2XKO wanted casuals and competitors at the same time, and paid for the confusion. When the news dropped that 2XKO was cutting a large part of its team, I wasn’t surprised. It felt like reality catching up.
Riot clearly gave this game time, money, and runway. They watched engagement during the PC beta. They watched again after console. The momentum never crossed the line needed to justify a team built for breakout scale. If 2XKO was going to explode, the early signals would have shown it. They didn’t. Riot made a business decision.
The problem wasn’t effort. It was identity. The game felt good. Commitment didn’t.
2XKO looked great. It played great. Watching high-level players put together wild tag combos was genuinely impressive. You could tell the devs cared, and people wanted the game to win.
But playing it long term felt different.
The roster was small, and in a 2v2 fighter that problem compounds fast. Mirror matches showed up constantly. That kills variety and feels “early access,” even if the label doesn’t say it. Deep mechanics don’t matter as much when the experience feels thin.
Then there was the store.
I wasn’t upset that the game was free to play. That didn’t bother me at all. What stopped me was opening the shop and going, “Wait… what?” The pricing felt like Riot Games-scale monetization dropped into a niche genre that hadn’t earned that level of trust yet. In fighting games, cosmetics need to feel like impulse buys. Here, they felt like commitments.
So who was this actually for? This is where things really broke down.
2XKO felt like it wanted casual players and standard FGC players at the same time, while also presenting itself as a serious competitive game. That’s a tough balance even for established franchises. For a new fighter, it’s brutal.
League of Legends fans were never a guaranteed audience. Liking an IP doesn’t mean you play the genre. We’ve seen this forever with anime fighters. Watching doesn’t equal playing.
At the same time, 2XKO wasn’t pulling many players away from Street Fighter, Tekken, or Mortal Kombat either. Those games already have depth, identity, and trust. 2XKO didn’t give people a strong enough reason to leave what they were already invested in.
So the end result was a weird middle space. I played it. I liked it. But I never committed. Even during the beta, I said I wasn’t sure who the game was really for. I’d play it if a friend wanted to. I wasn’t making it my main game. Fighting games already have a model
Traditional fighting games earn trust first, then monetize. You buy the game, get a real roster, and decide over time whether it’s worth spending more. That upfront buy-in creates confidence.
2XKO being Free to play lowered the barrier to entry, but it also removed the sense of ownership fighting game players are used to. When the roster is small and the store shows premium pricing early, it feels like the game is asking for live-service commitment before it feels fully formed. Free to play wasn’t the mistake. The timing and cosmetic prices was. The cuts aren’t the bad news. But here’s what people are missing.
The team reduction doesn’t scream failure. It showcases correction. Riot built 2XKO like a mass-market live service hit. Fighting games don’t grow that way. They grow slowly, on clarity and trust.
A smaller team with a clearer audience might actually help this game. But only if Riot makes the hard choice it’s been avoiding.
If 2XKO ever gets a late breakout, it won’t be because it suddenly steals players from the big three. It’ll be because Riot picks an audience, commits to them, and lets the game grow at the pace fighting games actually grow. 2XKO still has a path. But only if Riot finally decides who this game is really for.
