MeinMMO editor Nikolas Hernes was invited by Riot to a presentation and a play session of League of Legends Classic. Already with his first match, he had more fun than in the last years with LoL.
Since Season 4, for almost 12 years now, I have been playing League of Legends. There were longer breaks at times, but the Summoner’s Rift somehow pulls me back every time. LoL is the game of my teenage years. While other people played MMOs, I jumped into the game almost every day to unlock champions, buy runes, or play ranked.
LoL was not just a game for me and my friends back then. We watched videos and parodies or just talked about OP champions
, who in fact weren’t OP at all, but annoyed us.
That’s why I was also looking forward to LoL Classic. I played my first round after a presentation by Riot, who had invited us and other journalists to a play session.
Although I don’t know most champion versions from Classic, already the first match felt like returning to a hometown, even though the mode should actually be terrible.
The Return to a Better Time
After a presentation by Edgar Medina (eMeDroiD), who is involved in Classic, Riot divided us into different teams. Since no one wanted to play jungle, I volunteered. I actually like the role a lot, but in modern LoL, it often feels more like stress than fun. There are optimized routes and countless objectives.
I picked the old, creepy scarecrow Fiddlesticks and made my way to my blue buff. It felt almost like a journey to Mordor because you are used to today’s speed buffs at the beginning. I went through the monsters and didn’t think much. Thanks to Fiddlesticks’ W, I felt like I couldn’t die.
After a few monsters, I right-clicked my champion on a lane to try a gank. When Fiddlesticks then said Yes, my master
(in German: Ja, mein Meister
), I almost shed a tear of joy. I felt like the critic in Ratatouille who suddenly has a flashback of his childhood.
LoL Classic is slower and simpler. That sounds terrible by today’s standards, but for me, it was really great. LoL is optimized in normals and ranked. Everything has to happen fast, every movement has to count, and you have to be able to react to countless skill shots and dashes.
Classic is more leisurely, and I believe I finally understand what people find so great about cozy games. It feels like a vacation. The journey from A to B takes time, but during that time I can relax. I also really enjoyed the team fights. Instead of reacting to countless possibilities, there are few, clear actions that make offense and defense simpler, but no less exciting.
The competitive spirit was still there, but without sacrificing the actual fun. In this one match, I had more fun than in the last 9 years in normals or ranked matches, and Riot probably wants to achieve exactly that.
For many, it doesn’t look up to date, but for me, it’s beautiful:
Riot’s goals are a good approach
In the presentation before the play session, Riot explained to us what goals they aim to achieve with the mode, which sounds to me like a very right direction. They want to bring back the early experience of the game as a nostalgic experience while simultaneously developing it further.
That’s why they are also adding modern standards. For example, I immediately noticed the ward ping that can show the wards set by opponents.
They plan to make the mode a live service model, where the community is supposed to have a big influence. Thus, there will be a voting for the mode with new updates (according to the roadmap, around August 26). Such votes are supposed to happen regularly.
I am also a big fan of not having a fixed patch but that champions will return based on their, according to Riot, most enjoyable times. That’s why perfect balancing is not the goal according to Riot; you can play modern LoL for that. Classic is supposed to remain fun, and after one match, it worked well for me.
Have you already logged in, and what do you think of League of Legends Classic? Feel free to share your opinion in the comments. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus has also checked out the mode and is thrilled: LoL Classic is cool. Should I really write it like that? Yes? Only like this? Okay, alright.
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