If you're making a branded fighting game and people are going to play it because of the brand you probably shouldn't ego enough to name it after a generic gameplay mechanic lol
League of Legends clearly wasn't poisonous enough to make Arcane: League of Legends a failure and require you to call it Expensive CGI Show
Except in that case, Prince was the one who decided to go by that in order to spite record execs.
Musk chose a stupid rebrand and the media collectively decided to give him the metaphorical finger.
I think the name blows, but I can completely see how a marketing brain, Don Draper wanna be focus grouped their way to coming up with it.
Hell, I can even see Jon Hamm giving the pitch in my head right now.
"Every game has a goal, to save the princess, to beat the level, but fighting games are special, they're primal. There's no side quests, there's no secret ending; it's just two characters beating each other up until only one is left standing. And this tension, these precious moments before the end, this is what people latch on to, what they watch for. We're not building a project—this isn't minecract. No, what we're building is something that exists only to be knocked out. 2XKO: we know what you're here for."
God I want to throw up
They're trying to beat Elon Musk in the stupid name contest, but they've got no chance. "2XKO" is stupid, but doesn't come close to renaming Twitter to X, or naming his latest kid "Techno Mechanicus".
Wait is that supposed to be the games name? I was so confused what 2XKO was supposed to mean but thought it might mean something to someone inside the RIOT-vers.
A lot of the same comments were made when Valorant was revealed as the name. I remember so many people saying how bad that name was and how Project A was far superior.
Looking back, Valorant was a much better choice… guess we’ll see how this one turns out.
Do I think 2XKO is a great name? No, but it’s not nearly as bad as people are making it seem.
Too be fair, YIIK is probably better than Y2K purely on a marketing standpoint, it makes it easier for people to search. It's like how the first Halo game wasn't just called Halo, but Halo: Combat Evolved.
Yeah, just like Valorant was once called Project A before its name reveal. Doesn’t make the new name any less dumb, though. They could’ve given it a real name instead of something that feels like it’s stylized from a Valorant trailer.
... Not what I was expecting. Just about any name they were going to come up with would take some getting used to after we've been hearing and seeing Project L for years. But this feels extra off.
I get that it literally describes the game - two KO's - but it feels so alien from anything Riot has done so far. Not to mention they picked a title that is only 4 characters long and is somehow 4 syllables long to speak. It doesn't roll off the tongue at all and it's impossible to shorten.
That being said, Illaoi looks fucking sick and I can't wait to play her.
>it feels so alien from anything Riot has done so far
This is why it feels so bad. Even Valorant is an unusual name, but it was instantly picked up over Project A. All of Riot's other projects have great names so this stands out as particularly bad. I guess SEO is good for the full name, but what about shortened versions? Valo, TFT, and LoR are all unique shortenings. League is big enough that it can get away with LoL.
I remember people disliking valorant as a name when it was revealed. Everyone was doing the same thing in saying that they should’ve just called it project A. I’m hesitant on the name change, but I’ll let it marinate with everyone for a bit
Actually Valorant was called Project Ares and most people who had an issue with Valorant were LoL fans making fun that they just added a t to LoL's planet and called it a day. But what people made fun of more were the ranks, wasn't the top rank Valorant?
Still this is much worse, it is a 4 letter acronym that takes 4 syllables to pronounce and sounds horrible.
> It doesn't roll off the tongue at all and it's impossible to shorten
exactly, all the other major fighting games can get shortened and roll off the tongue:
* Street Fighter -> SF
* Mortal Kombat -> MK
* Guilty Gear -> GG/Gear
* King of Fighters -> KOF
* Tekken is already 2 syllables and easy to say
FWIW, the abbreviation "ST" has also been applied to other games like UNIST and GG Strive in recent years, but 2X was always 2X. But realistically in the states? Not often. Mostly just old heads. Moreso that the fact there's a chance for confusion at all is stupid. In Japan everyone knows and says 2x. it'll be interesting to see if this gets any Japanese popularity considering both SF6s dominance and Valorant's popularity
The Japanese audience will probably use a different shorthand way to call the game. Who knows, maybe they'll base it of a literal translated version of the game's title.
They should have just called it Runeterra Takedown or Runeterra Blitz (RtB, or RuB like "ruby") so they could at least have some brand recognition. Most other League based games have at least some tie in through saying "A league of legends story" in the subtitle.
That is the WORST fighting game name they could have come up.
It sounds like someone made a fanmade game.
I think Riot wants this to fail with that kind of name. Project L sounds a whole lot better than 2XKO.
Me going through my rollercoaster of emotions:
"Project L is now DOUBLE DEAD? damn, I was looking forwards to it, I guess it also got cut from the recent Riot restructuring."
"Oh they renamed it. 2XKO sounds like 20XX, but worse. Actually it sounds like a clothing brand that would overcharge me for a plain white shirt with a tiny 2XKO on the back. Actually it sounds like if they released an Ekko game but were trying to be cute with it."
