Punk questions 2XKO’s competitive integrity after pros were invited to a playtest

Professional Street Fighter player Victor “Punk” Woodley echoed the criticism leveled against 2XKO by some of the players in regards to its competitive integrity after the devs invited several pro players to playtest the game.

Jacek “JurassicOri” Follick, a high-profile Melty Blood player, was among the first to question the practice of inviting pros and content creators to test the newest character as well as the upcoming patch.

The competitive integrity of 2xko is a joke. All these players shamelessly talking about how much they know about stuff behind the scenes and how much early access they have had to characters and stuff is genuinely unbelievable

I don’t play 2xko but i do agree that top players get wayyyyyyy too much privilege in that game. Pros should never test games and definitely should never play new characters and a patch before they are released that is just insane too me https://t.co/Y7vtVjyRfu

— Punk (@PunkDaGod) January 14, 2026

Punk was among those who agreed that it harms the competitive integrity of the game. The theory is that any top-level player can get a lot of usable information even from a two-hour playtest of a new character and big patch changes.

There should be strict competition embargo with players getting early access from publishers.

You can play the game/dlc early ‘for content / feedback’ but you should not be eligible for official publisher/affiliate events for 1 year.

I understand some players are content…

— Alex Valle ➡️⬇️↘️+👊 (@TheAlexValle) January 15, 2026

It’s evident from some of the content creators’ coverage. For example, a prominent FGC YouTuber, Rooflemonger, in his Caitlyn coverage, stated that she’s going to be quite powerful in duo with Braum—an info he got from visiting Riot and playtesting the upcoming patch.

hrmmm not wrong i suppose, although the time is truly brief, and it wasnt exactly a setting where you could just freely lab stuff especially since we only got a taste of what the patch is, not actually the notes themselves.

— Rooflemonger 🦍🦧🐵 (@Rooflemonger) January 13, 2026

And while he’s not a competitive pro player, some of the invited people were. With Frosty Faustings fast approaching, and with Caitlyn being tournament legal at the event, it’s understandable that some players are upset by others having a jump start.

Many companies like Capcom, SNK, and ArcSys explicitly ask, before providing any pre-release content for a review or coverage, to agree that the person playing the game will not participate in any pro-level competition for six months to a year.

Caitlyn in her Arcane outfit. Image via Riot Games

Evidently, Riot Games does not think that a small, controlled on-location playtest is the issue, and many people do agree that it’s not that big of a deal. Still, with 2026’s first big tournament being only two weeks away, 2XKO could have done without this controversy.

Right now, nothing could be done about this supposed competitive edge the visiting players got. And it remains to be seen if Riot Games decides to change up its approach to testing for any future content.

Season 1 of 2XKO is set to release on Jan. 20, 2026, along with the cross-platform launch on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5.

---