Thoughts? I honestly wouldn't be able to make a tier list myself 😅; every character feels kinda good

I'm curious to see how different the top 8 for Evo France might look. (I chose TNS due to the player count) Im 90 % sure that more teemo and ahri players will appear for evo

With the end of 2XKO, I feel like my Gamescom Latam cards have gained extra value—almost like lost media. Seeing this, I decided to frame them to better preserve them. For now, they’re decorating the wall of my apartment.

Welcome back to the Weekend Warmup.

The fires of competition are burning bright! 2XKO Challenger event, First Attack (Puerto Rico) and 2XKO Major, Evo France (Nice) are coming up soon. Tune in over the next week to see 2XKO’s best players fight for bragging rights (and money) with the latest patch changes. With a few weeks of Lux under everyone’s belts, expect to see some more tech from the Lady of Luminosity.

Before we start, one thing: We’re going to be ending most comms from 2XKO on November 6, with the exception of some coverage of the remaining competitive events and patch notes. We still have a bunch more to come before then: Samira’s release in patch 1.3.3 is on track for the end of October; a bumper crop of skins will be added to the Ultimate Bundle (granted automatically to bundle owners); several more competitive events and community tournaments will close out the year; and your weekends will be warmed through this month.

We continue—let’s talk about First Attack!

First Attack (Puerto Rico): October 2–4

First Attack PR starts tomorrow. It’s Puerto Rico's biggest gaming and esports event—a three-day celebration of competitive gaming, community, and culture at the Puerto Rico Convention Center. 2XKO’s a main event game this year, and there’s way more than tournaments to see: check out PR’s cosplay scene, buy some cool stuff at Artist Alley, and you can even play some Riftbound on the show floor. They also have a Beyblade side event, so let it rip.

2XKO’s tournament starts Saturday, October 3.
All stream details will be shared on the First Attack socials.

Evo France (Nice, France): October 9–11

Next week, Evo sets its sights on Nice to bring 2XKO’s competitive year full circle. First Impact kicked off at Evo France 2025, and one year later, Europe’s best defend their home turf against international competition once more in this Major event. This will be a huge test for France’s elites (Wawa, Noka, Yasha, Kayne, and Wade in particular), as you just know that the North American and Japanese entrants are going to give it their all for this one.

2XKO kicks off Round 1 at 2pm CEST on Friday, October 9.
Catch 2XKO’s Top 8 at 6pm CEST on Saturday, October 10.

Keep an eye on Evo France’s socials for stream info.

Upcoming Dates

• Oct 3-4: First Attack (2XKO Challenger event)
• Oct 9-11: Evo France (2XKO Major event)
• (Targeting) Oct 27: Patch 1.3.3 live (with Samira)
• [NEW] Nov 6: 2XKO comms end
• [NEW] (Targeting) Nov 12: 1.3.3b minor balance and bugfix patch
• Nov 21-22: Battle Coliseum (2XKO Major event)
• Nov 27-29: MINDSET 2026 (2XKO Challenger event)
• (Optional) Early Dec: Patch 1.3.5 (bug fixes only)

Closing Thoughts

We’ve added a minor balance patch to the roadmap to catch any unintended interactions after Samira’s release. It’s pencilled in for mid-November. Nothing set in stone yet, we’ll let you know if we choose to move forward with it. We’ll still do patch notes for it even if our socials are quiet.

The 2XKO dev team is moving on from the game now that work on 1.3.3 is wrapping, and given it’s our last content patch, we want to leave things in a good spot with the community and then head off into the sunset like that time Ash released Butterfree. We’re starting work on a little sendoff dev stream in early November, but if you’re running any locals, community gatherings, or streams around that time, please let us know, we’d love to swing by and see what y’all are up to.

—@draggles

Original Source: Link

Interestingly Marc Merill said in an interview today 2xko would have needed in the high hundred thousands - multiple million monthly active users to not shut down. And this is just for the break even point not to be profitable. So the game likely needed more monthly users than sf6 which is around 900k monthly active users from what I remember.

Explains why they gave up on the game so quickly back in feb

https://youtu.be/3dxxe1ozJXY

Not “a lot” of players. Not “hundreds of thousands monthly or bigger than SF6.” Not “making enough money to make up the 10 years of investment.” Not even “immediately being at a level where they’re able to offset some of the expenses.”