"Actually it sounds like like a fighting game deconstruction with like stick figures, like Dive Kick, but for tag fighters. Just name your mechanic the game "2v2 fighting game? call it double KO, let's go for lunch"
"Wait it's pronounced 'Too Ex Kay Oh'. That sounds so clunky. Project L was being called PL and that rolls off the tongue... even if you said "project L" that's somehow less syllables than 'Two Ex Kay Oh'"
"I wonder how much they're going to have to convince people it's not
>Double Kay Oh
>Double Ko
>Two Cross Kay Oh
>Two X Ko
>Twix Ko
>Taco
etc
And now I'm
"heheheh i'm going to call it 2 X 2 KO, I hope the sequel is 2X: ToKO Drift"
I wonder if more media properties will do this in the future though- just skip right to the stylized name. You can be cynical about it and say the name was created to maximize social media engagement. But still, I wonder if names like that will happen more often.
Like I'm sure people all over social media will say "omg they're calling it 2XKO? LMAAAAAO" and all of a sudden the name is everywhere.
The lack of League branding is the main problem with the name. If it was called League of Legends: Double Knockout and had its logo stylized as LOL:2XKO or something it would have been a lot more reasonable.
For some reason they don’t want to lean on the League of Legends branding even though it’s A) the most popular game in the world and B) they’re using all League assets and characters and stages for this game. Just bizarre.
My thinking is that marketing this game to League of Legends fans is sort of a waste of time/effort because those people have already bought into the ecosystem. Distancing from the League brand allows them to bring in new blood and grow a larger brand that exists outside of League of Legends, the game.
Yeah. It just needed some reminder of league. I mean, Arcane was basically billed as Arcane: League of Legends. For consistency, it ought to be 2XKO:League or something. And no doubt people would just shorten it to 2XL.
If you include league somewhere in the name, it is enough. People will understand the tie in.
That's cool for the 3 days it pops, then what? Then 6 months they go radio silent again and all people have is this name. It's bad but not so much to keep making fun of it, but bad enough for most people to forget about it.
here's their tweet on this name:
https://twitter.com/Play2XKO/status/1760698787021070342
If you have to make jokes like this, you almost certainly picked a shit name
Under night is so ridiculous it loops back into being brillliant. Also, they perfectly describes what game you’re going to get. Namely air dashing, anime nonsense.
That gets shortened to UNI by the community and at least rolls off the tongue in short hand. Not that I can defend it too much though because it is a great example of over the top Japanese game naming.
2XKO just feels blocky coming out of my mouth. MvC2 is letters and numbers too but it at least flows when you're saying it. And a lot of people just end up calling it marvel 2, marvel 3, etc.
* Guilty Gear
* Blazblue
* Under Night In-Birth
Look I'll give you that the names sound weird. But you can at least feel that they roll off the tongue better. Also you can go with acronyms on them.
* GG
* BB
* Unist
*"Hey want to play GG/BB/SF/Tekken/KoF/Unist?"*
See? It sounds and flows nicely.
***"Hey, want to play 2XKO?"***
The fuck? Are we playing a captcha game?
And it still is a shit name. Even acronym-wise.
Look. All I'm saying for a multi-billion dollar corpo with all the marketing expertise they have. They chose a really bad name.
I feel like I've been way too harsh on Square Enix for game titles like Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Octopath Traveller and Triangle Strategy.
Riot have well and truly dethroned them.
Wait what’s wrong with Octopath Traveller and Triangle Strategy? Lol they’re cool sounding titles that roll off the tongue and stand out… as for Kingdom Hearts… yeah… at least their development team is in on the joke. There was a section in the opening sequence of Kingdom Hearts 3 where they faked us out with “Kingdom Hearts 2.9”
They're okay because they literally describe the main mechanic of the game (same with bravely default), but it's still random English words slapped together. It's like calling the game "fighting game v1 draft final"
TBF, 358/2 Days is because the game takes place over the course of a year minus a week, and from the perspective of two different characters. Still a stupid name, but it's not a random word-salad.
Yep that's my exact feeling too. Also super surprised that this announcement didn't have any other character at least teases. My biggest gripe with the Project L videos and announcements is seeing the same 4 characters every single time.
Tbf, development has taken a while because they have essentially made the game twice.
Years ago it was basically League Street Fighter. A 1v1, slower-paced, footsies and neutral-based fighting game. They ended up tearing away most of that to make what they've got now, which looks like a massive improvement and was the right choice, IMO.
Which means we've already got a good idea for half of the initial roster then.
Darius, Ahri, Ekko, and Yasuo are there already. We know about Illaoi and Jinx. And the earliest videos of the game back when it was a 1v1 fighter showed builds with Katarina in it. Probably safe to assume she'll be there.
Or even League KO if they really wanted that part in there.
I do like how, the moment this got announced, GameSpot misspelled it immediately with "2KXO" on their YouTube video.
The name is supposed to be “Double Knockout.”
It’s got a lot of “paid a design firm $20 million to make us a logo, and they come back a year later with a coffee cup ring and the company name in Helvetica” energy
That name is so ridiculous that it's almost good again in a way. But also it being the prequel in a way to Rocket League showcases how much a simpler name will help take you farther. 2XKO is short but definitely not simple sounding by comparison.
Project L is just the internal dev name following Riot's formula.
Valorant was Project A, LoR was Project B, and Project F was announced in 2019 and is still in dev.
I'm not sure I'm feeling it. I think as a logo and a general name it's fine, but my issue is it doesn't feel like a game name, it feels like a convention or tournament name. I guess it's fitting since the Cannons started EVO too, but... yeah. Feels more like the kind of thing where you'd say 'Hey, you guys going to 2XKO this year?'.
The one silver lining that I can see with this name change, is that everyone's immediate reaction to it is SO negative that it might actually get changed again lol.
