Yesterday, 02:59 PM
Here's something I usually talk about on my blog and in my videos, RuneScape's strangest distraction and diversion, the Champions' Challenge. This also serves as a history to it.
* Part I - What is this challenge?
The Champion's Challenge was introduced on the twelfth of December in 2005, when this was released the player could enter a new basement in the Champions' Guild right behind the large table and be greeted to an arena, inside of this arena are a bunch of challengers with their own unique mechanics and rules that must be followed. There's also Larxus the butler who I will speak more on in a moment.
Before you can fight the opponents in the arena you'll need to find their respective champion scroll, there's ten scrolls in total, each representing a different race. Imp, goblin, skeleton, giant, zombie, ghoul, hobgoblin, earth warrior, lesser demon, and jogre plus an additional, mysterious scroll that is seemingly unobtainable. These scrolls are all a one in five thousand drop from said respective races, some obviously more difficult to obtain than others. Once you obtain a scroll you can fight in the arena, as I've said the fights all come with their own rules but are absurdly and laughably easy, the champions themselves do look very cool though, they all have their own unique models.
Here are the mentioned rules and mechanics...
* The skeleton champion can only be fought using ranged.
* The imp champion can teleport around the arena and the player cannot use special attacks.
* The goblin champion can drain the players prayer and can only be defeated using magic.
* The giant champion must be defeated with melee.
* The hobgoblin champion can only be defeated with magic or range.
* The zombie champion, the player can only use melee or ranged.
* The ghoul champion is pretty unique, you cannot bring armor or anything in your inventory into the arena.
* The earth warrior champion, the player cannot use prayer.
* The jogre champion, the player can only use melee or magic, he can poison the player as well.
* The lesser demon champion is the most interesting, at least I believe so, the player cannot use any equipment at all during the fight and it's seemingly impossible to craft or fletch any weapons inside of the arena for this fight in specific.
Even though I said there are ten champions there is one more you have to fight if you've defeated all of the others, Leon d'Cour, the human champion. He doesn't allow the player to have anything in their inventory for this encounter. He is the only champion that doesn't require a scroll to challenge, however, there is an unused champion scroll associated with him, simply called "Champion scroll", oddly enough it was later renamed in 2017 in Old School RuneScape to "Leon's champion scroll" despite still being unused.
I mentioned how the champions look before, here's how they looked at an earlier point in RS2. (I'll show this off in the video version of this post.)
I find some of these restrictions odd, especially the imp one where you cannot use a special attack inside of the arena during the fight.
* Part II - What are the rewards?
In one of my RuneScape urban legends, mysteries, rumors, oddities and secrets posts I mentioned how strange the rewards are, it feels like Jagex didn't have time to finish this distraction and diversion, here's the reason why I think this. In RS2 upon defeating a champion a banner is placed on the wall of the outer arena, close to where Larxus walks around. The banner represents the race of the champion you defeated, there's of course ten banners, these don't do anything and are just for show. Before I continue I'd just like to mention, in an MMO, an RPG or any other kind of game for that matter it's understandable that there's a few things that are just for fun, not everything needs a purpose, these games aren't made for the recent influx of players that want to 100% everything, to max or to complete all of the quests, these games are simply to be enjoyed, to walk around the world and be a part of it, to be fully immersed.
With that said, the rewards don't make any sense and I'm not talking about the banners, upon a champion being defeated you are given a small amount of HP and slayer xp, it all adds up to a little over 40k each if you've defeated all of the champions. The xp comes from a champions lamp. This has always been odd to me, when I first started playing in late 2005 I heard only a little about the challenge, later on in 2006 is when I started to do research on this distraction and diversion, I thought there would be some other kind of reward instead of it just being a small amount of experience.
Eventually a few more rewards were added in later years, I know in RS3 it's possible to refight champions to gain more experience every week and it's also possible to get a title called "Champion of Champions". As for other things added around this date, there's a bank chest that was added and they made it so that losing a fight allows you to fight the champion again without having to get another scroll. This stuff was added on the first of June in 2015 along with the xp being buffed along with the champions' stats. Around 2016 new champion models were added.
As for OSRS, they added the best reward, the cape that Leon wears, it's a blue cape with three yellow creatures on it, they look like lions to me. It's also purely cosmetic as it should be. I felt like this should have been the reward from the start.
Going back to RS2 for a moment, in late RS2, specifically November 9th 2009, they added three more champions and their scrolls. These consist of...
* The aberrant spectre champion, he can only defeated with a two handed weapon.
* The banshee champion, prayer and melee are not allowed in the arena.
* The mummy champion, shields, offhands and two handers are not allowed.
On this same date a few other challengers here were added, a leprechaun who doesn't require a champion scroll to fight and Glophren, the second champion of champions like Leon. You can only use magic against Glophren.
* Part III - Minor Updates
Aside from the updates I mentioned there are a few other minor ones such as...