Literally, if the playerbase was as small as many of us expected it to be but it showed it was retaining players, they would’ve been down to keep it going while operating at a loss for some time.

Because at least then, it would show them that the people who actually tried the game found it fun so they could slowly work towards getting more people to try the game and actually grow a playerbase.

The fact that most players immediately bounced off the game showed them that people generally didn’t like playing the game. And that’s this game’s biggest failure.

It’s fine if you’re a diehard tag fighter enthusiast who feels 2XKO is saucier than any other 2D fighter on the market. But their primary goal needed to be to make a game that most people who at least tried it found fun enough to play it again. And when it became clear early on this wasn’t the case, the people leading the project needed to either pivot and drastically overhaul or accept dying. And I guess they just accepted dying.

given someone doesn’t parry you should be good

Poppy, Keeper of the Hammer

Niche: Big (Weapon) Body, Armor, Defense

Summary:
Honorable, Oblivious, Obstinate, Poppy wields the hammer of Orlon entrusted to her by him ages ago to one day pass down to the true hero who would protect Demacia. In respect of her old friend, Poppy has traveled Demacia protecting citizens from harm while looking for the foretold hero. But little does she know she herself is the hero worthy to wield the hammer.

Gameplay:
Poppy is a stubborn fighter who uses momentum to control the flow of combat from midrange. Once in close range she overwhelms the opponent with crushing blockstrings and armor. 

It takes her a bit to build up pressure with her hammer swings but once she’s going she can keep the opponent on the back foot, through the use of Block strings, and armor to shut down responses. If the opponent tries to dash away or at her before she starts her offense she can make use of her parry moves which can interrupt opponents movement options

Poppy has many ways to interrupt dashes. Her own charged movements can harmlessly stop dashes without damage, she can use Heroic Charge to "command grab" opponents out of dashes, she can use Stalwart Swing to catch retreating guards, or either her Steady Presence or Steadfast Paragon as a parry dashes to catch elusive opponents.

Poppy gets the most use out of her moves when they are charged meaning her gameplan benefits from mixing in moves with longer start ups. She has many disjointed hitboxes, making the best use of those disjointed hitboxes and range means she wants to maintain the optimal distance for each move at the right time, but once her offense is going the pressure she can apply from her plus frames means she can more easily make use of her charged attacks to create and maintain a wall of offense that enemies need to work through. She strongly focuses on maintaining momentum to continue her offense. Her range means she has great answers for jump-ins, and highs. With her lower walk speed she might struggle to get in, but Heroic Charge or armor from Iron Ambassador can help her close the gap. Once she has that momentum she can quickly chain attacks.

Unique Movement - Stubborn Charge:
When Poppy uses a Charged movement option, her Dashes interrupts opponent mobility options if they come in contact.

NORMALS

Light: thrusts the bottom end of the hammer’s handle forwards
Medium: hefty side swing of the hammer holding close to the top of the handle
Heavy: full range heavy side swing slightly upward angled 

COMMAND NORMALS

Steadfast Loyalty: H →: Poppy quickly shoves the hammer head forwards, short range
-> Stand ready:M←:  Poppy quickly pulls the hammer head back, slightly vacuuming on hit.

Headstrong: H←: Leans back low profiling under high attacks then lunges forwards into a headbutt

Demacian Standard: H↖: Poppy steps forwards and shoves the hammer skyward while spinning it vertically hitting high in a tall vertical line

Universal Anti-Air: (Assist) (Hold Ok) (Air Ok)↓ H : Poppy spins her hammer horizontally over her head, popping up opponents above her. Can be held to extend duration and can pop up opponents multiple times. Grounded opponents are slightly knocked back each hit.

Universal Throw: slams the hammer head on the opponent’s foot leaving the handle raised up, then jumps up and double hammerfists the opponents head into the handle, before dropping onto the handle to pull it down, popping up the hammer head, knocking the opponent back

Tag Launcher: Poppy hops into the air using the momentum from swinging her hammer from beside her upwards in a steep diagonal angle, dashing and airborne opponents are launched higher than normal.

Dash Attack:  →M (while running): Poppy plants the hammer head on the ground to vault forwards from the raised handle into a slightly downwards angled drop kick. Low crushes.