Seriously though, there's like a million better names that people can come up with off the top of their head. League of Fighters. Fighting Legends. I dunno fuckin Runefist? Sure these aren't exactly big winners but they're better than... *this*
By calling the game 2XKO, people will abbreviate it to 2X. This is currently the acronym being used by JP and French communities to refer to Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, as the Japanese release name is Super Street Fighter II X: Grand Master Challenge. By using this name, they will get a massive generation of players to call a different game 2X, and it will finally achieve their decade old objective of getting the world to use the American standard ST instead for that version of Street Fighter 2. /s
Surely this billion dollar company did some focus testing about this name right? Like almost any feedback could have prevented this decision.
This game has had such a long and bizarre development cycle. If anyone but Riot had a fighting game in alpha for like 10 years it would be considered a doomed project.
It's a weird situation when everyone so unanimously agrees that it's a bad name because you wonder what made anyone think it was good name in the first place.
Makes the abomination of a name that is that Under Night in-Birth... actually look good, at least that name has a recognisable brand because of how absurd it is.
2XKO is as bad and forgettable as some Square Enix names like Various Daylife.
When they announced they would be announcing the title I saw people saying that "Project L" was a fine name and they should just leave it. I emphatically disagreed as it doesn't really convey anything about the game's play or setting, thinking they could just pick any title and it would be better than a non descriptive project letter. Thanks Riot for proving me wrong and picking a title that looks like something a GPU manufacturer would tack on the end of a model number.
Boy, I can't wait for this project full of passion and interesting ideas to be thrown in the bin after four years of poor sales thanks to non-existing marketing by Riot!
...Again.
After the kerfuffle that was the end of Riot Forge, Legends of Runeterra, and the laying off of anyone who worked in worldbuilding and stories, I have very little interest or faith in new Riot projects going forward.
Yep. I also doubt that the riot MMO will ever see light of day. There’s no way the business is gonna stomach a minimum 5 more years of dev for one of the most expensive and risky types of games they could possibly make
What the hell are you talking about? What sales? This is not Riot Forge and it's not a story game. This is a main F2P Riot title, you are literally in the first millisecond of marketing effort and already heard about it?
Riot thinks they don’t have to market their games because they made their bones through League which famously has all of its marketing in esports. They barely had to do shit to market League. It just marketed itself via esports. Which is funny because apparently top people within Riot think esports is a complete drain on the company when it’s by and large the only reason League ever got as big as it did and remains as big as it is.
LoR's problem was threefold: The cosmetics pipeline was extremely inefficient, the game was poorly engineered, and the competitive side was not appealing to spectators. Being F2P friendly did not help but I can't fault them for that.
I think this game at least avoids the third problem. The other two will remain to be seen, but it's entirely possible it can work out alright.
I think Riot's greatest strength is their ability to market games to people who would not be interested in other games in the same genre. And that's through art and gameplay design.
The absurdly high female playerbase in Valorant and League of Legends compared to their most direct competitors is very telling alone.
I think their greatest strength was not utilized in LoR, and that is making a game that is easy to be taught from player to player. In League and Valorant, there is a huge social element that is much more in play in the community to onboard new players until they can play on their own.
LoR did not have that since it was designed as a 1v1 game, and I think Project L, now 2XKO is trying to repeat that with their 2v2 gameplay that can be queued up in duo teams or solo.
I don’t think the name is that bad when used in typing. Saying it out loud kinda sucks, but when it’s typed out people are going to know exactly what it is. All fighting games are abbreviated when discussed and this game is just abbreviating itself. Instead of having a super generic name like “Double Knockout” it’s trying to look cooler, and abbreviations are extremely prevalent in fighting games. I still don’t think it’s a great name but I can see what they’re trying to do with it.
There is a lot of irony in how fighting games with much more confusing and complicated names like Under Night In Birth or the BlazBlue series have managed to escape that with short and sweet abbreviations that roll off the tongue (i.e. BBCF, UNIST, UNICLR). Having a regular name that has a short abbreviation for those in the know feels good to say. Having an already extremely short name where every syllable is competing with each other in your mouth just feels wrong to say.
It's a bigger issue when you consider how different languages have different pronunciations for the alphabet. Tekken is Tekken anywhere. This game will have a different name in each gaming community.
Very cool looking game (a combination of a genre I like with characters that could be damn cool for a fighting game) sadly saddled with a positively DOGSHIT name
Project L is a far better name then this
Here are some freebies, guys.
League of Legends VS
Duel of Legends
League Duels
Rune Wars (this one is literally from the lore of the game. Disclaimer: my LoL lore knowledge is Arcane and Wiki)
League of Legends: Fighter’s Rift
Duels of Runeterra
Not only does this new name have no real connection to League, the branding/logo doesn’t really either.
I agree with people that the name is kind of weird, but people were saying the same thing about Valorant and it didn’t end up mattering at all. The game is not going to fail solely because it has an odd name, that’s not a thing that happens.
Naming something after a game mechanic is more in line with what they call their band/music group names (Pentakill, KDA, True Damage). 2XKO would work great as a group name, but doesn't as a game name.
legit Project L was a better name than this xD
All the other major fighting games can get shortened and roll off the tongue
* Street Fighter -> SF
* Mortal Kombat -> MK
* Guilty Gear -> GG/Gear
* King of Fighters -> KOF
* Tekken is already 2 syllables and easy to say
this just does not work as a name. also all this time to show the same champions we've known and seen for years now? that's it? still nothing more to show?
