League of Legends Classic is being scaled back from an always-on mode to windowed queue play, and its current service will end in January 2027. The first visible change comes with Patch 26.21, when the Korean server moves to scheduled matchmaking hours and several other regions follow the same system.
That news lands now because players are still searching for what happens next after the mode’s launch burst, and the answer is a little more complicated than a simple shutdown. Andrei van Roon and Paul Bellezza laid out the changes in an official developer blog post on October 14, with van Roon saying that most players have gone back to other parts of League.
League of Legends Classic was released on July 30 as a throwback to early Summoner's Rift, bringing back mechanics that newer players had only seen in clips or old patch notes. It restored Ability Power Master Yi, Deathfire Grasp, and legacy runes and masteries, and it quickly became one of the more talked-about parts of League. The new plan shows how fast that excitement faded once the nostalgia hit its ceiling.
Under Patch 26.21, servers in Korea, Latin America North, Latin America South, Taiwan, Vietnam, Turkey, Southeast Asia, Oceania, and Russia will switch to Windowed Queue matchmaking. In those regions, queues will run from 4:00 PM to midnight on weekdays and from 10:00 AM to 1:00 AM the following day on weekends. Regular matchmaking queues on the Japan and Middle East servers will close at the same time, while standard custom games stay open 24/7 across all regions, including Korea.
There is still content coming before the sunset. The Classic Battle Pass for Season 3 Act 2 will keep only a free track, with no paid offerings, and the Classic Store will narrow to champions, runes and rune pages after Patch 26.21. Refunds will be issued for Classic-exclusive purchases that can no longer be used, and the developers plan to keep adding legacy champions through Patch 26.23.
That rollout also gives the mode a final stretch that looks less like a live-service expansion and more like a managed drawdown. Irelia, Karma, Quinn, Aatrox and Caitlyn arrived in Patch 26.20, while Mordekaiser, Yorick, Hecarim and Lucian are slated for Patch 26.21. Volibear, Urgot and Udyr were the top three in the Classic Council vote, a sign that the community still has clear opinions about what belongs in the mode even as the clock runs down.
The longer-term plan is not hidden: the developers want to bring the mode back later as a time-limited event with new changes and content. For now, though, League of Legends Classic has a date on the calendar, a narrower queue window and a final stretch that ends with 2026 Season 3.
