Riot Games has reversed course on charging for the retro character appearances in League of Legends Classic, unlocking every classic skin and making them the default look in the mode. PC Gamer reported the change on July 19, days after the mode reached the public test environment.
League of Legends Classic cuts the roster down and restores item builds and champion kits from 2013 and earlier. When it arrived on PBE, however, champions used their modern models, voice work and spell effects by default, with the older "classic skins" locked behind earned tokens or real money.
That combination drew immediate criticism. A thread on the League of Legends subreddit calling the mode "League 'not so' Classic" gathered more than 6,000 upvotes, with the author arguing that charging for classic skins undercut the premise of the mode.
Riot's Brian "FeralPony" Feeney addressed the response in a video update on July 16, confirming that all classic skins had been unlocked for every champion that has one. They have since been made the default option, replacing the modern appearances players saw at launch on PBE.
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Why the mode mixes eras
Feeney also addressed complaints about the mode's "greatest hits" approach, which combines elements from several patches rather than recreating one specific point in the game's history. He said player surveys pointed in too many directions to settle on a single patch: respondents tended to describe League as classic in the year they started playing, at its best the year after, and already too old before they arrived.
Riot intends to keep adjusting the mode, and Feeney said players will vote on new patches once League of Legends Classic moves from PBE to standard servers. Other developers have said on social media that the default presentation is still being pushed further back in time, with senior VFX artist Sirhaian describing the work as undoing years of his own.
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