Riot Games Lays Off 2XKO Developers
Riot Games has laid off roughly 80 people from the 2XKO team, cutting around half of the game’s global development staff less than a month after launch.
It’s the kind of headline that makes players do a double-take: a big League of Legends–backed fighting game finally ships, Season 1 kicks off, and then, suddenly, the team behind it is sharply reduced.
The decision was confirmed through Riot’s own blog update and multiple reports, with executive producer Tom Cannon framing it as a “sustainable path forward” move rather than a verdict on individual devs.
For anyone who’s followed 2XKO since its “Project L” days, this feels strangely abrupt but also sadly familiar in today’s industry climate.
Studios launch, pivot, and restructure at a pace that can feel detached from how players experience games, slowly, over months of patches, buffs, and new characters.
Here, the restructuring arrived just as the community was settling into the idea that 2XKO finally “really exists” as a live game.
What Exactly Happened to the 2XKO Team?
Riot has reduced the 2XKO team by about half, with a spokesperson confirming that roughly 80 roles are being eliminated.
The timing is stark: 2XKO’s 1.0 launch on PC and consoles landed around January 20–21, 2026, and the layoff news hit in early February, barely three weeks later.
Cannon’s blog post explains that while the game did connect with a “passionate core audience,” the overall player momentum wasn’t strong enough to support such a large team in the long run.
In plain terms, that means people were playing, just not in the numbers or patterns that justify keeping a big live‑service operation fully staffed.
Riot says it now wants a smaller, more focused group working on “key improvements” and features that players have already been asking for, though specific patch or roadmap details were not shared yet.
It’s a very corporate way of saying: the game is staying, but the budget and headcount are not what they were on launch day.
There’s a slightly bittersweet irony here. Many fighting games have long tails; they grow slowly through word‑of‑mouth, grassroots tournaments, and incremental patches.
2XKO is trying to live in that world, but inside a company that has to justify every team’s size against data dashboards. Sometimes those two cultures clash, and this week feels like one of those moments.
How Did We Get Here So Quickly After Launch?
2XKO officially launched its 1.0 version with Season 1, bringing League champions like Caitlyn into a 2v2 tag fighter on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
Before that, it had an early‑access PC phase that gave the FGC and curious League players a taste of what Riot was building.
On paper, it sounded like a dream: rollback netcode lineage via Radiant Entertainment, Cannon brothers’ EVO roots, and a massive IP.
But once you leave trailers and promise-land, you run into the cold math of daily active users and retention curves.
According to Cannon, as the game expanded from PC to consoles, they saw consistent engagement patterns that didn’t rise to the level needed to maintain a big live‑service team over time.
The core fans were there, but the broader audience that Riot might have hoped for simply didn’t pile in fast enough.
If you’ve ever tried to convince your friends to pick up a new fighter, “No really, this one is different, it has assists and tag and League champs!”, you know the uphill battle.
People nod, say they’ll “check it out,” and then weeks later, you realise you’re still queuing mostly solo. That gap between hype and habit is often where these kinds of corporate decisions get made.
What About the People Who Were Laid Off?
The human side of this is rough: some 2XKO developers say they were given as little as 30 minutes’ notice before being let go.
Patrick Miller, who worked at Riot for around 12 years and on this project for about a decade, shared that he learned of his layoff with a half‑hour heads‑up, a detail that hit a nerve across the fighting game community.
Other team members, like champion designers Caroline “Carolion” Montano and Alex “Blinkity” Jaff, publicly expressed pride in their work on characters such as Illaoi, Blitzcrank, Caitlyn, and Ekko even as they acknowledged the cuts.
Riot’s official stance is that it’s “committed to supporting impacted Rioters,” including:
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Encouraging them to explore other roles within Riot.
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Providing at least six months of notice pay and severance if redeployment isn’t possible.
Six months of pay is nothing; for many, it’s the difference between scrambling immediately and having a bit of breathing room.
But it doesn’t erase the emotional shock of being told, after years of building the same game, that you’re suddenly out, sometimes between meetings, sometimes just as the game you shipped is starting its first big tournament run.
In FGC circles, people have been sharing condolences, retweeting portfolios, and posting little memories, playtests, weird bugs, and early builds where a character was wildly broken in ways that never made it to launch. It all feels very human and a bit raw.
Is 2XKO Itself in Trouble?
Riot says no: 2XKO is not being canceled, and its 2026 competitive season is still going ahead. The company has reiterated that:
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The 2026 Competitive Series plans remain unchanged, with multiple Majors and Challenger events backed by Riot.
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The game will continue to show up at tournaments like GENESIS X3 and larger events such as Gamescom in the coming months.
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Riot still intends to work with local communities and tournament organisers to support the 2XKO esports ecosystem.
That said, a smaller dev team almost always means slower updates, more careful content planning, and occasionally features that quietly slip off the roadmap.
It wouldn’t be surprising if balance patches become more surgical, new fighters arrive less frequently, and long‑term live‑service ambitions get trimmed.
For players, the short‑term reality might look like this: Season 1 continues, tournaments happen, and the game remains fun to play with friends.
But in the back of everyone’s mind, especially those who’ve been burned by sunsetting live‑service titles before, there will be that small voice asking, “Okay, but where is this headed in a year?”
That tension between enjoying what’s here and worrying about what’s next has become oddly normal in modern gaming.
Disclaimer:
The information presented above is based on publicly available reports, developer statements, and industry sources at the time of writing. Details such as staff numbers, timelines, and future plans may change as Riot Games releases new updates or official announcements. Readers should refer to Riot Games’ official channels for the most accurate and up-to-date information.
