Originally announced in 2019, 2XKO is Riot Games' take on the fighting game genre, using the League of Legends IP that the company began with. As seen with the Moba, Tactical Shooter, and Autobattler genres, Riot has a history of entering into beloved game spaces and crafting its own polished, exciting take. 2XKO appears to be no different, and is ed by an announced roster which features an already robust selection of fan-favorite League of Legends champions.

With eight announced champions, the tag fighter still has a ways to go in creating its final launch roster. Based on the quality of the eight announced, with some shown more than others, players can expect more solid choices to come in the near-future. As a starting point for what to expect for the game's eventual 2025 launch, here are the eight confirmed champions in 2XKO – who they are, how they play (so far), and the ways they are inspired from their source material.

8 Ahri

Riot's Most Famous Character

Ahri is a nine-tailed fox mage in League of Legends, and perhaps one of the most beloved characters in the IP. Ahri is so popular that she holds a whopping 17 skins in League of Legends, which includes the most expensive skin Riot has ever made. With League of Legends set games being more popular than the entirety of Steam in 2021, Ahri's popularity already extends to multiple genres of gaming, and is about to grace one more.

The iconic Ionian fox has already seen a large shift in design since her original reveal, in which managing spirit orbs was a core component of her toolkit. Remade without any resource management, Ahri is now a hypermobile rushdown character, with a versatile mix of projectiles. The skin trend will appear to continue as well, as the first skin shown for 2XKO was non-other than for Ahri. Her gameplay already seems like a solid interpretation of her League champion, who dashes in and out of fights to exert a burst-focused damage profile with her heart-shaped crowd control projectile and boomerang-esque orb.

7 Braum

The Friendly One

Braum is the lovable roaming hero of the ice-cold Freljord region, wielding a massive door as a shield and sporting an iconic, nicely animated mustache. As his larger frame may suggest, Braum sports an impressive array of armored moves, and can even use his shield to block projectiles, much like his League of Legends counterpart.

He also features a unique mechanic for his shield, where certain moves will empower it with ice to grant him additional benefits. With 2XKO being a tag-based fighter, a hulking, shielded figure will likely be a great asset to any team, especially as more zoners enter into the roster.

Braum's design has been wonderfully translated; a muscly, lighthearted, smiling friend of champions and poros alike. Braum was a breath of fresh air in League of Legends, as he comes from a region where the champions are as harsh as the frigid winds within it, completely contrary to the overbearingly friendly nature of Braum.

6 Darius

A Pure Representation Of Strength

Darius is the poster-boy for the expansionist, warmongering empire of Noxus. While League of Legends lore has moved away from a more binary moral com, Noxus' warmongering antics are guided by its Trifarex leadership structure. Darius sits on the council with his massive axe, representing strength through might.

In 2XKO, Darius has a wide range of far-reaching normals, with a more footsies-based game plan. While he doesn't have any unique mechanics, his weighty swings are a sight to behold, and are meant to punish poor positioning and whiffs. The lack of mechanics also allows Darius to be a solid beginner character, useful for easing new players into a traditionally overwhelming genre.

5 Ekko

Ekko Gets It Right, Eventually

With a design based more on Netflix's hit show, Arcane, than his League counterpart, Ekko is a fast, rushdown character with an oppressive toolkit of mix-ups. Ekko as a character hinges on his access to time-magic, which is represented in 2XKO by Ekko's afterimages.

These afterimages are utilized in many of Ekko's abilities, typically by swapping places with them and allowing for a number of potential followups. Ekko appears to be a character that will require a lot of lab time to truly master, as the potential usages for his afterimages had already developed rapidly during the short, at-home 2XKO playtest that ran earlier in 2024.

Once again, Riot has chosen its characters well, as Ekko is one of the few champions that has a spin-off game centering around him, with his overpowered abilities being shown to their maximum in Convergence. His ability kit feels exceedingly fresh for a fighting game, and is difficult to compare to other characters. With such a high-skill ceiling and unique foundation, the best is yet to come for Ekko in 2XKO.

4 Illaoi

An Intimidating Kraken Priestess

Coming from the pirate city-state of Bilgewater, Illaoi is a kraken priestess who breaks the typical mold of the conventional priest archetype. Like her League of Legends counterpart, Illaoi's abilities revolve around summoning tentacles onto the battlefield, which can be utilized in a variety of ways to extend pressure.

