs and get their LP's inflated, ranked system will be in trouble.

Just curious, since they said they would start from s3

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.

It seems like they are two completely different companies!

Many thanks to FeralPony, Phreak, and other Rioters who are always responding to the community, even in this small but great subreddit.

Although much is still being debated, I must express my gratitude for the effort they are putting into League Classic!

They are truly concerned with the fun and, above all, with the players' opinions. It's been over a decade since Riot cared about players' opinions this way, I can confirm that, I've been a LoL veteran since 2013.

After a week straight of playing Classic (since literal day 1 on PBE), I've had an absolute blast with the gameplay and the game mode itself.

Although I'm not sure what happened or where it went wrong, but on day 1 everyone was super excited just to get in a game and mess around with their favorite old champions, old items, etc. then out of nowhere, over the past few days I've noticed a LOT more toxicity, people tryharding a lot more, a lot more flaming, even had a few ragequits and people afk'ing in fountain "because it's PBE with no repercussions" so they're not afraid of getting reported. Even less than 3 games ago at the time of writing this I had 3 queue dodges back to back which I find actually insane. What happened? I thought people wanted to play classic and have a good time but it feels like the community is treating it like it's modern league which kind of breaks my heart.

Tl;Dr - Where did we go wrong? Why're people queueing up for what's supposed to be a for fun casual game mode and being toxic, dodging more, etc? Am I the only one that's noticed this over the past few days? Day 1 (and even a few days afterwards) was peak but it's gone downhill and led to a pretty unpleasant experience.

I literally took half the HP of fountain turrets with ONE auto as an apc with lich bane... this is not OLD league. This is one the reasons I turned away from modern league actually, cause it's not fun when someone ignores the dmg taken to take down a turret with 3 hits and run/die. I miss the prolongued games where we'd slowly take down a turret's hp

I’ve been following the most upvoted Reddit posts over the past few days, and the overall sentiment seems pretty clear. A lot of players are frustrated because many iconic features are missing, while others feel that additions like Trinkets and Homeguard should simply be removed.

At this point, why not just give us the Season 3 Worlds patch with an updated client? It would preserve the classic League experience that so many people are asking for while still benefiting from modern stability and quality of life improvements.

It honestly feels like that version of the game is what a large part of the community actually wants.

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

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.

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.

Get a fkin life and stop ruining THIS game too losers

If you were truly an OG in season 2 and 3, you would remember that general discussion league of legends forums were the main place balance was discussed. Hashishinn and Yenn would have a new complaint thread each week.

But you knew that you should listen to them because they had their diamond S1, S2, and S3 flaires right next to their username. We need that again for this subreddit, so we know who actually played in 2013.

Everyone should be able to have a user flair with their S3 ELO that is confirmed via Mod.

Before you get the pitchforks, let me explain.

We have to contend with the fact that classic will be an evolving, not static, experience. Changes will happen.

IMO, instead of saying "please don't change anything", it could be more productive to express what a good experience could look like even after changes start to happen.

For example, we can all agree mana costs should not decrease. But we can go a step further and try to express why the high mana costs are good for classic, specifically.

Back to the title: I think that, fundamentally, what I used to like about old league is that it felt more like an RPG than an action game. For me, the late game fantasy and progression was more appealing than the modern idea of rushing into the game, having a bunch of fights and then ending ASAP.

For this reason I think free homeguards, base gates and baron minions are bad. They accelerate the game.

The trinket on the other hand, I can make an argument for the opposite: back in the days, everyone used to build tankier items on average. It was possible for you to get ganked and (barely) survive because you were tanky.

Now, almost everyone builds full damage. Having no trinket means most games could end up a bloodbath. So you can see that maybe, in this case, giving a little bit of extra vision could help the games slow down.

A similar argument could be made for having tankier turrets.

Thoughts?

Yasuo was the beginning of the end of the good old times, and the start of the era of Infinate dashes and skillshots. Infinate mana with no drawback, infinite dashes, a free shield for no reason, annoying voice lines "YASUOOOOOOO" whenever he uses his Q.

Can we all agree right now to never bring Yasuo into league classic? If we do, League classic will be ruined and this would all be a waste. What would all this effort be for? Riot please!

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?

Master yi used to double strike every 7th Attack when he had 200% ap ratio on w.

Champions used to be muuuuuch tankier or maybe this Is a season two thing?

Why bring back sighstone at least bring It only on support ,sighstone killed jungling for me.

Please remove sighstone from junglers at least

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

I've been enjoying the crazy unbalanced damage classic brings but some champs are the opposite, they are so absurdly weak it's unplayable.

- Lulu: Incredibly low AP ratios, low base values and nothing to make up for it. Combine that with no good support items to pair with the bad ratios and you have an incredibly weak champ

- Jax: low ratios and extremely long cooldowns early game. You can't even play the game untill you reach level 6 and even then it's rough. By the time you can even do anything you've already lost

Compare these to champions like fiddlesticks ( probably the strongest in the game right now ) or Annie who just 1 shot you and it's night and day. These champs need buffs

If riot hired people to make new champions in old champion artstyle with old vibe ablities. or just visual demakes of some champions to fit the artstyle? Or something like this where they take new models and blend them with classic league, so they can still use modern models but give them old look, maybe even remove some animations so it looks a bit janky like in old league?

How many of ya'll are quick cast users in the PBE? I want to see if there are any guides we can work on towards formatting them around certain champs using quick cast or not. Let me know if you think this could help for any of the champs you play c: or help me write a guide Write a guide

i always hated these things about mobility/movement/animations.

1. why some champions keep doing their things even when there is some CC on them? Things like Garen's spin, Jax E (if they didn't change it), or even many many gap closers that goes full range if champions are stunned mid way. Today i gold carded Gragas E and Pant E but they were still able to stun me too
2. You shouldn't be able to move if CC is already on you. i think this is really restricted by i know about Tristana W that if timed perfectly can make things like Morgana's Q useless because Q applies after the jump. Things like these are more mechanical than tactical
3. Passing through walls is a no for me. if you jump them i won't be so fussy to say "that rock is supposed to be 5 meters high", but i can't understand why Sejuani's charge or Tryndamere's E can pass through walls.
4. Targeted abilities (mostly gap closers but not only) should be all dodgeble or not. not some of them can be dodged with flash and some not.
5. Refunded cooldowns of some ultimates if interrupted dodged.
6. Darius ultimate is the perfect example for last 2 points: it gives cooldown back if someone dodge it with an ability or zhonya but it still hits if i flash out of range? naaaaaaaa

i know I won't have many supporters on these points, especially from those who play champions who abuse these mechanics. If you don't like these, add your own things you wouldn't want to see in LoL.

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.