Beyond the Rift: 2XKO's Rough Start and Riot's Wider Bets

A tough launch for 2XKO

Riot Games is far more than League of Legends these days, and 2026 has been a mixed year for its wider ambitions. The studio's 2v2 tag fighter 2XKO, formerly known as Project L, reached its 1.0 launch on January 20, 2026, after an early-access period. Just three weeks later, on February 9, Riot laid off roughly 80 people, nearly half the 2XKO development team.

Executive producer Tom Cannon said the game had resonated with a passionate core audience but that overall momentum had not reached the level needed to support a team of that size long term. Riot confirmed the 2026 competitive series would still proceed.

The rest of the portfolio

Elsewhere, Riot's other projects continued at their own pace:

• Teamfight Tactics ran Set 17, Space Gods, through the spring, with Set 18 arriving July 29, 2026, keeping the auto-battler's steady seasonal cadence.
• A new League mode called Brawl, a 5v5 format set in Bandle City with no towers and no major objectives, expanded the game's casual offerings.
• Arena remained a rotating featured mode rather than a permanent queue, despite fan hopes it would stay.
• The long-gestating League MMO is actively in development but had a development reset in 2024, with no gameplay shown and no release window.

What it all signals

The 2XKO layoffs are the sobering headline. A fighting game set in the League universe had huge potential, and its struggles show that even Riot's resources and a beloved IP do not guarantee a new title finds a large enough audience. Cutting half the team so soon after launch is a harsh outcome, though the studio's commitment to continue supporting the game and its competitive scene offers some reassurance to its dedicated players.

The contrast with Teamfight Tactics is instructive. TFT has become a reliable pillar, churning out new sets on schedule and retaining a large, engaged audience, proof that Riot can sustain a successful game beyond the core MOBA. Its consistency underlines how difficult it is to replicate that success with an entirely new genre like fighting games.

The Brawl mode and rotating Arena show Riot experimenting within League itself, giving players lighter alternatives to ranked Summoner's Rift without the risk of a standalone launch. These lower-stakes additions keep the core game fresh while the studio's bigger bets play out.

The MMO remains the great unknown, an ambitious project that fans have awaited for years but which has little to show publicly after its reset. Taken together, 2026 paints Riot as a studio still swinging for expansion beyond League, with the successes of TFT balanced against the hard lessons of 2XKO, and the MMO's promise still on a distant horizon.