The LoL Classic champions roster ships with roughly 60 picks at launch on July 29, 2026, built on the original 40 champions from 2009 plus a handful of extras Riot pulled forward from the early seasons. If you only remember one thing: the base is that first-40 wall of Season 3-era nostalgia (Ashe, Annie, Master Yi, the whole gang), and the spice comes from reworked champions like Graves, Urgot, and Sion returning in their original kits, not their modern ones. Here is every champion Riot has named so far, grouped by role, plus how the roster keeps growing through community voting after launch.
The short answer: about 60 champions, original 40 at the core
League Classic drops you back into a Season 3-flavored Summoner’s Rift with a starting pool of around 60 champions. The backbone is the original 40 that shipped when the game launched in 2009, and Riot topped that up with picks from the first few seasons so the drafts actually feel like 2013 instead of a museum diorama. It’s a featured game mode inside the normal Riot Client, not a separate download or a second account, so switching into Classic is a click, not an install.
The nuance that matters for anyone who mains a reworked champion: several of these come back as their old selves. Graves has his cigar and his old auto-attack pattern instead of the burst-shot rework. Urgot is the stubby ranged poke-lord, not the crab-legged executioner. Sion plays like the pre-2017 tank-caster rather than the wall-charging juggernaut. If your muscle memory is from the last five years, expect a re-learning curve on those three specifically.
Named launch champions by role
Riot has publicly confirmed a big chunk of the launch list, and the rest fills out the original 40. Here are the champions named so far, sorted into the lanes they actually got played in during the Season 3 era. Roles were looser back then: Twisted Fate roamed everywhere, Annie showed up mid and support, and half the roster could jungle if you were stubborn enough.
| Role | Confirmed named champions | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Top | Nasus, Jax, Gangplank, Teemo, Sion, Urgot | Sion and Urgot return in their original kits. Old Urgot was a mid or top poke pick, not a jungler. |
| Jungle | Master Yi, Amumu, Warwick | Old Warwick with his original ultimate and lifesteal-heavy clear. Classic jungle has no scuttle crab. |
| Mid | Annie, Ryze, Twisted Fate, Veigar, Katarina, Morgana | Ryze and Katarina in their Season 3-era forms. Veigar still caps your AP off kills. |
| Bot (ADC) | Ashe, Corki, Sivir, Tristana, Graves | Graves returns as an original ranged marksman, cigar and all, not the modern jungle version. |
| Support | Alistar, Blitzcrank, Morgana | Blitzcrank hook still decides games. Morgana flexes between mid and support like she always did. |
That’s 20-plus champions named outright, with Graves and Urgot singled out because their reworks make them the biggest “wait, which version?” question marks. The remaining slots up to roughly 60 come from the rest of the original 40 (think Sona, Fiddlesticks, Karthus, Kayle, Soraka, Tryndamere, Zilean, and the other early-roster staples), which Riot has confirmed are all included even where they haven’t been individually spotlighted. For where these picks actually land on the ladder, our LoL Classic tier list breaks down which of them carry games in the current Classic meta.
Reworked champions and which version you get
This is the part that trips people up, so it earns its own section. Classic is Season 3-inspired, which means any champion who got a full gameplay rework after that era shows up in the older kit. Riot is chasing the feeling of that period, not a modern champion cosplaying as a throwback.
| Champion | Modern version | Classic version you get |
|---|---|---|
| Graves | Reload-based jungle brawler with burst buckshot | Original ranged ADC with a standard auto-attack and his old buckshot spread |
| Urgot | Melee juggernaut with leg shields and an execute | Ranged poke champion with the position-swap ultimate, played mid or top |
| Sion | Undead juggernaut who charges and revives on death | Pre-rework tank-caster with the classic stun and lifesteal-shield toolkit |
| Warwick | Blood-hunt jungler with a modern suppress ult | Original Warwick clear and ultimate, built around raw sustain |
Riot’s Meddler flagged old Urgot mid as a personal highlight, mostly because half the lobby back then genuinely didn’t know what the champion did, and that confusion was the point. If you never played the 2013 versions, the wiki’s League Classic reference page keeps a running list of exactly which kits are being restored, worth a skim before you first-time one of these in a real game.