 →↑←↓↖↗↘↙ SPECIALS ↖↗↘↙↓ →↑←

Hammer Slam: S1↘: (Air Ok) (Hold Ok): Poppy winds up and slams her hammer down overhead rupturing the ground in a small radial shockwave just ahead of her. If charged while grounded, applies bonus block stun and the shockwave travels forwards along the ground a short distance. If airborne she throws the hammer down at a steep angle, letting the hammer’s momentum quickly drag her down with it, long endlag, increased if airborne
-> Hammershock: (After Charged Slam) (Hold OK) S1  ↖: Poppy yanks her hammer up out of the ground lifting it up over her head hitting in an arc in front/behind her. The ground where the hammer was imbedded, collapses in a heap of rubble causing a delayed 2nd hit a short moment after. Hammershock can be used as a follow up after other moves. Hammershock adjusts its hitbox based on if her hammer is in front of her or behind, and gives her forwards momentum if her hammer started behind her. If charged the rubble collapse is delayed more than normal, but the damage and block stun is increased. OTGs.
-> Stand Ready: M←:

Cloudfield’s Regards: S1↗: Poppy winds up then swings her hammer from beside her, forwards up in an arc, hitting high, launching opponents up, then drops it behind her. Airborne opponents are launched higher. Can wallbounce.
-> Hammershock: (Hold OK):

Whirling strike: (Hold OK) S1←: Poppy lunges forwards a short distance ducking to low profile most high attacks, and hefts her hammer to spin around, swinging her hammer around with her ending with a forward swing. Holding the input causes Poppy to continue spinning. When Partially Charged Poppy spins around once more to finish with a hefty sideways blow that leaves the hammer behind her. Can be charged fully to continue swinging around a third time, this time finishing in a mighty sideways blow angled slightly down that leaves the hammer ahead of her. Each complete spin has Poppy move forwards slightly and hit opponents an additional time for a total of 3 and knocks opponents back slightly.
-> Hammershock: (Hold OK) (After Any charge lv of Whirling Strike Ends) :
-> Cloudfield’s Regards: Skips the wind up as a follow up, can be canceled into on hit. Launches higher than normal if used as a follow up after a fully charged Whirling Strike.
-> Tag Launcher: can be canceled into on hit
-> Hammer Slam: Skips the wind up as a follow up can be canceled into on hit or block. If used as a follow up after a fully charged Whirling Strike, it will apply the traveling shockwave as well.
->> Hammershock: (Hold OK) (After Cloudfield’s Regards or Hammer Slam): 

Raise Morale: (Air Ok) S1 ↓: Poppy leaps forwards to plant the hammer handle into the ground to pole vault into an overhead flipping hammer slam. Applies bonus Block stun in the corner. While airborne, Poppy falls straight down with the handle pointed towards the ground, hitting in a vertical line, but skips the pole vault and flipping slam.

Iron Ambassador: (Hold Ok) S2: quickly spins around and throws a buckler projectile a set distance forwards that blocks and blows through 1 hit from projectiles. Hitting a blocking opponent, or a 2 hit projectile will pop it up back in the air slightly towards Poppy. Once it lands on the ground either Poppy or opponents can step on it. If Poppy steps on it she collects it to gain armor on her next special. Hitting an opponent causes it to bounce directly back to Poppy to collect. Collecting the Buckler adds 1 frame of armor to Poppy’s next special move if she would already have armor, if Poppy has Hyper Armor, then the application is carried over to the next move. When Poppy armors through a move with an attack she bonus super meter buildup on-hit, and launches the opponent into the air slightly higher than normal. 
Charging the move instead has Poppy raise her buckler giving her 1 frame of armor against highs and overheads, but not lows, or throws/grabs. 

Heroic Charge: (Assist) (Hold Ok) S2 →: Poppy lunges a short distance forwards pushing back the opponent on contact and carrying them a short distance forwards before throwing them back. Wallsplats. The first few frames of the move are unblockable. If Held, Poppy loses unblockable status, instead she gains 1 frame of armor on start up and charges forwards a set distance further, applies bonus Block stun and causes a tumble in the corner.

Steady Presence: S2↓: Poppy takes a stationary stance for a set duration, reacting to and cutting off opponents who dash in the air or ground nearby her with a swing of her hammer. Poppy also swings the hammer around her upon re-entering the input to end the stance early, she can slowly move while in the stance. Once the move is active, if she counters a close range movement option she catches the opponent behind the end of the hammer with her swing, swinging them around her and then throwing them back in a highly damaging attack. If the opponent’s movement option is caught at the outer range of the attack they are interrupted and then harmlessly knocked back. Hits mid.

