Riot Games studio has decided to seriously reconsider its appetites — the news of massive cuts in the 2XKO division came out of the blue. In truth, when a project that has been in development for 10 years suddenly loses about 80 specialists, it suggests certain thoughts about its real effectiveness.
An announcement has been released. The situation looks pretty gray — executive producer Tom Cannon has officially confirmed that the current staff of developers simply does not match the financial indicators that the game shows.
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Why have there been cuts in Riot Games at 2XKO?
Despite the fact that the core of fans accepted the project quite warmly, this, apparently, was not enough to maintain a huge structure of 160 people. Riot Games is now betting on “sustainable development”, which in business terms means one thing — the dismissal of about half of the employees.
Interesting, really. There’s not much to compare it with, but here’s the fact — there are only 233 people in the legendary Arc System Works studio for 2024, and this includes all departments and several game lines. For 2XKO, where at the start we saw only 12 characters after a decade of development, the staff of 160 people seems, frankly, redundant.
2XKO in esports ambitions and real performance
Mechanically, the game turned out to be really cool — it’s a smooth, stylish and very competent fighting game that may well occupy its niche in esports. But, along the way, one “diamond” in the hands of the developers was not enough to attract a massive audience from League of Legends.
It’s a shame. The developers who remained in the project will continue to polish the game, but the scale of the tragedy is impressive — losing 50% of the team at the stage when it is necessary to increase content is a serious challenge.
Logically, if a project does not generate the expected profit, corporations at Riot’s level will not stand on ceremony — they simply optimize costs, even if it damages their reputation. As a result, we have a mechanically ideal product, which, by the way, now has to survive in conditions of great resource savings.
Fair enough. After all, the fighting game market is a capricious thing, and even the support of developers like KRAFTON or Valve does not guarantee success if you do not get into the audience’s intent. We’ll see what happens next, but for now, the future of 2XKO looks like a complex combo series that is very easy to interrupt.
Were layoffs at 2XKO inevitable for the project?
The question of whether this “cleansing” could have been avoided is now being actively discussed on the sidelines. To be honest, the development of the game can hardly be called a walk in the park. The world saw the first gameplay footage at the end of 2019, and considering that a full-fledged release took place only in 2026, a 10-year cycle looks, in truth, abnormally long for a fighting game. For a team of 160 people, this is a huge period of time, during which Riot has pumped fabulous resources into the project.
The interesting thing is that the look of the game that we are used to now was formed only four years ago. And although the final quality of the product is really top—notch, such a prolonged development cycle is always a huge risk, especially in a niche genre.
Entering the fighting game market with a free game when a staff of 160 employees has been working on it for 10 years is, to be honest, a bold idea, but economically dangerous. The genre is oversaturated with titans with a long history, and the player base here is quite narrow compared to the same shooters. To recoup such investments at the start, along the way, was an impossible task.
It’s weird, by the way. Marketing also raises questions — there was less hype around the release than expected. Apparently, if Riot had kept Warwick and Timo until the very day of the launch, there would have been an order of magnitude more hype. Instead, the difference between early access and release turned out to be blurred, which brings us to the main question — was there enough content for the game itself?
Did the players have enough 2XKO content at the start?
The cuts began almost immediately after the launch, and this is, in fact, the verdict of the current strategy. 2XKO proved to be no worse than other novelties of the genre, but this is clearly not enough for the ambitions of Riot Games. The company’s expectations, apparently, were too high, given the specifics of the product.
We’ve only got 12 characters in a decade of development. For comparison, the same Dragon Ball FighterZ offered much more at the start. In addition, there is practically no arcade mode in the game and there is no “plot” at all — the very things that ordinary, casual players start their journey with.
2XKO is a project based on the League of Legends universe, where there are more than a hundred heroes, and such a meager roster at the start simply could not keep fans of the original. It seems that Riot has focused too much on esports “surgery”, forgetting that it is the casual layer that creates mass appeal.
As a result, we see the classic picture: the casuals fly in for a month, create beautiful statistics and leave, leaving only hardcore fans in the game. Even giants like Street Fighter 6 lose more than half of their audience a month after release. Currently, SF6’s peak on Steam is at 30,000 people, and this is the ceiling of the genre that 2XKO has not been able to break through, which makes us think about the real viability of the chosen development model.
An additional issue that the players are actively discussing right now is how the updated 2XKO roadmap will change after the layoffs. If the 2XKO update rate decreases, it may directly affect audience retention. Regular patches of the 2XKO balance and the timely release of new champions are a critical factor for the survivability of the FGC project.
The future of 2XKO after cuts and updates
The layoffs at 2XKO, of course, were a powerful blow to the gut of the entire industry, but it’s still too early to bury the project. One cannot deny the obvious — the situation is critical, but the cries of complete death of the game look, to be honest, a clear overkill. The main trump card of Riot Games has not gone away: their fighting game is damn well assembled. He’s fast, he’s cheeky, he looks like candy, and, most importantly, it’s really fun to “hack into” him.