* In OSRS there was a colored message in the chat that was added when you receive a scroll, this was added on June 25th, 2015. An update in 19th of January, 2017 made it so that all enemies of a species can drop a champion scroll, there was a few exclusions before this. On December 16, 2021 another message was added to the chat if you received a duplicate scroll drop, this is similar to the duplicate messages when receiving the same pet you already have. I saw a few of these myself, specifically for the giant champion scroll.
* Outside of OSRS, on the the 9th of November in 2009, calling beads were added to the game, the player can obtain these by defeating a champion for the first time, when used it summons an imp follower holding a banner, the banner that he holds can be changed, you can make it display a picture of a champion you defeated or the number of champions you defeated, examining the imp follower also shows this information. There was a glitch that was patched on the 12th of February where the player could obtain the beads just by defeating the Leprechaun who didn't require a scroll. November 17th, 2009, the area around the ladder was changed slightly and the Tzhaar and Werewolf champions switched thrones. There are more, smaller updates to speak on but I'll leave it at that for now.
* Part IV - Facts
1. Zanik can sometimes be found in the area.
2. The imp champion banner uses the early RS2 human look for the imp.
3. There's a strange message by Larxus if you try to teleport out of the upper area, he says "there's a ladder for a reason".
4. There was a typo in the chat message that was added on the 16th of December of 2021 in OSRS in regards to obtaining a duplicate scroll drop for some time.
5. You can drop a champion scroll on the ground and pick it up after defeating said champion, the scroll will be deleted from your inventory if you talk to Larxus and you'll get some rare dialogue from him that states "You've already defeated this champion, the challenge is void.".
I've been working on this post on and off for about a year and I think it's time I finally wrap it up, there are more details about it to mention but I'll save it for another time. The reason why I've held off on posting this is I was hoping to max sooner as I was going to do the champion challenge myself after, I'm still not maxed at the time of me writing this which is 1/4/2026. Only this section of the post was written on that date, as I've mentioned the rest was written close to a year ago if not a year ago. I'll show a few screenshots of the champion scrolls I obtained on my iron, I never received any of these in RS2 when I was younger in 2005 or after, at least I don't think I did.
Goblin champion scroll from a Graardor minion.
Third or fourth giant champion scroll from hill giants.
What's strange is that I thought I had more scrolls than this, I assume the amount of giant ones I received is making me think that. Also my husband who's new to RuneScape obtained two skeleton champion scrolls from the Ape Atoll dungeon when he was training range, he also received a giant one as well.
Here's the video version of this post;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf-6XKhdalA
https://www.bitchute.com/video/f6sKwF9JVcKY/
* Part I - What is this challenge?
The Champion's Challenge was introduced on the twelfth of December in 2005, when this was released the player could enter a new basement in the Champions' Guild right behind the large table and be greeted to an arena, inside of this arena are a bunch of challengers with their own unique mechanics and rules that must be followed. There's also Larxus the butler who I will speak more on in a moment.
Before you can fight the opponents in the arena you'll need to find their respective champion scroll, there's ten scrolls in total, each representing a different race. Imp, goblin, skeleton, giant, zombie, ghoul, hobgoblin, earth warrior, lesser demon, and jogre plus an additional, mysterious scroll that is seemingly unobtainable. These scrolls are all a one in five thousand drop from said respective races, some obviously more difficult to obtain than others. Once you obtain a scroll you can fight in the arena, as I've said the fights all come with their own rules but are absurdly and laughably easy, the champions themselves do look very cool though, they all have their own unique models.
Here are the mentioned rules and mechanics...
* The skeleton champion can only be fought using ranged.
* The imp champion can teleport around the arena and the player cannot use special attacks.
* The goblin champion can drain the players prayer and can only be defeated using magic.
* The giant champion must be defeated with melee.
* The hobgoblin champion can only be defeated with magic or range.
* The zombie champion, the player can only use melee or ranged.
* The ghoul champion is pretty unique, you cannot bring armor or anything in your inventory into the arena.
* The earth warrior champion, the player cannot use prayer.
* The jogre champion, the player can only use melee or magic, he can poison the player as well.
* The lesser demon champion is the most interesting, at least I believe so, the player cannot use any equipment at all during the fight and it's seemingly impossible to craft or fletch any weapons inside of the arena for this fight in specific.
Even though I said there are ten champions there is one more you have to fight if you've defeated all of the others, Leon d'Cour, the human champion. He doesn't allow the player to have anything in their inventory for this encounter. He is the only champion that doesn't require a scroll to challenge, however, there is an unused champion scroll associated with him, simply called "Champion scroll", oddly enough it was later renamed in 2017 in Old School RuneScape to "Leon's champion scroll" despite still being unused.
I mentioned how the champions look before, here's how they looked at an earlier point in RS2. (I'll show this off in the video version of this post.)
I find some of these restrictions odd, especially the imp one where you cannot use a special attack inside of the arena during the fight.
* Part II - What are the rewards?
