“2XKO is definitely a big one on our radar” top esports team VP chips in on the competitive potential of Riot’s fighting game

So there’s a lot of excitement around 2XKO, obviously. Following various reveals of characters like Jinx and Braum, as well as an Alpha Lab test that appears to have gone down well, the average player has had ample opportunity to jump on board this particular hype train. But what about the game’s competitive future? Believe it or not, discussions around this topic have been happening in spite of the game’s unknown release date.

I’ve written about this before, via an interview with Riot Games’ Michael Sherman that touched on early aspirations for the game’s competitive spaces.But I’m now touching back on the topic from an alternative perspective. Team Liquid, one of the more popular esports organizations, recently held a pop up event with Intel prior to the League of Legends Worlds tournament in London. Team Liquid’s VP John “Tephus” Lewis offered some insight into what’s currently going on around the game, as well as the health of the fighting game competitive scene right now.

“2XKO is definitely a big one on our radar,” Lewis says. “as Riot have a pretty incredible pedigree in both creating great games with long lifespans, and handling their esports scenes in a way that rewards investment and the value an organisation can bring to the space. No other upcoming FGC title quite has this combination behind it, to our knowledge.”

So will there be a rush to aquire and support new talent? Given how early things are, plenty remains uncertain, but Lewis says that movement around the game has been happening. “I think there will be a rush, but it’s hard to reliably predict what our public presence will look like. We’ve been having conversations for a year plus already internally and with players we suspect will be strong competitors, and if things align I could definitely see us entering the game early.”

But obviously, 2XKO isn’t the only belle at the button-mashing ball. The fighting game space has seen increased interest from esports companies and other corporate entities. Games like Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 are continuing to exist and perhaps even grow due to a combination of influencer/player led events like the Sajam Slam, as well as more traditional esports endeavors. What does Lewis think of the current fighting game space?

“The FGC has generally always been a very grassroots scene made up of multiple different titles, and that continues for the most part to this day. This has built an incredible community and some very unique live events, but when looking through the lens of what is possible, the focus on grassroots has meant some of the bigger opportunities in the space, as an ecosystem holistically, have yet to be explored.

“The landscape of esports has shifted during the ‘esports winter’, veering a bit away from sponsorship monetization and towards in-game monetization through digital item sales. This has created a larger struggle in the short term for professional organisations in the FGC as these partnerships with publishers or developers do not yet exist. Our presence has been based purely on sponsorships or brand investment so far, which can be a major challenge in today’s market.”

With this point in mind, it becomes clear why 2XKO might be tantalizing for teams. Riot Games, while by no means a flawless company when it comes to in-game tie ins to its competitive scene, has started adding cosmetics and the like that allow players to support their favourite teams across League of Legends and Valorant. This, if added to 2XKO, could offer a path towards digital item sales playing a part in the fighting game competitive space.

Finally, I asked which game right now shows the most promise in Lewis’ eyes. Team Liquid is one of the teams that maintains a few fighting game players on its roster, so clearly must see some merit in maintaining a presence in the space. To this, a broad answer was provided. “This is a bit of a tough question to answer — it’s hard to point to a single title as the one with the most promise. We more so see a lot of promise in the FGC scene as a whole, but what happens to that potential is up to the publisher/developer’s willingness to nurture their competitive communities.”

It’s an interesting time right now in the wonderful world of competitive fighting games, especially with 2XKO getting ready to properly burst into our lives next year. Still, the idea that a rising tide lifts all ships is one I can allign with. That has, after all, been the story of the FGC as a whole. There will be winners in a given era for sure, as Street Fighter 4 was in 09 and Tekken 7 was around 2020.

But even if 2XKO has a similar impact, it would ultimately lead to greater investment of time, love, and money in the genre. Those three things are, after all, integral to any competitive space.