This is not a failure. Unlike many pass-through shooters, to which the audience cools down in a week, the fighting game community does not treat 2XKO indifferently. In truth, the game still has a good chance to gain a foothold in esports — the recognizable characters from the League and the crazy dynamics make the matches an ideal streaming experience.
But there’s a catch. The esports fighting game market is not the bottomless barrel of money that Riot is used to in VALORANT or LoL. The staff reduction is likely to backfire on the players: we will see fewer new champions than we were originally promised.
To tell the truth, Riot simply had inadequate appetites — they expected the niche genre to be a global blockbuster. Now the future of the project depends entirely on how it performs at big tournaments and whether it can survive in conditions of austerity.
Chances of 2XKO becoming FGC’s top game in 2026 and 2027
Despite the skepticism about the staff, Riot Games has already launched the 2XKO flywheel in early access in the fall of 2025, and the project, to be honest, is gaining momentum at an alarming rate. With the release of the console in January 2026 and the launch of a full-fledged competitive series, the chances of total dominance in the fighting game community look more than real.
It’s not just a game, it’s an expansion. Instead of reinventing the wheel and building a closed league, Riot wisely fits into the existing FGC calendar. There are 5 Major and 15 Challenger events scheduled for 2026, starting with Frosty Faustings at the end of January. By the way, already at the early access stage, more than 1,500 community tournaments took place, and 22 of them received direct support — take the same Evo France 2NICE KO or DreamHack Atlanta.
There is a real profit for the organizers (TO) here: apply for support, and Riot will collect the prize money through the sale of Frame Perfect skins and powerful marketing. And the players should, in truth, dig into the duo meta. At Frosty Faustings 2026, we saw how the optimized 2v2 gameplay simply tore opponents to shreds — the energy of the hall was at the level of Guilty Gear, and this is just the beginning.
Integration of 2XKO into EVO and the global FGC scene
It is fair, apparently, that 2XKO officially flies into the EVO 2026 program in Las Vegas, Japan and France as a Major event. Riot has already confirmed this, so 20 sanctioned tournaments per year put the game on a par with such mastodons as Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8.
It’s weird, by the way. If you’re a streamer or like betting, keep an eye on the leaders of the Challenger tournaments – Japanese like 2WINz Haru and Toshi are already making their way to the big leagues. Duo Bounty will return to Frosty: a bonus for the best score in a duo, even if you did not take the top 1. And it’s a great springboard for those who want to break into the elite.
The 2026 fighting game market and 2XKO’s Potential
The fighting game industry is now swelling before our eyes — an annual growth of 7.61% promises a capitalization of $ 2.69 billion by 2030. For 2XKO, this is, in fact, the perfect timing. Frosty 2026, with its packed halls and 16-year-old champion, proved that FGC is the most alive of all the living. In the polls for the “best fighting game”, Riot’s new product already surpasses MK1 and Tekken 8 in early access sales.
Investors should take a closer look — the free model, the cross-platform, and the million-strong army of LoL fans are doing their job. The experts’ forecast is unequivocal: the top 3 FGC is guaranteed by the end of 2026 if Akali and Senna arrive on time. But there are other nuances that can derail everything.
Risks of 2XKO competition and audience retention
The competition from SF6 and GG Drive is fierce, but the 2v2 format is a unique feature that no one dared to copy. There is a lot of discussion on Reddit about the longevity of the game until 2027: reducing plans to 3 seasons instead of 5 and focusing on offline duets keep the intrigue alive. The only drawback is the risk of locking oneself in only to the League’s fans, without attracting “outside” blood.
Practical advice for beginners: learn combos for Yasuo — they are easy to learn and effective in regional Challengers like Texas Showdown. The chances of total dominance are estimated at 70% for this year and 85% by 2027 if EVO finally falls under the onslaught of 2XKO.
In general, a new titan is being born in front of us. And even if the path is thorny, the mechanical base and fan base make this battle extremely interesting to watch.
Conclusion: Is 2XKO the end of the project or a new development?
The layoffs at 2XKO are a huge loss and a real tragedy for those 80 pros who are out of work, but for the game itself, this is probably not the end yet. The product turned out to be a driving one, and its visual style gives a head start to many competitors. If the bosses of Riot Games finally come down to earth and start to really assess the market opportunities, 2XKO has every chance of becoming a strong competitive hit.
In general, we have a high-quality fighting game in front of us, which simply has to evolve with the strength of the remaining team. Let’s hope that Riot doesn’t “shut down the shop” completely, although now it looks like another tough and rather sad page in the history of gamedev.
