2XKO is officially here, and it honestly feels like a “finally” moment for the fighting game space. After all the build-up, Riot is kicking things off with the full launch and the start of Season 1 on January 20 across PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5, and yes, it’s fully free-to-play. That matters, because it opens the doors for way more people to jump in, lab, learn, and actually stick with it without a price tag being the first hurdle.
Season 1 also comes with a new champion right out of the gate as they’ve mention was going to be the case: Caitlyn. She’s built around traps, control, and that long-range precision you’d expect from the Sheriff of Piltover, and she looks like the kind of character that’s going to create some very annoying, very fun team setups. If you want her immediately, you can grab her with KO Points, a Champion Token, or through an Ultra Battle Pass bundle, but the best part is you can also unlock her for free through a three-week Champion Recruitment Event just by playing and completing missions. I love that approach because it keeps new drops feeling hype without forcing everyone into the same purchase lane.
On the progression side, Riot is giving players a clear on-ramp. There’s a Battle Pass with a free track, plus premium options if you want to go deeper, and they’re adding more daily and weekly missions to keep things moving. Ranked is getting some quality-of-life love too, including a feature that lets you hop into Training Mode straight from the Ranked lobby while still queueing, which is exactly the kind of small detail that makes grinding feel smoother. And if you played Ranked during Season 0, there are rewards coming based on where you ended the season, which is a nice nod to the early crowd that helped shape the game.
The patch itself is also doing the real work of a “launch patch,” tightening up systems and pushing the meta forward. Projectiles are getting clearer rules to cut down on those no-win situations where you either get hit or block into a mixup anyway. Assists are riskier now too, with bigger punishment when you tag them, which should help keep runaway assist spam in check. Movement is getting tuned so backdashes and forward dashes feel more consistent across the cast, and there are a bunch of other adjustments aimed at making interactions cleaner, more readable, and more competitive in the long run.
For me, this has been a long time coming, and I’m excited to dive into what already looks like one of the best content launches we’ve seen in a fighting game in a while, especially being free-to-play. Join us on stream this week and beyond, because I’m really looking forward to seeing how the community builds around this, what combos start taking over, and what kind of energy 2XKO brings to 2026.