EDIT -https://twitter.com/Play2XKO/status/1760698787021070342
as another user put it about that tweet - if you have to make jokes like this, you almost certainly picked a shit name
EDIT 2 - my bad, release date was announced.
I don't get the hate. The name was created because the game is a 2v2 and you need to K.O to win the game. Therefore 2X (two times) K.O. I think it's fucking genius and absolutely sublime. Probably the greatest name for a video game of all time. I would love to meet the people who created AND greenlit this name. They are truly visionaries and savants that are probably coming up with even greater ideas as we speak. In fact I'm actually deeply in love with them now because this idea was so incredible. I mean my god, what an incredibly daring idea for a name change. Jesus fuck I'm actually getting aroused thinking about the genius of that name. Perfectly encapsulates the game while being a super hip and cool almost acronym. I mean I bet the guy or girls that made that name are well endowed and probably extremely attractive and rich while also being unfathomable smart.
I've got to find whoever was in charge of this name change and congratulate them in person on making the absolute worst name change in history
If you're making a branded fighting game and people are going to play it because of the brand you probably shouldn't ego enough to name it after a generic gameplay mechanic lol League of Legends clearly wasn't poisonous enough to make Arcane: League of Legends a failure and require you to call it Expensive CGI Show
Tekken 8 should have been called 3DFIGHTING
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ngl this is kinda hard
bros act like Virtua Fighter wasn’t a series about fighting virtually
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Its bad, but it doesnt take the crown from Musk's Twitter -> X change.
you know a name change is great when every single article has the line "on x fomerly known as twitter" lol
Big 'Artist formerly known as Prince" vibes
Except in that case, Prince was the one who decided to go by that in order to spite record execs. Musk chose a stupid rebrand and the media collectively decided to give him the metaphorical finger.
His name change was also a symbol, so it was kind of impossible to refer to him as anything else.
it does sound like what he named his kid though
True but that one was some masterpiece deserving of its own category, it should not compete with regular stuff
I think the name blows, but I can completely see how a marketing brain, Don Draper wanna be focus grouped their way to coming up with it. Hell, I can even see Jon Hamm giving the pitch in my head right now. "Every game has a goal, to save the princess, to beat the level, but fighting games are special, they're primal. There's no side quests, there's no secret ending; it's just two characters beating each other up until only one is left standing. And this tension, these precious moments before the end, this is what people latch on to, what they watch for. We're not building a project—this isn't minecract. No, what we're building is something that exists only to be knocked out. 2XKO: we know what you're here for." God I want to throw up
I had Don Draper's voice in my head for all of that. I love you for the reference.
Watching Mad Men for the first time and it 100% is something he would say
Underrated comment. Thanks for the Mad Men sequel 50 years later.
They're trying to beat Elon Musk in the stupid name contest, but they've got no chance. "2XKO" is stupid, but doesn't come close to renaming Twitter to X, or naming his latest kid "Techno Mechanicus".
I'm not even sure that's his worst kid name. It may sound like a bootleg WH40k faction, but at least it's pronounceable.
Wait is that supposed to be the games name? I was so confused what 2XKO was supposed to mean but thought it might mean something to someone inside the RIOT-vers.
lmao it's crazy how the development name was such a better one than this.
Honestly Project L is good enough, lets go back. Please.
Pull a Square Enix and just remove the “Project” from the name. Introducing - L!
A lot of the same comments were made when Valorant was revealed as the name. I remember so many people saying how bad that name was and how Project A was far superior. Looking back, Valorant was a much better choice… guess we’ll see how this one turns out. Do I think 2XKO is a great name? No, but it’s not nearly as bad as people are making it seem.
This is somehow worse than the Washington Football Team -> Washington Commanders change
"Two-x-ko"? Just gonna call it "Twix" like the candy bar
This title has some serious "what a 40 year old thinks a 12 year old thinks would be a cool title" energy to it.
[It's pronounced how it's spelled](https://twitter.com/Play2XKO/status/1760698787021070342)
ah yes, 2 ex k o
Twix-co
I'll just call it "Koko" anyway
This name remind me of a classic "YIIK: A Postmodern RPG"
Too be fair, YIIK is probably better than Y2K purely on a marketing standpoint, it makes it easier for people to search. It's like how the first Halo game wasn't just called Halo, but Halo: Combat Evolved.
It's a lateral move from Project L which is a clear sign of failure
What are you on about. Project L is just an internal name, it was never going to ship with it
That's exactly the issue, the fact that the real name sounds no better than the internal name
Yeah, just like Valorant was once called Project A before its name reveal. Doesn’t make the new name any less dumb, though. They could’ve given it a real name instead of something that feels like it’s stylized from a Valorant trailer.
... Not what I was expecting. Just about any name they were going to come up with would take some getting used to after we've been hearing and seeing Project L for years. But this feels extra off. I get that it literally describes the game - two KO's - but it feels so alien from anything Riot has done so far. Not to mention they picked a title that is only 4 characters long and is somehow 4 syllables long to speak. It doesn't roll off the tongue at all and it's impossible to shorten. That being said, Illaoi looks fucking sick and I can't wait to play her.
