League of Legends Fighting Game 2XKO Will Have Just 10 Playable Characters at Launch, Riot Confirms

2XKO, the League of Legends-based fighting game, just got a new drop of information ahead of its next Alpha Lab. Among the news is confirmation that its launch roster might be a little smaller than you’d expect.

In several Q&As following a recent video update, both with fighting game content creator Sajam and in the 2XKO Discord (via VG247), Riot confirmed there will be 10 playable champions — characters — at launch. According to game director Shaun Rivera, it sounds like the lower number could help get 2XKO in players’ hands faster.

“I know it seems like a low number. I know. Trust me, y’know, we hear it,” Rivera said in Sajam’s stream. “Honestly, we’d rather just get the game out to y’all to play ASAP, instead of keeping it in the oven until we have some number higher of champions.”

Rivera went on to note that, with systems like the different Fuses and Solo/Duo play, there are “a lot of ways” to play the characters on the roster. Plus, this won’t be a static game post-launch.

“On top of that too, we’re a live service game,” Rivera said. “So [the] champion train is gonna start once we’re out the door and in your guys’ hands, so we’re gonna start releasing those champions. We’d rather get it to you and do that, instead of just hold it for longer.”

As executive producer Tom Cannon pointed out on the stream, these characters have also seen some changes throughout development. He referenced Jinx, who just got a gameplay showcase in yesterday’s video update: “Go back to the very first announce trailer, which had Jinx in it, and you can see how much effort our creative department and the whole team has put into continuing to make the game as good as it can be. And then when it gets to that point, that’s when we’ll release it.”

Still, it’s a notably smaller launch roster than most fighting games. For reference, Street Fighter 6 launched with 18 characters, and fellow tag fighter Dragon Ball FighterZ arrived with 24 at launch. On the smaller side, Granblue Fantasy Versus’ original launch had 11 characters, and the arcade version of Guilty Gear Xrd had 13.

League of Legends 2XKO launch roster of playable characters confirmed so far:

• Ahri
• Ekko
• Yasuo
• Darius
• Illaoi
• Braum
• Jinx

Katarina was also seen in some footage at one point, but has been cut from the launch roster. So there are three champions left to reveal before launch, from League of Legends’ titanic 170 champion lineup (as of January 2025).

While it’s a surprisingly low number, 2XKO has also impressed many players in its public showings. A new Alpha Lab preview is planned for April 18 through 20 for the United States, Canada, and Brazil, but no official launch date has been set yet.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.