More than four years after it was first announced to the world, Riot's League of Legends fighting game (previously known as Project L) has a proper title. It's called 2XKO, and Riot aims to have it out in 2025.
Alongside "classic one-on-one competition," 2XKO—which in my head is pronounced as "tooksko"—supports 2v2 co-op tag-team play, which Riot says will involve more than just calling in your partner when you're eating a beatdown.
The game's Fuse system, for instance, will enable different pairs of fighters match up their abilities in different ways, providing them with unique combos in matches: Pairing ultimates, for example, or performing two assist actions back-to-back instead of just one.
- 2XKO fans despair for a 2025 release as Riot pushes back a planned 'larger-scale global playtest' in favor of a 'much smaller one'
- League of Legends' new season trailer is basically an epilogue to Arcane with 6 new Fortiche champion redesigns in it—so if it's not a preview of the upcoming Noxus show, I'll eat my hat
Riot said 2XKO will offer "faster fun" through streamlined controls and mechanics, and that it will embrace "the values and ethos of the FGC with a grassroots approach to building and connecting players to the broader fighting game community." As previously announced, it will be a free-to-play, live-service game, although details on the monetization model haven't yet been revealed.
We've seen 2XKO in action previously, and it was playable at Evo in 2023, yet somehow we haven't had a title until now. While the game is getting closer to release, it's unfortunately still not what I would call close: 2XKO will be playable at events "around the world" in 2024, beginning with Evo Japan in April 2024, and Riot said it's "hoping" to start public playtesting before the end of 2024. However, an actual release isn't currently expected until sometime next year.
That's still a long way off, but if you'd like to sign up for those playtest sessions when they happen, you can do so now at the new play2xko.com website.
