The big 2XKO interview – Roster, prospect of original characters, the beta, and more

With 2XKO closing in on its closed beta in September, we got a chance to talk to the game’s Director, Shaun Rivera, at Evo, about all aspects of the game ahead of release. There was a lot to discuss, and although we have already touched on Yordles, we wanted to share the entire topic, as it addresses many questions the community was curious about.

Note: Portions of the interview have been edited to remove repetition and enhance the reading experience.

Hey Shaun, great to see you again! Let’s talk 2XKO. Finally, closed beta, after all these years of development, you’ve just announced Vi. How are you feeling right now?

Shaun Rivera (Game Director for 2XKO): Beyond stoked. I mean, looking at this booth that we have here at EVO, everybody is playing, having a good time, and then being able to hit that closed beta on September 9 and start our journey on PC. It’s very exciting.

Awesome! So, let’s talk about the roster because everyone wants to talk about it. We see you have eight characters going into closed beta, but there has been a lot of fanfare about you having eight human or humanoid characters. Can you talk about the direction of choosing these eight characters and why you decided on these eight to start you up?

Rivera: Yeah. You know, I talk a little bit about this sometimes, but for us, we want to make sure that we’re making a character that is going to be somebody’s main, that they’re going to fall in love with, and it’s going to be their jam. For us, mechanical and thematic diversity are really important. And when we’re having this roster, we want you to see, for VI, for example, ‘yo, I love boxing. I just want to punch the hell out of somebody. I want to sway a little bit.’ This is my character, and the same with all of our characters; we want to find something that people will latch on to, that they’ll love, and they’ll be able to explore, and then go from there.

Obviously, as I mentioned, the roster is very humanoid at the moment. I know a lot of people have been very vocal about something like a Vollibear or another more beast-like character. Is there any reason that you decided on these more humanoid characters to start, and is there an opportunity for something a bit more different to come out of the roster in the future?

Rivera: Yeah, absolutely great question. I wanna start by saying, of course, humanoids are easier, right? And so, for us, we know everybody wants a larger roster, so we want to get a lot more characters into the game. We’re working hard on that. But also, I kind of want to take a step back for a second and recognize that League of Legends, the IP, has just an insane amount of variety when it comes to mechanics, thematics, and size and shape, right? And I think, over time, we want to take advantage of that.

Another complaint I’ve been seeing a lot is that there are a lot of characters here that were in Arcane. Do you think that’s a fair comment? Would you not consider that when making those characters into reality?

Rivera: Honestly, I think it would be unfair to say we don’t consider that at all, but I think there’s a reason that these characters are in Arcane to begin with, right? They’re relatable. They have amazing stories, amazing kits. And when we see them [we think] what could we do [with them] in a fighting game? We get mad excited? And so, yeah, I would say that’s a small consideration. But really, we think these characters are freaking amazing.

How is the team looking at future character introductions? What kind of time scale are we looking at until the ninth character gets revealed?

Yeah, so I definitely don’t want to spoil anything, but I want to underscore that we think 10 is not the ideal number that we want to be at, and we want to make more champions more quickly. I’ll also say that we’re not just, just a reminder. It might be obvious, but I really want to call it out. This isn’t our fourth or fifth or sixth fighting game, in the sense that we have some designs we can use, and we can polish them up a bit, or things like that. We’re really making everything from scratch, but we’re also a team that’s learning as we go, and we’re going to learn a lot. Come September 9, in closed beta, we’ve learned a lot from our alpha labs.

And so we’re both learning. We’re growing as a team. We’re making these from scratch, and we also want to make sure they’re real. They’re really deep, right? You can pick it up; it’s fun, and through playing, you can explore a lot. So yeah, we want to make more [characters] quickly. We want to build that roster up for sure.

It’s also a fair assessment that it’s different. Making a champion for League that already has all that infrastructure, all those mechanics, you are building something from scratch. I don’t think many people are aware of that, mainly because I’m aware that creating a character for a fighting game, balancing a character for a fighting game, is a lot more difficult and a lot more time-consuming. So I just wanted to ask what the team’s thoughts and feelings are going into beta. Do they feel the balance of the game is good? Do you think it’s in a good state, or are there still some micro adjustments that you need to make in that regard?

Rivera: Yeah, great question. We’re feeling really confident and excited going into closed beta. This might not be fully accurate; it’s more of a high-level statement. However, if you look at Alpha Lab One, we really wanted to push the boundaries of offense and see where that takes us. This is about as far as we want to go. And we definitely went past and found where our line was. For Alpha Lab Two, we wanted to push on the other way, on the defensive side, right. And, we went a bit far and we found out where our book end was there.

