LoL Season 3 (Patch 26.15): League Classic & No Rank Reset

Start Date and the No-Reset Ranked Transition

Season 3 of the 2026 ranked year went live today, July 29, 2026 at 12:00 noon local server time, launching together with Patch 26.15. Season 2 Pandemonium closed out the night before, at 23:59 on July 28, with ranked queues briefly offline during the switchover.

The most important thing to know is what did not happen: there is no rank reset. Riot has confirmed it does not expect "any disruptions to your LP / Ranked progression." In practice that means:

• Your visible rank and LP carry over exactly as they were at the end of Season 2.
• No placement games. You queue up today at the same rank you left off.
• This applies to every tier, including Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger. No apex ladder reshuffle.

What does refresh is the reward track. The Victorious ranked mission resets with the new season: it is the usual 15-win mission, and progress from Season 2 does not carry over. Season 2's reward, Victorious Rengar, distributes to eligible players shortly after the season starts. The Season 3 Victorious champion has not been announced yet.

If you want to see where the meta left off before this patch, our Patch 26.12 tier list covers the last full balance patch of Season 2, and our Season 2 Pandemonium guide recaps everything that season changed.

League of Legends Classic: The Headline of Season 3

Riot is framing Season 3 as "a celebration of League's past and present," and the past half of that sentence is doing the heavy lifting. League of Legends Classic is a recreation of early-era League, and it launches today alongside the season.

What Riot has confirmed about the mode:

• 60 launch-era champions in their classic versions, drawn from League's early history (the 2009-2013 era of the game).
• The original Summoner's Rift, not the modern map.
• Old runes and masteries instead of the modern rune system. If you never got to theorycraft a 21/9/0 page, now you can.
• Classic items, with Riot specifically name-dropping Heart of Gold in the patch notes. Expect gold-per-10 stacking, old-school sustain starts, and health potions that actually matter.
• Tougher jungle monsters. Riot's phrasing is that "the monsters fight back," a nod to the era when a level 1 jungle camp could genuinely kill you.

The design intent Riot describes is "strategy over mechanics and stronger consequences" for your actions. Deaths cost more, sustain is scarcer, and games are decided by macro decisions and itemization rather than dash-chain outplays. If you started playing in the last five years, Classic will feel like a different game wearing League's clothes. If you started in Season 2 (the 2012 one), it will feel like coming home.

ARAM Mayhem Classic

The nostalgia treatment extends to ARAM. ARAM Mayhem Classic runs as a limited-time separate queue alongside the main mode, mixing the Mayhem modifier chaos with the Classic-era ruleset.

Regular ARAM Mayhem also got a systemic update in this patch: damage modifiers now apply to spells, attacks, items, and Augments, where they previously only affected spells and attack damage. That lets Riot lean less on champion-specific balance modifiers, and it means underperforming champions benefit from the game's systems more naturally. Several Augments were retuned at the same time, headlined by Critical Missile nerfs and buffs to Warding Weapon, Titan's Resolve, and Earthwake.

Ranked Changes: Aegis of Valor and Apex Duo Restrictions

Aegis of Valor now only rewards wins

The bigger of the two ranked system changes. Aegis of Valor, the loss-protection system, has been refocused:

• It no longer reduces LP losses on defeat. Losing costs what losing costs.
• Winning grants double LP, and the double-LP win no longer requires a minimum mastery score.

The net effect is that the system now accelerates climbs instead of cushioning falls. If you were used to Aegis softening a loss streak, that safety net is gone; if you are on a heater, your LP gains compound faster than before. For most players this is a straight improvement, since the old mastery-score requirement meant playing well but greedily could cost you the bonus.

Apex tiers get duo restrictions

At the top of the ladder, duo queue is being tightened:

• Master players may duo with partners of nearby rank.
• Grandmaster and Challenger players (and anyone with equivalent MMR) cannot duo queue at all.

This mirrors the restrictions most regions had before flexible apex duos crept in, and it lands together with the no-reset transition: the apex ladder keeps its standings from Season 2, but the top of it now climbs solo.

The Bel'Veth Rework

Patch 26.15 ships an extensive Bel'Veth update that moves her power from early-game invading to late-game scaling. The shape of the change:

• Base attack speed reduced from 0.85 to 0.67, cutting into her level 1-3 dueling.
• Q (Void Surge) dash cooldown now scales by rank, at 4/3.25/2.5/1.75/1 seconds, instead of being maxed-out from the start. Early Bel'Veth has fewer dashes; late Bel'Veth plays like she always did.
• Her ultimate now evolves with stacks, and at sufficient stacks her ultimate form becomes permanent. The true-form windows stop being windows.

