Riot Games Cuts 2XKO Development Team Less Than a Month After Launch

Less than a month after 2XKO launched as a free-to-play 2v2 tag-team fighter, Riot Games is pulling back on the team behind it.

Not exactly the post-launch news anyone was hoping for.

Producer Tom Cannon broke the news himself, calling it "difficult to share." The short version: while 2XKO found a "passionate core audience," it simply hasn't pulled the numbers needed to justify keeping the full team together long term. Cannon was fairly direct about it - no corporate spin, no buried press release on a Friday afternoon.

So what now?

A smaller, more focused team will take over. Cannon says they'll be working on key improvements, including fixes the community has already been asking for, with plans coming soon. The 2026 Competitive Series is still going ahead as planned too, which is worth noting. Riot's commitment to tournament organisers and local communities in the fighting game community reportedly stays intact.

"With a smaller, focused team, we're going to dig in and make key improvements to the game, including some of the things we've already heard you asking for. We'll share some of our plans soon" Cannon said.

It's a tough spot for a game that only just got off the ground. The fighting game space is notoriously hard to crack - getting players in the door is one thing, keeping them there is something else entirely. 2XKO clearly found its people, just not enough of them to sustain a full-scale operation this early on.

Whether the smaller team approach steadies the ship or signals a slow wind-down remains an open question. For now, the community has reason to stick around - but Riot will need to show its hand sooner rather than later.