And then for a closed beta, we’ve definitely dialed it in to a really good spot. It was really important for us to find those bookends on both ends of there. And yeah, I’m really excited. Look, let me give you an anecdote, right? The day before we flew out, it’s the end of the day, people are getting ready, they’re getting ready, and we’re, yo, let’s run some games real quick. We’d stay after work, run, and scream, and the matches were super hype. Everybody was doing a lot of different stuff… It’s a whole vibe right now. I think the team is really feeling the energy, and I think the game is in a really great spot.

I also wanted to discuss more about the 2XKO IP. Obviously, it’s very league-focused right now. There are 150 champions to choose from. It’s hard to know which one to work on next. Do you ever consider in the future that there might be space for an original character that is exclusive to 2XKO, and also, if you were to do that, what would be the thing that you would have to prioritize to make sure that it makes sense to be in the game?

Rivera: Boy, that’s a really layered question. So let me try to take it apart a little bit around the original characters. I think that’s something our team could do really well and execute on in a sick way. I think that, given our roster size and some of the stuff I chatted about earlier, we have a ton of players who are waiting for their main League of Legends Champion. And we often hear, ‘Y’all are crazy for not putting this. Why is this champ X, Y, or Z not in the game?’ It’s because there are so many sick ones. But I think that if you make a brand new character from scratch, this character has to be really good, way better than normal, because this character could have been a slot that all these players were waiting for, because they’re waiting for one specific champ.

So it actually has to be better than all the potential champs that could be coming that people are waiting for, right? It really has to exceed expectations. And so there’s definitely a time and a place. I think it’s something we’re excited about in the future. I think right now, we’ve got a lot of bangers to choose from the League roster, so I’ll probably start there.

I mean, just throwing it out there, Sett seems a given eventually, right? He’s already built to be an arena fighter. But I was wondering of the roster that you currently have. And I know you can’t talk about a lot of things, but is there any champion from the League of Legends roster you would love to get into 2XKO?

Rivera: I would love… That is a really hard question to answer…

You only get one.

Rivera: I only get one!? Okay… It. Let me think. Let me think for a second. This is a hard, is a hard question… I’d have to go Malazahar, and I just want to be clear, even though I’m talking about Malz, it’s neither confirmation nor denial, that’s in the game or not. I want to be super clear. I’m just speaking from the perspective of a character I like, and I love Malz… I’m often curious, hey, how could that work in a fighting game? It’s actually your question, exactly. And how could it work in a way that’s both fun, not super frustrating, to play against, and also cool to watch, and maybe play with in a duo with. And so that’s something that, yeah, Malz would be my favorite.

So, going back to the roster, because I think this is super important for the game. When looking at the archetypes that you have. You have the brawler, you have the Zoners, you have some tanks, and you have Braun with his support and his build. Are there any archetypes you feel you still need to add to the game that are currently missing? Or do you feel you’re at a point where it’s balanced enough? And the next part is just taking the feedback, working on new characters, and then going and seeing how things go from there?

Rivera: It’s the latter. I would say, there’s always more we want to do, right? And we’re just getting started. A great example is Echo—what archetype is this? Is this a rush-down character? Is it kind of a tricky character? I think one of the benefits of our game and and the strengths of our team is, we can take, , an archetype you might love, look at this champion, what they’re known for, and elevate it in ways that only a fighting game can… we managed to get into a spot that’s just, feels unique and fun. And I feel all of our champions have something to offer in that thing.

How amazing would it feel for you next year if 2XKO is on the grand stage at EVO?

Rivera: Honestly, it will feel amazing. I mean, it’d be a dream for me. You know, I’m a fighting game player and fan my whole life, right? Travel competence, as I can remember. But honestly, I want to be really clear: we have to earn our spot, right? And everybody listening, reading, you’ll tell us if we’ve earned it or not, and we’re gonna keep working hard until we do.

Last question, when can console players get to play?

Rivera: Look, we got nothing but love for console. But I’ll say that right now, our focus is to stand this thing up globally on PC, ensure stability, and then keep adding more people. We want to keep it going from that point forward. We’re not going to turn it off, obviously, maybe a maintenance here and there, but like, we’re keeping it on. And so when we have more to share with the console, we’ll share it, but we’re just taking our first step here.