In one of my RuneScape urban legends, mysteries, rumors, oddities and secrets posts I mentioned how strange the rewards are, it feels like Jagex didn't have time to finish this distraction and diversion, here's the reason why I think this. In RS2 upon defeating a champion a banner is placed on the wall of the outer arena, close to where Larxus walks around. The banner represents the race of the champion you defeated, there's of course ten banners, these don't do anything and are just for show. Before I continue I'd just like to mention, in an MMO, an RPG or any other kind of game for that matter it's understandable that there's a few things that are just for fun, not everything needs a purpose, these games aren't made for the recent influx of players that want to 100% everything, to max or to complete all of the quests, these games are simply to be enjoyed, to walk around the world and be a part of it, to be fully immersed.
With that said, the rewards don't make any sense and I'm not talking about the banners, upon a champion being defeated you are given a small amount of HP and slayer xp, it all adds up to a little over 40k each if you've defeated all of the champions. The xp comes from a champions lamp. This has always been odd to me, when I first started playing in late 2005 I heard only a little about the challenge, later on in 2006 is when I started to do research on this distraction and diversion, I thought there would be some other kind of reward instead of it just being a small amount of experience.
Eventually a few more rewards were added in later years, I know in RS3 it's possible to refight champions to gain more experience every week and it's also possible to get a title called "Champion of Champions". As for other things added around this date, there's a bank chest that was added and they made it so that losing a fight allows you to fight the champion again without having to get another scroll. This stuff was added on the first of June in 2015 along with the xp being buffed along with the champions' stats. Around 2016 new champion models were added.
As for OSRS, they added the best reward, the cape that Leon wears, it's a blue cape with three yellow creatures on it, they look like lions to me. It's also purely cosmetic as it should be. I felt like this should have been the reward from the start.
Going back to RS2 for a moment, in late RS2, specifically November 9th 2009, they added three more champions and their scrolls. These consist of...
* The aberrant spectre champion, he can only defeated with a two handed weapon.
* The banshee champion, prayer and melee are not allowed in the arena.
* The mummy champion, shields, offhands and two handers are not allowed.
On this same date a few other challengers here were added, a leprechaun who doesn't require a champion scroll to fight and Glophren, the second champion of champions like Leon. You can only use magic against Glophren.
* Part III - Minor Updates
Aside from the updates I mentioned there are a few other minor ones such as...
* In OSRS there was a colored message in the chat that was added when you receive a scroll, this was added on June 25th, 2015. An update in 19th of January, 2017 made it so that all enemies of a species can drop a champion scroll, there was a few exclusions before this. On December 16, 2021 another message was added to the chat if you received a duplicate scroll drop, this is similar to the duplicate messages when receiving the same pet you already have. I saw a few of these myself, specifically for the giant champion scroll.
* Outside of OSRS, on the the 9th of November in 2009, calling beads were added to the game, the player can obtain these by defeating a champion for the first time, when used it summons an imp follower holding a banner, the banner that he holds can be changed, you can make it display a picture of a champion you defeated or the number of champions you defeated, examining the imp follower also shows this information. There was a glitch that was patched on the 12th of February where the player could obtain the beads just by defeating the Leprechaun who didn't require a scroll. November 17th, 2009, the area around the ladder was changed slightly and the Tzhaar and Werewolf champions switched thrones. There are more, smaller updates to speak on but I'll leave it at that for now.
* Part IV - Facts
1. Zanik can sometimes be found in the area.
2. The imp champion banner uses the early RS2 human look for the imp.
3. There's a strange message by Larxus if you try to teleport out of the upper area, he says "there's a ladder for a reason".
4. There was a typo in the chat message that was added on the 16th of December of 2021 in OSRS in regards to obtaining a duplicate scroll drop for some time.
5. You can drop a champion scroll on the ground and pick it up after defeating said champion, the scroll will be deleted from your inventory if you talk to Larxus and you'll get some rare dialogue from him that states "You've already defeated this champion, the challenge is void.".
I've been working on this post on and off for about a year and I think it's time I finally wrap it up, there are more details about it to mention but I'll save it for another time. The reason why I've held off on posting this is I was hoping to max sooner as I was going to do the champion challenge myself after, I'm still not maxed at the time of me writing this which is 1/4/2026. Only this section of the post was written on that date, as I've mentioned the rest was written close to a year ago if not a year ago. I'll show a few screenshots of the champion scrolls I obtained on my iron, I never received any of these in RS2 when I was younger in 2005 or after, at least I don't think I did.
Goblin champion scroll from a Graardor minion.
Third or fourth giant champion scroll from hill giants.
What's strange is that I thought I had more scrolls than this, I assume the amount of giant ones I received is making me think that. Also my husband who's new to RuneScape obtained two skeleton champion scrolls from the Ape Atoll dungeon when he was training range, he also received a giant one as well.
Here's the video version of this post;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf-6XKhdalA
https://www.bitchute.com/video/f6sKwF9JVcKY/