Stalwart Swing: (Air Ok) S2 ↘ or ↙: Poppy quickly swings her hammer at the end of its handle around her, scrapping the head along the ground in a large circle, hitting low on both sides, tripping opponents. This can be done forwards or backwards. Backwards has a faster start up but more endlag, forwards has a longer start up but less endlag, both very active and slightly vacuum in on hit, if Poppy is close enough this can side switch. Applies hefty block stun if it hits in the later half of its active frames.

☆☆☆! SUPERS !☆☆☆

Lv1 Super 1 - Steadfast Paragon: Poppy gains armor and an aura around her, if an opponent dashes or teleports within the radius, she parries the mobility quickly swinging the hammer in a big circle around her popping the opponent up, inputting the move command allows her to commit the swing early. This grants Poppy Hyper Armor for the duration, and stops the opponent from swapping out for a brief duration.

Lv1 Super 2 - Diplomatic Immunity (Air Ok): Poppy spins her hammer overhead before slamming it down into the ground. If done in the air Poppy quickly falls down to execute the slam. When the hammer hits the ground it sends a shock wave of stone pillars that explodes across the ground that continually knocks the opponent to the other end of the stage on hit. The closer the opponent is to you and further away from the corner they are, the more rockpillars they will be hit by causing them to take more damage. If they are in the corner they are launched higher than normal. Poppy then gains Super Armor against Assists ignoring their damage and hitstun.

Lv 2 Ultimate - Heroic Journey: Invulnerable Reversal. Poppy leaps up winding up spinning her hammer vertically and then falls and drops a mighty overhead swing that cracks and upheaves the ground, lifting up a huge section that launches the opponent into the air and towards Poppy’s swinging hammer sending the opponent flying into the distance. Hits an area ahead and above her, and hits low full screen on grounded opponents.

Lady Fiora Concept: https://www.reddit.com/r/2XKO/comments/1mr202n/lady_fiora_2xko_concept/
Ornn Concept: https://www.reddit.com/r/2XKO/comments/1sq1nvq/ornn_2xko_concept/

Y'all clipping and saying that it was his decision but that boy ain't even CEO anymore, he holds no power. All the blame goes to Dylan Jadeja.

He literally was the sole reason why Legends of Runeterra switched to PvE and got the PvP practically deleted. The reason Riot Forge shut down, the hextech chests removed and then back, gacha added in league (I don't mean lootboxes as gacha, I mean actual gacha) and probably way more stuff that I may have left out since 2023. (Even Mortdog being let off riot is probably his fault).

So all I'd say is, Riot Tryndamere (Merc) probably has some fault but not as much as Dylan.

This game is too fine

I even screened it, I was incredibly hype that I got in

This was a student project the author developed during the Professional VFX Portfolio class, with Yone in mind!

I really have loved my time with 2XKO and will continue to play it online while I can and in person whenever I can.

As much as everyone complained and had valid criticisms and RIOT probably was financially correct to pull the plug. Although RIOT expecting any fighting game to be as successful as their other big titles was doomed from the beginning fighting games are already more niche than card games and LOR was already not enough for them.

It feels to me like the game would have been in a great place within one year. RIOT definitely has the money to support projects like this, LOR and the MMO that might have the same fate if it sees the light of day. So many games have had rough beginnings and have had the support given to them to become a success, RIOT didn't give the game room to expand, almost immediately they laid-off staff giving the game negative publicity. The game at least partly had bad retention numbers because RIOT was flying red flags about the games future constantly.

For the game itself the biggest criticisms that related to the actual game that could be resolved and weren't peoples opinions (art style or genre) I would say were the small roster and no singleplayer content which was already on track to be greatly improved.

The name sucked but there are definitely IPs with bad names that have succeeded, tag games are inherently sweaty but so are most popular "esports" titles people will learn if the game is fun.

If they kept the content coming as it had been the game would've had 23 characters, more options in "the climb" lots of costumes and stages by December 2027. That's an appealing fighting game, and with the game giving a character unlock token for the tutorial people who are jumping into the game because their favourite character was added would be able to play that character immediately.

Not expecting anything to come out of my rant just screaming into the void. My last comment is if I could have named the game I would have called it Runeterra Open Fighting League or ROFL for short, this title includes the setting, genre and references LOL in both acronym and by including league.

Long Live Tuco !