There are two things that fighting game players love about team games: cool systems focused on synergy and big rosters.
Some of the most beloved titles in the sub-genre, likeMarvel vs. Capcom 2,Tekken Tag Tournament 2, andCapcom vs. SNK 2, each have over 40 unique characters to play with.
More recent examples, such asDragon Ball FighterZand Blazblue: Cross Tag Battle, weren’t so warmly received at first due to their ‘limited’ character selection (24 and 20, respectively). However, dozens more were added after seasons of paid DLC, creating a healthier roster than most of their competition.
It’s always been a must to have a large roster to experiment with and create diverse teams, especially if the game is 3vs3. This is why it came as a shock that Riot Games revealed2XKO’swill launch with only ten characters.
Not Many Champions Were Invited To The Party
On March 27, Riot released an hour-long video showing a ton of changes to the game’s systems alongside revealing Jinx for the roster. Shorter combos, new Fuses (a mechanic that gives you unique buffs and perks before starting a fight), new buttons, and adjustments to how defense works were just some of the announced changes. It felt like a completely different game to the one I played in alpha nine months ago.
However, during the stream, Riot also announced its intentions to launch the game with a small roster. There wasn’t a specific number, but the argument was that it was taking too long to release the game, and reducing the number of playable characters would help them release it sooner. Shortly after, game director Shaun Rivera posted on the game’s official Discord channel that they would launch 2XKO with only ten characters.
So far, the confirmed roster has Darius, Ahri, Illaoi, Ekko, Braum, Yasuo, and Jinx. Three more characters should be announced in the following months.
This wasn’t well-received by many players, and it’s understandable: that number is laughable. It doesn’t matter if the game has several Fuses that can drastically alter your playstyle and how you play with your duo. The roster is too small, and players will likely run out of combinations and ideas before long.
At the same time, I still think that this might be the best possible scenario for 2XKO, and here’s why.
2XKO Is Free-To-Play… Is That Enough?
2XKO, as any Riot live-service game, will be free-to-play. This means that the entry point will cost you nothing, and you’ll be able to jump right in from day one — the best time to start any fighting game, because as the pool of players grows, so will the gaps between their experience levels. Riot will use a system similar to Valorant and League of Legends: You’ll have some free characters to use, and you’ll have to spend in-game currency or real-life money to unlock the rest.
How grindy the free method will be and how many of the ten available characters you’ll have unlocked from the off is still a mystery. In my experience playing Valorant and League, you could unlock characters after playing for dozens of hours and completing challenges or having luck with boxes (although I understand that this has recently changed with the latter). I expect this to be the case with 2XKO, and I would be surprised if it would be too troublesome for people who play FGs daily, but I could be wrong.
Cosmetic items, such as skins, are a staple in League, and Riot has already shown that 2XKO will have its own version of character outfits. The summer variant shown in the stream was amazing, and at least we could expect them to retain the superb quality that LoL players have grown used to.
There’s still no information about how much a single skin will cost.
League of Legends has been around since 2009, and Valorant since 2020. These games still get new content on a consistent basis, and Riot will likely preserve them as long as it can. It’s hard to see why this would be different with 2XKO, even if fighting games are a way more niche genre than MOBAs and first-person shooters.
It’s also worth saying that many of the devs behind 2XKO are no strangers to fighting games. Executive producer Tom Cannon and technical lead are the founders of EVO, the FGC’s most famous event, and developers of rollback netcode (which has become a staple in the genre). They know that the current roster leaves a lot to be desired, and maybe they couldn’t find another solution apart from delaying the game further.
On a final note, remember those big rosters I mentioned earlier? Many of them are composed of existing characters from older games. They received tweaks and were adapted to each new game’s systems, sure, but there was already some groundwork. 2XKO only took the general appearances and some combat ideas from League’s champions, but that’s it: the engine, the way characters move and behave, and a plethora of systems that they have been overhauling for more than six years are completely new.
Don’t get me wrong, I still find the final number underwhelming, and it will likely hurt 2XKO’s launch, but I can see why Riot made the decision it made.
We still don’t know when 2XKO will be released. In the meantime, you may sign in to get a chance to receive an invitation to Alpha Lab 2, a playtest of the game that will have all the latest changes and characters. This will run from April 18 to 20.
