League of Legends Classic is coming to an end. As noted in a recent update, players will be able to queue up matches through Season 3 before Classic gets put “back in its box.” And while this news might not be surprising to some–it didn’t take long to notice that the majority of League’s playerbase either quickly decided that the modern modes were more appealing or outright ignored Classic altogether–I imagine this is a tough pill to swallow for Riot. That’s especially true when one considers how much work went into resurrecting this older version of the hit MOBA.
Earlier this year, I spoke with game designer Brian Feeney, senior game designer David Turley, and senior animator Einar Langfjord about that work. According to the developers, there were internal debates about what should or shouldn’t be included in Classic from the start; as they walked me through just a few of those elements, it became clear the team was fighting an uphill battle from the game’s inception. And that’s before considering how League fans would respond to these decisions.
For starters, with how many iterations of League there are, the team had to carefully consider what would resonate with both new and returning players. Strictly adhering to the oldest version of League wouldn’t work; the Classic public betas showcased how today’s fans have a better understanding of both League of Legends and MOBAs in general, making the oldest version feel limited to the point of near-obsolescence.
“When you give characters who multiplicatively scale, and their damage goes exponential with getting more items, and players are better at getting more items, those characters [become] much better than they were historically,” Feeney said.
Turley suggested, then, that the team should start with some variation of the game’s original 40 champions, but wasn’t sure of which versions to include. “I think in all but one case we chose right, and like during our public beta, we quickly pivoted,” he said. Eventually, they landed on 60 starting champions, made up of both original and hand-picked characters. The idea was to have a decent sized roster that felt balanced despite the skill level of a given player.
Following these initial decisions, the team focused on ridding the game of elements that didn’t age well. However, too big of changes would mean sacrificing the “Classic” part of League Classic. Turley mentioned this when he talked about how newer features found their way into League Classic.