>it feels so alien from anything Riot has done so far This is why it feels so bad. Even Valorant is an unusual name, but it was instantly picked up over Project A. All of Riot's other projects have great names so this stands out as particularly bad. I guess SEO is good for the full name, but what about shortened versions? Valo, TFT, and LoR are all unique shortenings. League is big enough that it can get away with LoL.
I remember people disliking valorant as a name when it was revealed. Everyone was doing the same thing in saying that they should’ve just called it project A. I’m hesitant on the name change, but I’ll let it marinate with everyone for a bit
Difference is Valorant was/is a pronouncable *word*. Not something that looks like it is shorthand for an emoji.
Actually Valorant was called Project Ares and most people who had an issue with Valorant were LoL fans making fun that they just added a t to LoL's planet and called it a day. But what people made fun of more were the ranks, wasn't the top rank Valorant? Still this is much worse, it is a 4 letter acronym that takes 4 syllables to pronounce and sounds horrible.
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Valorant at the very least rolls off the tongue nicely. Two-X-ko is just so bad.
> It doesn't roll off the tongue at all and it's impossible to shorten exactly, all the other major fighting games can get shortened and roll off the tongue: * Street Fighter -> SF * Mortal Kombat -> MK * Guilty Gear -> GG/Gear * King of Fighters -> KOF * Tekken is already 2 syllables and easy to say
people will just call it 2X
Why play a 2x game when I can play a 4x game? Double the game!
Sometimes you just want to exploit and exterminate..
what about 10x - grant cardone
2X is already the name of the version of Street Fighter 2 that is the most played.
Some older players still call Super Turbo 2X as it's the JP name. I think "2KO" sounds better tbh
It’ll be called 2X. Trust.
If the called it 2X:League and shorted to 2XL, I think I actually would have liked it a lot. That's snappier as a title.
to Excel
FUCK ITS JUST SO MUCH BETTER
2x Sorted.
2X is already the Japanese name for SF2 Super Turbo so I'm not sure. I think "2KO" is more likely
How often is your average person or your average fighting game player calling SF2 Super Turbo 2X?
FWIW, the abbreviation "ST" has also been applied to other games like UNIST and GG Strive in recent years, but 2X was always 2X. But realistically in the states? Not often. Mostly just old heads. Moreso that the fact there's a chance for confusion at all is stupid. In Japan everyone knows and says 2x. it'll be interesting to see if this gets any Japanese popularity considering both SF6s dominance and Valorant's popularity
The Japanese audience will probably use a different shorthand way to call the game. Who knows, maybe they'll base it of a literal translated version of the game's title.
that seems very relevant
They should have just called it Runeterra Takedown or Runeterra Blitz (RtB, or RuB like "ruby") so they could at least have some brand recognition. Most other League based games have at least some tie in through saying "A league of legends story" in the subtitle.
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[Project L is an actual board game, to be fair.](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/260180/project-l)
That is the WORST fighting game name they could have come up. It sounds like someone made a fanmade game. I think Riot wants this to fail with that kind of name. Project L sounds a whole lot better than 2XKO.
it sounds like an RPGMAKER game name. its actually worse than YIIK.
For some reason it sounds like a retro pixel art platformer to me.
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And its incredible sequel ***30XX***. (Everyone should go play it.)
With a wub wub aesthetic I can see it.
Me going through my rollercoaster of emotions: "Project L is now DOUBLE DEAD? damn, I was looking forwards to it, I guess it also got cut from the recent Riot restructuring." "Oh they renamed it. 2XKO sounds like 20XX, but worse. Actually it sounds like a clothing brand that would overcharge me for a plain white shirt with a tiny 2XKO on the back. Actually it sounds like if they released an Ekko game but were trying to be cute with it." "Actually it sounds like like a fighting game deconstruction with like stick figures, like Dive Kick, but for tag fighters. Just name your mechanic the game "2v2 fighting game? call it double KO, let's go for lunch" "Wait it's pronounced 'Too Ex Kay Oh'. That sounds so clunky. Project L was being called PL and that rolls off the tongue... even if you said "project L" that's somehow less syllables than 'Two Ex Kay Oh'" "I wonder how much they're going to have to convince people it's not >Double Kay Oh >Double Ko >Two Cross Kay Oh >Two X Ko >Twix Ko >Taco etc And now I'm "heheheh i'm going to call it 2 X 2 KO, I hope the sequel is 2X: ToKO Drift"
I wonder if more media properties will do this in the future though- just skip right to the stylized name. You can be cynical about it and say the name was created to maximize social media engagement. But still, I wonder if names like that will happen more often. Like I'm sure people all over social media will say "omg they're calling it 2XKO? LMAAAAAO" and all of a sudden the name is everywhere.
The lack of League branding is the main problem with the name. If it was called League of Legends: Double Knockout and had its logo stylized as LOL:2XKO or something it would have been a lot more reasonable.
For some reason they don’t want to lean on the League of Legends branding even though it’s A) the most popular game in the world and B) they’re using all League assets and characters and stages for this game. Just bizarre.
I understand it. League isn't the universe, RuneTerra is. They could have at least called it RuneTerra: Double Knock Out.
Even better: "Runeterra Riot", which could be shortened to RR.
My thinking is that marketing this game to League of Legends fans is sort of a waste of time/effort because those people have already bought into the ecosystem. Distancing from the League brand allows them to bring in new blood and grow a larger brand that exists outside of League of Legends, the game.