How the roster grows after launch: The Council
The launch 60 is a starting line, not a ceiling. Riot is expanding the Classic roster through a community voting system called The Council, where players get a say in which champions and older kits get added next. The soft cutoff Riot has talked about sits around the 2013 champion pool, but Meddler has said that line is a target rather than a hard rule, and it will bend toward whatever Classic players actually want to see.
In practice, the roster you play in launch week isn’t the roster you’ll have three months in. If your favorite early-era pick isn’t in the opening 60, The Council is the mechanism that could bring them in, and the voting leans on what the community shows up and asks for. It’s the same logic that keeps live League’s champion pool feeling alive, just pointed backward instead of forward.
Grinding a nostalgia ladder is a different beast from grinding your real rank, and the two don’t share progress. If you’re pouring your Classic energy into re-learning old Urgot while your modern climb sits untouched, our League of Legends boost team can keep your live ranked account moving for when you head back to modern queues. Classic has no boost service, and we wouldn’t pretend otherwise, but the modern ladder is where the real placement pressure lives.
Why the roster is capped instead of full-size
Live League has well over 160 champions. Classic ships with roughly 60 on purpose, and the reason is balance authenticity, not laziness. Season 3 simply didn’t have most of the modern roster, so including a champion released in 2020 would break the entire premise. Every pick in Classic has to have existed and made sense inside that early-seasons power curve, alongside the old items, the pre-2017 runes and masteries, and a jungle with no scuttle crab.
That constraint is also why the mode feels coherent instead of scattered. A 60-champion pool with era-correct kits produces the kind of drafts and matchups that longtime players actually remember, rather than a modern champion dunking on a toolkit that was never meant to fight it. If you want the full picture of how these systems fit together, the complete LoL Classic explainer covers the runes, masteries, items, and jungle changes that pair with this roster. Riot’s own Classic dev update lays out the design reasoning if you want it straight from the source, and outlets like Dexerto’s League coverage have been tracking the roster confirmations as they land.
Frequently asked questions
How many champions are in LoL Classic at launch?
Around 60. The core is the original 40 champions from the 2009 launch, with extra early-seasons picks added on top to round out the pool.
Which reworked champions are in Classic, and are they the old versions?
Graves, Urgot, Sion, and Warwick are among the reworked champions in the launch pool, and yes, they play with their original Season 3-era kits, not their modern reworks. That’s the whole point of the mode.
Can I play champions released after Season 3?
Not at launch. Classic is capped around the early-seasons roster, so most modern champions aren’t in the pool. The Council voting system may add more over time, but recent champions are unlikely to fit the era.
Is the LoL Classic champion roster final?
No. The launch 60 is a starting point. Riot expands it through The Council, a community voting feature, and has said the champion cutoff is a flexible target that depends on what Classic players want.
Do I need a separate account or download to play Classic?
No. League Classic is a featured game mode inside the existing Riot Client, launching with Patch 26.15. You switch into it from the same client you already use, no second install and no second account.
Are champion kits identical to a specific old patch?
Not exactly. Classic is Season 3-inspired rather than pinned to one historical patch, so kits capture the feel and mechanics of that era without being a frame-perfect copy of any single old build.
So the short version stays short: roughly 60 champions at launch, the original 40 at the core, reworked picks like Graves, Urgot, and Sion returning in their old kits, and a roster that keeps growing through The Council after July 29. Learn which of these actually carry before you queue by reading our Classic tier list, and when the nostalgia run is out of your system and you want your real rank climbing again, our League of Legends rank boost team is ready for the modern ladder.