Riot Video games has shared insights into how its growth crew selects and designs champions for its upcoming tag-team fighter 2XKO, with Knight ‘Arucelli’ Zhang detailing the collaborative course of behind character choice.
In a put up on X (previously Twitter), Arucelli, who works on 2XKO’s idea crew, outlined how the design, narrative and artwork groups collaborate to find out which League of Legends champions make it into the combating sport roster.
“First issues first, we all the time begin with DNA, which is when design, narrative and the artwork crew get collectively to actually discuss by means of a champ and determine what we actually need them to be in 2XKO,” Arucelli defined.
The choice course of entails a number of issues past merely porting well-liked League champions. Based on Arucelli, the crew evaluates which combating sport archetypes champions may match, what aesthetics or mechanics are lacking from the prevailing roster, and what unexplored points of every champion they may showcase.
As soon as the route is established, the idea crew creates costumes that spotlight every character’s deliberate moveset. Arucelli offered examples of how this interprets to gameplay design: “A quick character may need equipment that fly out behind them once they sprint, assume Yasuo. Or perhaps a heavier character may need a extremely sturdy focus so that they really feel very grounded, assume Illaoi.”
Balancing a Rising Roster
The reveal comes as 2XKO continues its closed beta testing part, with 9 characters at the moment accessible: Ahri, Blitzcrank, Braum, Darius, Ekko, Illaoi, Jinx, Yasuo and Vi. The sport is ready to launch with 10 playable characters later this 12 months, with further fighters deliberate as post-launch content material.
The champion choice course of ties into broader balancing challenges that Riot has been addressing. In a earlier Esports Insider interview at Evo 2025, Josh ‘NerdJosh’ Jodoian, member of the Recreation Evaluation and Reside Steadiness crew, revealed that 2XKO initially began as a small mission with a restricted roster. Because the mission grew in scope, the crew started engaged on further champions, although sustaining their ‘prime quality bar’ has meant some characters stay in growth.
The 2v2 format provides complexity to champion design, as every fighter should work successfully alongside any potential companion. This requirement means the event crew should guarantee all champions really feel distinct whereas sustaining balanced gameplay throughout all attainable crew mixtures.
From Idea to Gameplay
After the idea part, Arucelli famous that character creation entails a number of specialist groups. “As soon as we discover a idea that we actually like, it will get put collectively by a beautiful crew of character artists, animators, tech artists, and VFX artists in order that it appears to be like superior in-game so that you can play,” he said.
The detailed course of highlights Riot’s strategy to adapting its MOBA roster for a combating sport format. With League of Legends that includes greater than 170 champions, the choice and design course of turns into essential in figuring out which characters will translate successfully to 2XKO’s tag-team fight system.
Whereas Katarina was proven in early footage, builders confirmed she received’t be a part of the launch roster. The tenth launch character stays unannounced, although hypothesis continues throughout the combating sport neighborhood about which League champion will full the preliminary lineup.
2XKO continues closed beta testing with no confirmed launch date, although the complete launch is anticipated someday in 2025.