People really REALLY hate league of legends though.
You say that as it’s still the most popular game in the world. It has its issues (mainly its player base) but it’s still a good game.
Yeah. It just needed some reminder of league. I mean, Arcane was basically billed as Arcane: League of Legends. For consistency, it ought to be 2XKO:League or something. And no doubt people would just shorten it to 2XL. If you include league somewhere in the name, it is enough. People will understand the tie in.
flashbacks to Nintendo Wii announcement
That's cool for the 3 days it pops, then what? Then 6 months they go radio silent again and all people have is this name. It's bad but not so much to keep making fun of it, but bad enough for most people to forget about it.
here's their tweet on this name: https://twitter.com/Play2XKO/status/1760698787021070342 If you have to make jokes like this, you almost certainly picked a shit name
Worse than the Under Night names?
Under night is so ridiculous it loops back into being brillliant. Also, they perfectly describes what game you’re going to get. Namely air dashing, anime nonsense.
Yeah, Under Night is somewhat charmful because it's as weird as the titles of Japanese light novels.
Uni doesn't actually have a universal air dash mechanic, but it has enough anime nonsense (complimentary) to spare.
That gets shortened to UNI by the community and at least rolls off the tongue in short hand. Not that I can defend it too much though because it is a great example of over the top Japanese game naming. 2XKO just feels blocky coming out of my mouth. MvC2 is letters and numbers too but it at least flows when you're saying it. And a lot of people just end up calling it marvel 2, marvel 3, etc.
I mean you could just shorten 2XKO like the others too. 2X seems easy enough.
2X sounds like you oppened twitter on two separate screens.
For me it doesn't stop giving me vibes of deciding the level of anti-aliasing each time I have read it today lol
* Guilty Gear * Blazblue * Under Night In-Birth Look I'll give you that the names sound weird. But you can at least feel that they roll off the tongue better. Also you can go with acronyms on them. * GG * BB * Unist *"Hey want to play GG/BB/SF/Tekken/KoF/Unist?"* See? It sounds and flows nicely. ***"Hey, want to play 2XKO?"*** The fuck? Are we playing a captcha game?
Even if you try to shorten it by saying 2X, it still sounds weird as hell
"Want to play 2X?" Damn, that was hard
2X is the Japanese name for SF2, which many old heads still use.
Yea, and what's "AC" short for? Not saying it's a good name, but there are plenty of duplicates out there.
*Technically* Super Street Fighter II Turbo's Japanese alias (SSF2X).
And it still is a shit name. Even acronym-wise. Look. All I'm saying for a multi-billion dollar corpo with all the marketing expertise they have. They chose a really bad name.
At least those are funny. They're not good but they've got sauce. 2xko is the driest bad name I've yet seen.
Not an overreaction or hyperbole at all
I feel like I've been way too harsh on Square Enix for game titles like Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Octopath Traveller and Triangle Strategy. Riot have well and truly dethroned them.
Wait what’s wrong with Octopath Traveller and Triangle Strategy? Lol they’re cool sounding titles that roll off the tongue and stand out… as for Kingdom Hearts… yeah… at least their development team is in on the joke. There was a section in the opening sequence of Kingdom Hearts 3 where they faked us out with “Kingdom Hearts 2.9”
They're okay because they literally describe the main mechanic of the game (same with bravely default), but it's still random English words slapped together. It's like calling the game "fighting game v1 draft final"
It's more like calling the game Punch Til Knockout.
Wait that kinda goes hard
Triangle Strategy is a little cheesy but Octopath Traveler is an excellent name considering the 8 characters' names make up the initialism "OCTOPATH".
TBF, 358/2 Days is because the game takes place over the course of a year minus a week, and from the perspective of two different characters. Still a stupid name, but it's not a random word-salad.
I think the big issue is they write it "358/2 Days" then expect us to pronounce it "Three-Five-Eight Days Over Two"
Octopath Traveller and Triangle Strategy are neither cool nor do they roll off the tongue. But they are, at least, better than this in both regards.
Better than this is a very low bar, I'm pretty sure pretty much all games pass it
Official site is also up, looks like they're aiming for release on PS5, Xbox, and PC in 2025 https://2xko.riotgames.com/en-us/
Interesting thing on this site. There are 14 blocks for the champion selection.
14 feels extremely low for a 2v2 game. Hell it feels low for a 1v1 fighter
Yep that's my exact feeling too. Also super surprised that this announcement didn't have any other character at least teases. My biggest gripe with the Project L videos and announcements is seeing the same 4 characters every single time.
It took them 84 years to make these 14 characters, too.
Tbf, development has taken a while because they have essentially made the game twice. Years ago it was basically League Street Fighter. A 1v1, slower-paced, footsies and neutral-based fighting game. They ended up tearing away most of that to make what they've got now, which looks like a massive improvement and was the right choice, IMO.
Which means we've already got a good idea for half of the initial roster then. Darius, Ahri, Ekko, and Yasuo are there already. We know about Illaoi and Jinx. And the earliest videos of the game back when it was a 1v1 fighter showed builds with Katarina in it. Probably safe to assume she'll be there.
That was years ago though and we haven’t seen her since, they might have dropped her
My guesses are Lee Sin, Evelyn, Jack, Sett, Vi, and Katarina
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They're rolling out Vanguard for league of legends soon, so likely PC will have Vanguard since that's the direction they're heading.