The fantasy Riot is chasing is clear: Bel'Veth as a raid-boss hyperscaler rather than a stat-check invader. Expect her early clear and invade timings to feel noticeably weaker, and her 30-minute deathball to be the payoff. Jungle matchup knowledge from before this patch mostly no longer applies.

Buffs and Nerfs Worth Knowing

Nerfs

Locke, Naafiri, Riven, Sylas, and Mordekaiser all came down this patch after overperforming. The Locke nerf is notable because it lands just two patches after his release: the new AP assassin arrived in 26.13 stronger than Riot intended. If you are still learning him, our Locke champion guide covers his kit and the builds that survive the nerf.

Buffs

Alistar, Kai'Sa, Maokai, Volibear, and Zac got help, and the list has an obvious lean: tanks and juggernaut-adjacent picks. With the AD-heavy meta that closed out Season 2 (Rammus abusing it most famously), Riot is propping up the frontline roster rather than nerfing the damage dealers one by one. If you play tanks, this is a good patch to queue up on.

Item and Rune Changes

A focused set of item adjustments rather than a shop rework:

• Bastionbreaker - cost reduced from 3200 to 3000 gold, and its Shaped Charge damage went up. The dedicated anti-tank option gets cheaper exactly as the tank buffs land, which is not a coincidence: Riot is arming both sides of that fight.
• Terminus - the shadow-form effect now scales with your Attack Damage and Ability Power, improving it on hybrid and high-investment builds instead of being a flat value.
• Yun Tal Wildarrows - combine cost down by 100 gold (850 to 750) and attack speed up from 40% to 45%, a straightforward crit-ADC power-up.

On the rune side, Jack of All Trades got trimmed: the Adaptive Force at its two breakpoints drops from 10/25 to 8/20. The rune had quietly become the default efficiency pick for builds that splash stats; it is still fine, just no longer free value over the alternatives.

Arena players also get a tuning pass: several Augments had their level caps reduced (Demonic Clasp, Critical Rhythm, Laser Eyes, Spellwake, Earthwake, Tap Dancer), and the crit conversion ratio improved from 0.68:1 to a clean 1:1.

Skins, Events, and the Hall of Legends

• Prestige Magma Chamber Jax and Prestige Magma Chamber Veigar released today, July 29, both with chromas.
• Divine God-King Darius and Fallen God-King Garen return to the shop through Patch 26.19.
• The Hall of Legends inductee reveal is set for August 17, with the associated in-game event following the announcement.

What We Don't Know Yet

For a season launch, Riot is holding an unusual amount back:

• The season has no theme name yet. Season 1 was "For Demacia," Season 2 was "Pandemonium," and Season 3 is officially just a celebration of League's past and present. The name may arrive with the Act 2 announcement.
• Act 2 details are unannounced. Riot has said only that information will come later in the season.
• The K/DA return is a rumor. Leak accounts are reporting a K/DA comeback as the "present" half of the season's celebration, but Riot has not confirmed anything. Treat it as unverified until an official announcement.
• Worlds 2026 will reportedly include a small preview of Riot's plans for 2027 and beyond.

We will update this guide as Act 2 news lands.

FAQ

When does Season 3 start?

It already has: July 29, 2026 at 12:00 noon local server time, with Patch 26.15. Season 2 ended at 23:59 on July 28.

Is there a rank reset?

No. Your rank and LP carry over from Season 2 with no placement games, in every tier including Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger. Only the Victorious mission resets (15 wins, fresh count).

Which champions are in League of Legends Classic?

Riot has confirmed 60 launch-era champions in their classic versions but has not published the full roster list. The pool is drawn from League's 2009-2013 era.

Is Classic ranked? How long does it run?

Riot has not announced a ranked queue or an end date for Classic. The companion ARAM Mayhem Classic queue is explicitly limited-time.

How does the new Aegis of Valor work?

It no longer reduces LP losses. Instead, it grants double LP on wins, and that bonus no longer requires a minimum mastery score.

When do I get Victorious Rengar?

Season 2's Victorious Rengar distributes to eligible players shortly after Season 3 starts, so within the opening days of the season.

What happened to Bel'Veth?

She was reworked toward late-game scaling: lower base attack speed (0.85 to 0.67), a rank-scaling Q cooldown (4 down to 1 second), and an ultimate that becomes permanent at sufficient stacks.

When is the Hall of Legends reveal?

August 17, 2026, with the in-game event following the announcement.