/dev: League Classic

We’re making some changes to League Classic with Season 3 Act II.

TL;DR:

• League Classic will be available through the end of Season 3 of 2026 and then end its current run. Our goal is to bring Classic back in the future, likely as an event mode with adjustments and additions.
• Some regions with lower play rates will be moving to a windowed queue, while JP and MENA will have custom matches only from the start of 26.21.
• The Act II Classic Battle Pass will have one unified, free track.

We’ve seen a lot of players have fun revisiting the olden days with Classic. At this point though, most have gone back to other parts of League. So Classic will be available through the rest of Season 3 and will then end its current run in January 2027. We’ll then put Classic back in the box for now, with the goal of bringing it back, likely as an event mode with adjustments and additions. 

There’s more we’re going to share in the future about what we learned from this run. That includes where we think we got Classic right, where we could have gone more classic, and where sticking too closely to the past may have held the experience back. Please continue to let us know what you love and don’t love about Classic. Your feedback is a vital part of how we make our games and is always appreciated.

We’ll be adding windowed queues in some regions where we’ve seen especially strong migration back to modern modes, leading to especially long queue times and large MMR discrepancies for Classic in those regions. Classic Custom games will also be available at all times, in all regions.

We are issuing refunds on Classic-specific content that will no longer be usable (more details here), and shipping the Act II Classic Battle Pass in 26.21 with a free track only. From 26.21 onwards, the Classic store will only contain Champions, Runes, and Rune Pages. 

We know some of you REALLY love Classic, and so we’re going to bring you new (old) champions including Irelia, Karma, Quinn, Aatrox, and Caitlyn that just came out in 26.20 as well as Mordekaiser, Yorick, Hecarim, and Lucian in 26.21. We’ll continue to release new champions every patch through 26.23, including Volibear, Urgot, and Udyr, who all placed top 3 in our most recent Council poll. 

This game mode was a true labor of love from so many Rioters, and seeing you all dive back in to reclaim the nostalgia, reconnect with old friends, and relive your glory days made it a truly special moment for everyone. We will keep exploring different ways to play League and as always, we appreciate all of your feedback. Every post on social media asking for Classic, every vote cast in the Council, and every minute spent leashing for your jungler again helped us bring this to life, so thank you very much.

Keep a close eye on Patch Notes for further updates to League Classic and expected queue windows. Thanks for reading, and hope you enjoy the rest of the Classic run!

Upcoming Classic Queue Windows