Riot Games has revealed Akali and Senna as the next two champions coming to 2XKO, marking the game’s first major update since the studio confirmed it was reducing the size of the 2XKO team earlier this month.
The announcement came in an X blog post from game director Shaun “Unconkable” Rivera. Rivera said the team wanted to share information quickly rather than waiting to package it into a video, with the development team currently hard at work on the game’s content.
Akali is one of League’s most prominent ninjas. She’s extremely agile, slippery, and precise – the elements 2XKO’s team managed to translate into the fighting game. Her design underwent some changes: she’s leaner and taller, with tight yoga pants and what looks like sneakers, instead of baggy pants and tabi shoes.
Senna also underwent some changes, but more on the gameplay side. In League of Legends, she primarily fights from afar while scaling into the lategame. For her 2XKO iteration, the dev team decided to expand on her Wraith mode, which serves only as an obfuscation ability in League, and make it an entire mode that transforms her into a rushdown character.
Rivera said that both characters are still work-in-progress, and there’s no release date for either of the fighters. Even with the spotlight on Akali and Senna, Rivera used the post to reiterate what 2XKO is prioritizing right now: duo play, core gameplay, and community and competitive support. On duo play, Riot says it’s prototyping a Local Duo Mode designed for couch co-op, letting two players team up locally and take matches online together.
On gameplay direction, Rivera addressed concerns about the game’s long-term future and complexity. According to him, 2XKO will stay fast, the skill ceiling will remain high, and balance work will focus on pushing clearer strengths and weaknesses across the roster rather than sanding down what makes characters unique.
Competitive plans were also reinforced, as Rivera pointed to the 2026 competitive schedule continuing, with the next Challenger event happening at Genesis X3. Riot also teased a Community Support program that would provide local tournament organizers with exclusive in-game prizing to help smaller scenes grow.
This update lands days after executive producer Tom Cannon published a separate statement confirming Riot is reducing the size of the 2XKO team, citing that player-engagement level and momentum didn’t justify the project’s current team size. Cannon said the competitive series plans for 2026 remain unchanged, with a smaller group shifting focus toward key improvements.
