League Classic launches today at 2 p.m. EDT — here's when it goes live on your server

League Classic, Riot Games' nostalgia-driven throwback mode for League of Legends, launches globally on Wednesday, July 29 at 2 p.m. EDT — that's the same time for every server except China. The release time was pushed back from the original window, so if you were watching the clock earlier today, adjust your plans.

The mode is built around Season 3 as its framework, rolling back champions to their old kits, restoring the classic map, and bringing back the old items, runes, and masteries system. It won't be a pure replica though — Riot has folded in quality-of-life improvements accumulated over League's 17-year run. Classic launches with 60 champions: 40 originals plus 20 handpicked additions. Champions added after that era simply don't exist here, and new ones will be voted in by the player base through a system called The Council, with additions potentially arriving faster than the old two-week cadence.

League of Legends has been running since 2009, and Season 3 — roughly 2013 — is widely remembered as a formative era for the game's competitive and casual identity. Riot has been leaning into legacy content in recent years, and Classic is the most ambitious version of that yet, with its own dedicated development team rather than being a limited-time event bolted onto the live game.

Champion balance will be lightly adjusted from the original Season 3 state — Riot isn't just copy-pasting the broken metas of old — and Classic will receive its own ongoing updates independent of the main client. If something turns out wildly overpowered, the Classic team can address it without waiting on the main patch cycle.