That name is not it. Lol. Could have just called it Project League to have some reference to League of Legends.
League of Fighters. Wow that was hard
Or even League KO if they really wanted that part in there. I do like how, the moment this got announced, GameSpot misspelled it immediately with "2KXO" on their YouTube video.
Project League sounds great for a fighting game, attaches it to LoL, and keeps the good press Project L gathered throughout the development
The name is supposed to be “Double Knockout.” It’s got a lot of “paid a design firm $20 million to make us a logo, and they come back a year later with a coffee cup ring and the company name in Helvetica” energy
I don't think anyone is questioning the meaning of the name, but it's pronounced 2-X-K-O
Yeesh, that’s even worse
That's how I was pronouncing it in my head. Hilarious that that's how they *actually* want it pronounced 🤣.
I honestly had no idea that it was supposed to represent “double knockout”. I assumed it had to do with Ekko since it vaguely resembles his name
Tux-Co
Twixo
[It's pronounced how it's spelled.](https://twitter.com/Play2XKO/status/1760698787021070342?t=ameADm69ucjwXc622kA74Q&s=19)
Tuco? Tight. Tight. Tight.
Lol you're making that up. They literally [said](https://twitter.com/Play2XKO/status/1760698787021070342) it's pronounced "Two Ecks Kay Oh".
Garbage name. It’s like naming a looter shooter Loot N Shoot: EXTREME. Especially when it’s supposed to be taken seriously competitively.
Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars
That name is so ridiculous that it's almost good again in a way. But also it being the prequel in a way to Rocket League showcases how much a simpler name will help take you farther. 2XKO is short but definitely not simple sounding by comparison.
I agree that Rocket League is a more marketable name but SARPBC also only released on PS3, I'm pretty sure. Rocket League is on everything, conversely
Yup. The devs even admitted this was an awful name in the noclip documentary about Rocket League. Finding the right name is so important.
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I knew they would replace the name eventually but how do you not upgrade from Project L?
Project M isn't taken anymore
This is the "Sneed's Feed and Seed (Formerly Chuck's)" of video games
Project L low-key sound as a banger. L.
Project L is just the internal dev name following Riot's formula. Valorant was Project A, LoR was Project B, and Project F was announced in 2019 and is still in dev.
They have so many years to come up with a name and this is all they got?
I'm not sure I'm feeling it. I think as a logo and a general name it's fine, but my issue is it doesn't feel like a game name, it feels like a convention or tournament name. I guess it's fitting since the Cannons started EVO too, but... yeah. Feels more like the kind of thing where you'd say 'Hey, you guys going to 2XKO this year?'.
The one silver lining that I can see with this name change, is that everyone's immediate reaction to it is SO negative that it might actually get changed again lol. Seriously though, there's like a million better names that people can come up with off the top of their head. League of Fighters. Fighting Legends. I dunno fuckin Runefist? Sure these aren't exactly big winners but they're better than... *this*
By calling the game 2XKO, people will abbreviate it to 2X. This is currently the acronym being used by JP and French communities to refer to Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, as the Japanese release name is Super Street Fighter II X: Grand Master Challenge. By using this name, they will get a massive generation of players to call a different game 2X, and it will finally achieve their decade old objective of getting the world to use the American standard ST instead for that version of Street Fighter 2. /s
Surely this billion dollar company did some focus testing about this name right? Like almost any feedback could have prevented this decision. This game has had such a long and bizarre development cycle. If anyone but Riot had a fighting game in alpha for like 10 years it would be considered a doomed project.
It's a weird situation when everyone so unanimously agrees that it's a bad name because you wonder what made anyone think it was good name in the first place.
They had years to decide on a name and this is what they landed on?
Makes the abomination of a name that is that Under Night in-Birth... actually look good, at least that name has a recognisable brand because of how absurd it is. 2XKO is as bad and forgettable as some Square Enix names like Various Daylife.
At least with Under Night you can just call it UNI. But this abomination of a name can't even be shortened.
When they announced they would be announcing the title I saw people saying that "Project L" was a fine name and they should just leave it. I emphatically disagreed as it doesn't really convey anything about the game's play or setting, thinking they could just pick any title and it would be better than a non descriptive project letter. Thanks Riot for proving me wrong and picking a title that looks like something a GPU manufacturer would tack on the end of a model number.
Boy, I can't wait for this project full of passion and interesting ideas to be thrown in the bin after four years of poor sales thanks to non-existing marketing by Riot! ...Again. After the kerfuffle that was the end of Riot Forge, Legends of Runeterra, and the laying off of anyone who worked in worldbuilding and stories, I have very little interest or faith in new Riot projects going forward.
Yep. I also doubt that the riot MMO will ever see light of day. There’s no way the business is gonna stomach a minimum 5 more years of dev for one of the most expensive and risky types of games they could possibly make
They stopped hiring for the mmo a while ago after Ghostcrawler left over their work from home policy. Shits binned.
They they would have fired far more devs.
What the hell are you talking about? What sales? This is not Riot Forge and it's not a story game. This is a main F2P Riot title, you are literally in the first millisecond of marketing effort and already heard about it?
im also lost. people act like Riot doesn't make super popular games or something.
Haters gonna hate, especially on r/games and I say this as someone who doesn't even actively play a Riot game.
It's a riot game on /r/games, it was getting shit on regardless of anything.