As such, Illaoi will likely turn out to be a monster if she manages to get the enemy into a corner. With her setplay tools, Illaoi can control the battlefield, and create tough-to-escape situations, and mount tremendous pressure if given the time to properly establish herself. Similar to Darius, she also has a significant number of long-range normals, which will inevitably assist in creating the cornered state she thrives in.

This is without mentioning the absolutely stellar visuals of her ultimate, featuring the immense god she worships, who happens to be so large as to only have one eye be visible on-screen. Illaoi may be considered an unconventional choice, but the devs behind 2XKO truly took the time and care to truly elevate her design.

3 Jinx

Weapons Galore

Similar to Ahri, Jinx was shown off quite early into 2XKO's development, but was put on the back burner and reworked behind the scenes. As such, Jinx was absent from the 2XKO playtest, but was recently re-revealed to awaiting fans.

It appears her League of Legends form-swapping mechanic will be making its way into 2XKO a little more indirectly, with Jinx not as a stance character. Based on her trailer, every ability Jinx has in League seems to be represented in someway, including her mini-gun, laser-pistol, giant bomb, rocket launcher, and monkey traps. Along with these familiar weapons, Jinx is also coming into 2XKO with a massively oversized hammer, reminiscent of Harley Quinn.

Besides the variety of weapons at her disposal, her trailer spent quite some time on her monkey-bombs in particular. The bombs persist on the screen for a few seconds, and were shown to have a variety of angles and options. An educated guess may put Jinx more along the lines of Ahri, a versatile character with both long and close-ranged options, along with some hints of setplay coming from her persisting bombs. Regardless, players will have to wait for more details about Jinx's kit and playstyle, whose popularity as a cosplay character alone may hint at a character with an explosive play rate.

2 Katarina

Still Awaiting An Official Gameplay Reveal

Katarina was one of the original characters shown for 2XKO, back when it was going by the temporary Project L moniker. Since then, Katarina has been absent from development updates, but will certainly be entering the playable 2XKO roster in the future. Befitting her early 2XKO announcement, Katarina was also one of the earliest champions ever made for League of Legends, with her being a menace on the rift since 2009. Like Darius, Katarina is a champion hailing from Noxus, whose abilities in League are equal parts flashy as they are frustrating to play against.

While Katarina has been updated in League over the years, there are a few foundational aspects to her gameplay. Katarina is reliant on resetting cooldowns, teleporting, and a lot of daggers. Her ultimate, a channeled AOE fan of daggers, has wiped out countless teams in League, and when paired with a resetting teleport, Katarina has been a target of many players' chagrin.

Her abilities also feature daggers that persist on the ground, which reset the cooldown of her teleport when targeted and deal damage in an AOE radius around it. While no real gameplay has been shown of Katarina, there's no doubt that many of these features will make it into 2XKO. Katarina will likely have some setplay baked into her kit, with daggers that could be placed around the arena and teleported to. As an assassin in League, she may also be a more rushdown focused character, as she isn't typically known for her range or consistent damage.

1 Yasuo

Sword-Sheathing Stance Character

Another fan-favorite, Yasuo is League of Legends' interpretation of a wandering ronin figure, as the disgraced swordmaster wields both a katana and impressive wind-magic. Also set to appear in Riot's just announced TCG, Project K, Yasuo's current iteration in 2XKO has him placed as a stance character. This is typically one of the more complex archetypes in fighting games, largely because of the increased number of moves and more niche decision-making it brings with it.

Stances are fantastic for giving players more potential options for a given situation, but also have the double-edged sword of limiting options in a straight-neutral situation. Besides his stances, which feature a sword-sheathing position similar to Johnny in Guilty Gear, Yasuo also retains his windwall, which persists on the screen and deletes projectiles. Yasuo's stances include many long-range poking tools, but he also has quite a few options for aerials with his flashy sequences of dashes.

Overall, 2XKO has a confirmed roster that covers a diverse range of League of Legends champions and fighting game archetypes. One of the most exciting features of 2XKO is its ability to break champions from their isometric view and limited abilities, and to create renditions of them that are both fluid and flashy. More champions are bound to come for this tag fighter, with 2XKO hopefully including more fan-favorites, covering some missing archetypes, and ultimately creating a robust and exciting launch roster for its planned 2025 release.

Source: 2XKO/YouTube