Riot Games announced the title of its free-to-play League of Legends fighting game, which it had previously referred to as Project L: 2XKO.
The title — 2XKO — was revealed in a new minute-long trailer that shows some fights involving Yasuo, Ahri, Ekko, Darius, and Illaoi. This was followed up by a “Year in Preview” video outlining what we can expect from 2XKO this year. In that video, executive producer Tom Cannon explains that the 2XKO development team has grown massively, that a demo of it will be playable at EVO Japan 2024 in April, and that Riot plans on sharing a lot more about the game through the rest of 2024 ahead of a PC and console release next year.
The title 2XKO seems to be a reference to its main hook: this is a 2v2 fighting game. Riot Game is positioning 2XKO’s four-player 2v2 battles as the flagship mode for the fighter, which seems like it is otherwise building on the legacy of tag-team fighters like the Marvel vs. Capcom series. Its tag mechanics and Fuse system stand out from anything else in the fighting game scene right now and are reminiscent of the team-based nature of League of Legends.
Riot Games first teased 2XKO at EVO 2019 and has only given sporadic updates on it since then. That’s clearly changing in 2024. Riot Games could use that kind of win this year, as it laid off over 500 developers in January and is sunsetting its Riot Forge label following the release of Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story on February 21.
Riot Games plans to fully launch 2XKO on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S in 2025
