With the current state of video game patches and updates, most games are changing increasingly fast. From minor balance changes to fully reworked designs on characters or mechanics, there’s rarely a multiplayer game that stays true to its original form. This is no different for League of Legends. Released in 2009, this multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) took the gaming world by storm. Created from the bones of the Warcraft 3 mod Defense of the Ancients (DotA) by adding simpler and more streamlined mechanics, it has become one of the most popular games of all time. Whether they love it, hate it, or are completely indifferent to it, every gamer has heard of it.
I am of the camp that loves the game. I have been playing on and off since launch, throughout several stages of my life. Throughout these years, I have seen the game change drastically. Some changes have been for the better, like the Mordekaiser rework, and others I believe for the worse, such as removing unique game modes like 3v3. Thus, when Riot announced they were releasing League of Legends Classic, I was optimistic. Even before having information on what it entailed, the idea of being able to re-experience a multiplayer game that I love from a past lens is exciting. Especially from a game preservation perspective. But as with all things with Riot Games these days, there’s a heavy asterisk on this release.
League of Legends Classic is a version of the game that resembles its Season 3 iteration from 2012. It removes many modern champions, items, and systems to revert the game to how it was years ago. It’s pretty incredible seeing the game from a visual and mechanical standpoint that seemed like it was forever lost to time. Loading up my first match and taking in the old map of Summoner’s Rift in all its prehistoric glory was the exact type of nostalgia rush that I live for. It instantly took me back to being a teenager, spending my summer on Skype, spouting nonsense all day with my friends.
The pace of the match feels slower, although their overall length is typically shorter than the modern game. With this change, it feels as if there’s more thought behind each action. Mana management is vastly more important, thus allowing for less spam and needing to use abilities with precision. There were several instances where I caught myself being a bit too spammy with abilities, which ended up costing me my life. And with movement being slower, one death costs you a lot more time lost. It’s a breath of fresh air compared to the modern pace of League. The decisions you make tend to have more impact. This Classic mode also brought back original jungle objectives like the blue/red buffs, Dragon, and Baron Nashor. Naturally, you wouldn’t think about how much the game has changed, but being able to bounce back between Classic and modern League and experiencing the differences really brings the point home. I’m not sure I prefer one over the other; it’s simply different. And having options for players is never a bad thing.
Where this Classic experience stumbles most for me is in all the aspects outside of the actual game. This Classic launch brought back the old Masteries & Runes systems, which are fine in themselves, but the execution is flawed. The Masteries skill tree is like many classic MMO skill trees. You level up, earn a point, and place a point in the desired category for your character. Riot chose to have all Mastery points unlocked, without the need for grinding, which is a welcome addition. I can mix & match talents and try different Mastery builds at my heart’s content.
The Runes system is different, though. To acquire Runes, a player must grind the game (or spend money) to unlock Influence Points (IP) and then spend these points on the specific runes of their choosing. This is a system I was really hoping they’d change for Classic, because it automatically puts players who don’t have as much time to spend on the game at a disadvantage unless they spend money. It’s a very predatory system in a competitive environment, and I’m glad it was removed from the modern version of the game. It’s a shame Riot couldn’t find a positive medium to bring back the runes while having them accessible to everyone. It’d be a simple task of making all the runes available to all players immediately and allowing them to make custom builds to their specific Champions, which is exactly what they did for the Masteries system. It’s odd they chose to opt out of that method for the Runes; a game design decision that feels centered around bringing in more money than providing the best experience for all players in a mode that is already the side gig to the modern version of League.
This leads me into the shop design and the monetization of the game in general. Let me preface this by saying that I am aware that all the paid content in the game is completely optional. You can play the entire game and not spend a single dime. My issue is: why do some shop items exist at all? I don’t mind paying for cosmetics and supporting developers. But in League Classic, you can purchase a loading screen portrait of a champion that was drawn in Paint. The actual Windows app Paint. It costs $11. These Paint drawings are callbacks to funny memes and throwback moments of that era, so it’s even stranger to me to lock those behind an $11 paywall. You’ll only see them when you are loading into the game as well, which is usually less than a minute, so I’m dumbfounded by this decision. This should be a way to celebrate and honor the history of League of Legends. Allow players to earn fun items and content without locking them behind paywalls.
This has been an issue in multiplayer games a lot in the past few years, and League Classic is no exception to this. Riot also decided to turn on some champion skins that didn’t exist in the Classic era. Which typically would be fine, because a lot of players would be upset if the money they spent on the current game couldn’t work in all the modes; you can’t please everyone. Except Riot didn’t put the extra work in to make these modern skins have the Classic art feel. So, you end up with this weird visual where half the players are looking like Classic art, and then the other half look like the modern version of themselves. It is extremely weird and jarring. With how many skins exist in modern League, I’m aware it would be an insane task to change them all. So, I’m not sure I know a fix for this issue, but it’s nevertheless a conflicting style. I hope Riot finds a way to mitigate this problem.
Throughout the past few weeks, I have really enjoyed playing League of Legends Classic matches. The game looks and feels exactly how my brain remembers. I hope Riot continues to build on this idea and implement old, and even some new, changes that fit into the vibe of the Classic experience. It’s unfortunate that the skin visual issue can be a bit troublesome, and poor monetization systems that seem to plague our industry currently are in full effect here as well. If they treated this more as a celebration of the history of the game, I’d have nothing but praise. Maybe that’s ignorant of me in a 2026 gaming landscape, but it’d be nice for one of these companies to give back to the community that has built them up over nearly two decades now.
I enjoy the gameplay a lot, but don’t enjoy all the business practices around it. If they iron some of these issues out, I believe League Classic could build into its own experience entirely that is alive for many years to come. Maybe even have its own esports scene. Only time shall tell, but it has overall been nice to take a trip down memory lane.
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