Image: Riot Games
Riot Games has confirmed that all of 2XKO’s playable Champions can be unlocked for free.
Riot Games hosted a live panel for its upcoming League of Legends fighting game 2XKO at Evo 2024 this year, updating fans on how the game is shaping up ahead of its Alpha Lab playtest in August. During the panel, the developer confirmed that all of the game’s playable Champions will be unlockable for free, with in-game monetisation focused on cosmetics and battle passes.
The panel also confirmed that Katarina has unfortunately been cut from the launch roster, as 2XKO now plans for a ‘lean’ launch.
More 2XKO details confirmed at Riot Games’ Evo 2024 panel
2XKO’s executive producer Tom Cannon and game director Shaun Rivera hosted a short ‘State of 2XKO’ presentation during Evo 2024, where they dived into the game’s development history and future content plans. To address concerns that players might have to pay to unlock Champions in-game, Cannon immediately confirmed that they will be able to, “be the best player in the world for free without spending a dime.”
As a free-to-play game, 2XKO will still feature monetisation in the form of stickers, skins and battle passes. This includes a new skin shown off during the presentation called Dynasty Ahri, which can be unlocked in the game’s upcoming Alpha Lab playtest. The playtest will include an, “intro battle pass,” which Cannon confirms has, “some other goodies.”
The panel also touched on Jinx, the iconic Champion present in earlier presentations for the game up until its big 2XKO rebrand. The developers confirmed that Jinx will still be on 2XKO’s launch roster, and will be shown off with a gameplay reveal soon. However, neither Jinx nor Katarina will be available in the Alpha Lab playtest next month. According to Rivera, playtesters found Jinx’s ammo mechanics too difficult to get the hang of. Rivera said, “She wasn't hitting as hard as we wanted and more specifically, she wasn't hitting as hard as all the soon-to-be Jinx Mains would expect.”
Thus, players won’t, “see her for a little bit.” In Katarina’s case, she won’t be available in the launch roster at all. According to Rivera, the Champion was too closely tied to mechanics from 2XKO’s earlier 1v1 iteration, making her incompatible with the current version of the game. In Rivera’s own words, Riot, “would have to remake her entirely,” for 2XKO.
Cannon also confirmed that 2XKO will launch with, “at least one game mode,” but it will be, “a little bit lean at launch.” Rivera chimed in by saying, “We’re going to launch something a little bit lean. We’re going to hear what you all think, and then we’re going to build it in a way that we can make it freaking awesome over time with your feedback.”
In other words: 2XKO might not launch with as many features as players have come to expect from modern fighters, but Riot plans to support the game with plenty of live-service content updates for the foreseeable future.