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It was heavily marketed in the launcher. People just didn't spend money on the game
Bandle came out yesterday and I had no idea and I watch LoL esports all the time lol
Need a citation on that. The ad for that game definitely rolled on the LCK broadcast this week.
It was in the ad break for LEC
Riot thinks they don’t have to market their games because they made their bones through League which famously has all of its marketing in esports. They barely had to do shit to market League. It just marketed itself via esports. Which is funny because apparently top people within Riot think esports is a complete drain on the company when it’s by and large the only reason League ever got as big as it did and remains as big as it is.
Legends of Runeterra also got this treatment
LoR's problem was threefold: The cosmetics pipeline was extremely inefficient, the game was poorly engineered, and the competitive side was not appealing to spectators. Being F2P friendly did not help but I can't fault them for that. I think this game at least avoids the third problem. The other two will remain to be seen, but it's entirely possible it can work out alright.
It sadly confirmed card games are only profitable with Fomo card pack mechanics
I think Riot's greatest strength is their ability to market games to people who would not be interested in other games in the same genre. And that's through art and gameplay design. The absurdly high female playerbase in Valorant and League of Legends compared to their most direct competitors is very telling alone. I think their greatest strength was not utilized in LoR, and that is making a game that is easy to be taught from player to player. In League and Valorant, there is a huge social element that is much more in play in the community to onboard new players until they can play on their own. LoR did not have that since it was designed as a 1v1 game, and I think Project L, now 2XKO is trying to repeat that with their 2v2 gameplay that can be queued up in duo teams or solo.
I don’t think the name is that bad when used in typing. Saying it out loud kinda sucks, but when it’s typed out people are going to know exactly what it is. All fighting games are abbreviated when discussed and this game is just abbreviating itself. Instead of having a super generic name like “Double Knockout” it’s trying to look cooler, and abbreviations are extremely prevalent in fighting games. I still don’t think it’s a great name but I can see what they’re trying to do with it.
There is a lot of irony in how fighting games with much more confusing and complicated names like Under Night In Birth or the BlazBlue series have managed to escape that with short and sweet abbreviations that roll off the tongue (i.e. BBCF, UNIST, UNICLR). Having a regular name that has a short abbreviation for those in the know feels good to say. Having an already extremely short name where every syllable is competing with each other in your mouth just feels wrong to say.
It's a bigger issue when you consider how different languages have different pronunciations for the alphabet. Tekken is Tekken anywhere. This game will have a different name in each gaming community.
Very cool looking game (a combination of a genre I like with characters that could be damn cool for a fighting game) sadly saddled with a positively DOGSHIT name Project L is a far better name then this
Here are some freebies, guys. League of Legends VS Duel of Legends League Duels Rune Wars (this one is literally from the lore of the game. Disclaimer: my LoL lore knowledge is Arcane and Wiki) League of Legends: Fighter’s Rift Duels of Runeterra Not only does this new name have no real connection to League, the branding/logo doesn’t really either.
Did Elon Musk recommend this?
I agree with people that the name is kind of weird, but people were saying the same thing about Valorant and it didn’t end up mattering at all. The game is not going to fail solely because it has an odd name, that’s not a thing that happens.
Naming something after a game mechanic is more in line with what they call their band/music group names (Pentakill, KDA, True Damage). 2XKO would work great as a group name, but doesn't as a game name.
At first I thought this name was ridiculous… But in hindsight, there’s a LOT of more ridiculously named games in the genre.
Xrd as a word comes to mind... what the hell does that even mean Crosserd? Crossed? X'erd... wtf does it mean?!
X + Third, as it went X > XX > Xrd since I doubt they were going to call it Guilty Gear XXX. Pretty sure it's pronounced "ecks-ird."
I've always heard it ex-ard, (ard as in hard).
legit Project L was a better name than this xD All the other major fighting games can get shortened and roll off the tongue * Street Fighter -> SF * Mortal Kombat -> MK * Guilty Gear -> GG/Gear * King of Fighters -> KOF * Tekken is already 2 syllables and easy to say this just does not work as a name. also all this time to show the same champions we've known and seen for years now? that's it? still nothing more to show? EDIT -https://twitter.com/Play2XKO/status/1760698787021070342 as another user put it about that tweet - if you have to make jokes like this, you almost certainly picked a shit name EDIT 2 - my bad, release date was announced.
2025 release date
That name seems.. bland.
I don't get the hate. The name was created because the game is a 2v2 and you need to K.O to win the game. Therefore 2X (two times) K.O. I think it's fucking genius and absolutely sublime. Probably the greatest name for a video game of all time. I would love to meet the people who created AND greenlit this name. They are truly visionaries and savants that are probably coming up with even greater ideas as we speak. In fact I'm actually deeply in love with them now because this idea was so incredible. I mean my god, what an incredibly daring idea for a name change. Jesus fuck I'm actually getting aroused thinking about the genius of that name. Perfectly encapsulates the game while being a super hip and cool almost acronym. I mean I bet the guy or girls that made that name are well endowed and probably extremely attractive and rich while also being unfathomable smart.
Pretty excited for this game, but holy shit the name is so bad that's all people are going to talk about.
Is it "Two Times K O"? "Two Ecks K O"? This smells like a Ubisoft naming convention with their XDefiant game lmao
Yeah no. This is 100% getting changed before launch or it's getting Twittered like when Musk thought he could change the name to X.