In the summer of 2012, I fell in love with the MOBA genre sitting at the family computer when I was left alone long enough to discover League of Legends. I have been chasing the dragon in the 14 years since then, so you can imagine my shock and wonder when a game mode emulating the classic iteration I grew up on was announced earlier this year.

Making “classic” versions of a beloved game is nothing new; in 2013, Jagex paved the way with Old School RuneScape, and Blizzard took MMO fans by storm in 2019 with World of Warcraft Classic. Riot Games, on the other hand, has been stubborn on the subject of Classic League of Legends (LoL). In 2021, the fan project Chronoshift, hosting a 2011 version of the game client, was struck down by Riot, accompanied with a hilariously embarrassing developer monologuing over Discord.

LoL Classic returns the game to a simpler time, a time when it was commonly lauded as the most played video game in the world. The game is slower, the graphics are dark and generally unappealing, and many mechanics inspired by the games RTS roots that were left by the wayside as seasons passed are returned in all of their janky glory. But, for all of the things that it returns, it has also brought some elements from the modern day—namely an emphasis on balance and fun.

Though advertised as such, it is not strictly a port of the games’ 2012 third season. It is a strange mystery meat blend of various mechanics, character versions, items, and finely tuned balancing math all the way from the initial 2009 release to some point in 2013. And, although I was initially put off by these changes (I was part of the maddening “No Changes” crowd in WoW Classic), the new direction grew on me quickly.

In today’s modern age, a competitive game is unlikely to fly with the unbalanced nightmare roster that League of Legends had in its early seasons. If you can’t succeed with a direct port, the logical choice is to make an alternate past, one where the game can be the very best version of what it originally tried to be. This is where LoL Classic shines, and should be used as an example by other live service developers. Sometimes what a game desperately needs is a return to form, a reduction in bloated content, and a narrowed scope that focuses on what really worked.

LoL Classic fails at bringing back the past, but it adapts a design philosophy that was left behind in the early 2010s with modern sensibilities. Before the endless feed of short form content fried our collective attention span, the MOBA was a slow and calculating game of real time chess. With the exception of painstakingly finding people to play DotA Allstars, an entire kind of game was lost to time. Support for LoL Classic is expected to continue for years, according to Riot Games. Though it could remain a time capsule, we will more likely see the game transform into something entirely divorced from a simple rerelease, with developers citing the drastically changed world of OSRS as an inspiration.

Have you gotten around to trying Classic? Are you dying to see your favorite game come back in former glory? Please share your thoughts with us on our Boss Rush Network Facebook Group or our Boss Rush Network Discord

Boss Rush Gamescast – A Gameplay Deep Dive Discussion Podcast

Boss Rush Gamescast is the gameplay deep dive discussion podcast from Boss Rush Network. Every other week, a panel of hosts and friends from across the internet take a deeper dive into the games they’ve been playing—featuring light spoilers, fun segments, and great conversations. New episodes drop every other Tuesday, with Patreon members getting early access one week in advance.

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Featured Image Credit: Riot Games