Baron with a Santa hat and a frozen river? Sign us up for the League of Legends Winter map skin!
League of Legends used to celebrate the Christmas season with the Winter map, but it seems this map skin has been retired. Whether you're doing it for the nostalgia or you started LoL late enough to miss it, here's a short guide on how you can play League of Legends with the Winter map skin in 2024.
LoL Winter map skin in 2024
The Winter version of Summoner's Rift debuted in 2009 for the Snowdown Showdown event, and was revamped in 2016 for the same event. This was the final official appearance of this map skin, and Riot Games have only applied map skins in general sparingly since. Good news though: it might come back with the reintroduction of map skins as part of the new seasonal structure coming in 2025.
Now, how do you get the LoL Winter map skin in 2024? Well, the only way to get it is to mod the game. Note that this is a violation of the Terms of Service, but many popular content creators like Druttut openly use map skins and do not get penalized. That being said, follow this guide at your own risk, still.
Here's a tour of the custom map:
Get CS-LoL Manager
CS-LoL Manager is the mod manager for League of Legends. This program allows you to modify the appearance of your game and load custom skins.
- Head to the CS-LoL Manager github page
- Download the correct file from the latest release:
- If you're on Windows, download the .exe or the .zip file.
- If you're on MacOS, get the .tar.xz file.
- Run the file and follow the installation process.
- If you got the .zip file, simply unzip it in your desired folder.
Get the mod file
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Now, here's how you can get the actual mod file. The skin is credited to BlooJae, TheKillerey, and Zamius.
- Go to Runeforge.io for the latest version of the Winter map.
- Scroll down for the big red button that says "Winter Rift" to download the file.
Running the mod
Make sure to do this before hopping onto a game. To make sure everything works safely, you can go on the practice tool.
- Run cslol-manager.
- Drag the .fantome file that you downloaded from Runeforge into the cslol-manager window.
- Wait for the mod to unpack.
- Make sure the checkbox next to "Winter Rift 2024" is checked.
- Press the ▶️ Play button at the top-right of the cslol-manager window.
- Once the Status bar at the bottom reads "Waiting for league match to start," you can now hop on a game!
You can try it out on the Practice Tool beforehand to make sure nothing is broken.
Again, a reminder that modding your game is against League's TOS and that you should do this at your own risk. Stick around esports.gg for more League of Legends news and updates.
