After almost five years of being known publicly for its internal name, Project L, Riot officially revealed the title of its fighting game alongside a release date - 2XKO, set to launch in 2025.
Via social media, Riot showcased a brand-new gameplay trailer featuring champions Ahri, Ekko, Illaoi, Yasuo, and Darius duking it out in 2v2 combat, with the name for the game now formerly known as Project L dropping right at the end.
The game's been in active development for more than five years, first shown in 2019 alongside other projects, so fans have had to wait patiently for news about it. The prolonged development cycle is in great part due to the hard pivot the dev team did by switching from a grounded 1v1 fighter to a more flashy and mobility-based 2v2 tag-team fighting game.
In a follow-up video, executive producer Tom Cannon also confirmed to fans something they've been longing for - a release window. Without delving into specifics, the 2XKO team expects the game to be ready by 2025, launching on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, and PC.
On top of that, Cannon mentioned that 2XKO will continue to make appearances at major fighting game events such as the upcoming Evo Japan in April, but teased that an online beta could be happening later this year.
You're gonna see a lot more of us this year (...) 2024 will be about getting you more involved, with events, updates, and yes, maybe even some at-home playtesting later this year
If you're interested in being among the first players who will be able to try out 2XKO online, you can already pre-register via their official website. It's not a guarantee that you'll get in, suggesting that a closed beta will come first, with the potential for an open beta later down the line.
With fighting games growing more popular than ever with the likes of Street Fighter 6, Mortal Kombat 1, and Tekken 8 launching recently, 2XKO could bring an even bigger audience by turning toxic League of Legends players into the next Evo champions.