Rapidly since release we have seen the new tag-team fighter for Riot rise from a tentative approach where tools only spawned on one of two champions to binding the whole roster into dual 2XKO monsters. If you are not being on top of the daily patch notes then regularly monitoring the full roster can seem a lot to keep up with; herein, this cheat sheet displays the current tiers, and the future plans.
I‘ve played some of these champs in training mode. I will point out the areas that I learned from actual hands on play versus information put out by Riot and others.
Table of Contents
What Is 2XKO?
2XKO is Riot Games’ free-to-play 2 v 2 tag fighter set within the universe of League of Legends. This is not simply a port where you take the existing MOBA characters and try to put them in a fighting game – each champion has to be re-created from the ground up with mid-90s fighting game concepts in mind like neutral game, assists, tag-combos, and team pressure. The game is available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. If you are buying a dedicated controller for it, the bestprice I have seen for a DualSense is at PlayStation Direct, which tends to beat going to a third-party retailer.
While League tends to reward macro play over a 40-minute game, 2XKO squeezes it all into quick, mechanical interactions. The champions are familiar, but their methods of fights through them is totally altered.
2XKO Characters at a Glance
There are now 15 confirmed 2XKO characters with a monthly increase of approximately a five a season including rebalances every mid-2026. All 2XKO characters fit into a general fighting-game archetype rushdown, zoner, grappler, bruiser, setplay, with most even mixing two depending on their assist and partner.
| Character | Archetype | Quick summary |
|---|---|---|
| Ahri | Mobile rushdown | Air dashes and ranged pressure |
| Akali | Mix-up fighter | Evasive movement, ambiguous offense |
| Blitzcrank | Grappler | Command-grab threats |
| Braum | Defensive bruiser | Shields, armor, space control |
| Caitlyn | Zoner/trap | Long-range punishment |
| Darius | Heavy mid-range | Corner carry, big damage |
| Ekko | Mix-up | Rewinds, tricky approaches |
| Illaoi | Setplay bruiser | Tentacle lockdown |
| Jinx | Zoner | Guns, explosives, screen control |
| Senna | Long-range support | Partner-enabling pressure |
| Teemo | Trap/disruption | Small hurtbox, route denial |
| Thresh | Control/setplay | Hooks, lantern utility |
| Vi | Rushdown boxer | Armored approaches |
| Warwick | Rushdown hunter | Chase-down tools |
| Yasuo | Mid-range all-rounder | Sword normals, projectile defense |
2XKO Character Roster
Full List of 2XKO Characters
For the most up-to-date list of 2XKO champions, Riot‘s official champion gallery is still the safest source just because the moment a new champion launches, the list is updated. As of now, this includes Ahri, Akali, Blitzcrank, Braum, Caitlyn, Darius, Ekko, Illaoi, Jinx, Senna, Teemo, Thresh, Vi, Warwick and Yasuo.
Confirmed Playable Characters
All 15 listed above are playable now no asterisks, no “coming soon” mextoads. Senna and Thresh finished the roster on an even dozen for early access, coming out in June 2026 and exceeding it.
Newly Announced Characters
Riot has announced that there were to be six new champions arriving in 2XKO during 2026, with Caitlyn and Akali (moving to the Ahn) arriving earlier in the year and Senna due to follow shortly after. A few more have yet to be filled for 2026, it has been announced, and the reveals will be happening in waves, rather than all at once.
Upcoming and Rumored Characters
Here start the speculative predictions. Rumors and early survey info have brought to light stuff like Akali, first confirmed, Ezreal, Karma, Kindred, Lux, Rengar, Riven, Sett, Samira, and Zed for potential 2XKO releases. They‘re not real until RIOT makes them so.
2XKO Characters Explained
Ahri
Ahri‘s kit translates into solid gameplay: dynamic, mid-range, highly reliant on forcing a negative mental stack. Ahri‘s air-cancels allow for some creative approaches while her orb-based pressure does well if you prefer a ranged matchup.
Darius
Darius is a big, hard hitting in your face bruiser with some of the most frightening corner carry in the game. His normals pack a punch and his damage output will punish any slipup made by your opponent. If you like to win fights just by being right up in your opponents grill, then Darius will reward that tendency.
Ekko
Gimmicks Timewarps, afterimages, weird approach-parts; all relatively easily exploitable elements added to a package of time-management gimmicks blink-and-you-miss‘ts. The preliminary withtest run I did in training mode confirmed my suspicion that Ekko will be quite a bit more difficult to actually play than he looks; the pay-off in doing so is quite high, however, the difficulty to do so, not so much.
Yasuo
Yasuo is more of a jack-of-all-trades than straight up specialist. Sword normals are mid-range and he has some reasonable mobility, and his wind wall provides him a natural counter vs. projectile-heavy 2XKO champions such as Jinx or Caitlyn. Definitely a good choice to have less glaring disadvantages.
Illaoi
Illaoi does push into setplay bruiser territory. Tentacles set up lockdown positions and lasting corner pressure, which works well with partners to capitalize on her pinning foes in place. She has a faster learning curve, but may not always be ready if you are.
Jinx
Jinx: Fire to all cylinders. One of the most clear Fire zoners in the 2XKO cast today. She covers the screen with guns, bombs, and some trap options, and only rewards opponents for attacking with bad reads.
Vi
Vi is a rush-down Boxer with armored approach options, who has massive corner carry if she gets in. During testing, I found that her offense tends to reward commitment lacking conviction against a Vi tends to result in punishment, so she‘s more well-suited to players who like charging in than ones who prefer to tool away.
Braum
Braum is your team’s defensive anchor. Providing shield based blocks, extra armor, and a solid presence up front make him an ideal companion for a more aggressive champion that just needs the space to approach safely or take a self-inflicted, possibly risky hit.
Katarina
Katarina hasn‘t joined 2XKO yet, and I think it‘s fair to note that when she‘s one of the most requested 2XKO characters on the net. She was shown in some early Project L footage several years ago, but game director Shaun Rivera has confirmed her animation didn‘t fit the 2v2 team style and she would need an entire revamp. She‘s not in active development at the moment, but Riot has not definitively said she won‘t be in future.
Other Confirmed Characters
Blitzcrank (grappler), Akali (mix-up), Caitlyn (zoner/trap), Senna (long range support), Teemo (trap/disruption), Thresh (control/setplay), and Warwick (rushdown/hunter) make up the remaining characters in the current 2XKO cast. They each perform a role that can‘t be filled entirely by any of the previous archetypes, which is the method Riot has seemed to adopt when pacing new characters – filling in design space rather than creating more of the same.
2XKO Character Roles and Playstyles
Best Characters for Beginners
Darius and Braum to a much lesser extent suit the player if you prefer to make decisions at the closest range possible. Jinx and Caitlyn are best suited to the player if they prefer to take a controlling distance based approach to the game. Ahri Vi and Warwick are best suited to an aggressive approach and don‘t require the same kind of high execution play.
Rushdown Characters
Here we have Ahri, Vi, and Warwick, all of who are built for cruising quickly toward the back line and never letting their foes rest. The 2XKO characters these three are most likely to punish most are the ones whose playstyles naturally encourage or accommodate a need to stand still.
Defensive Characters
Braum is the most obvious, with shield mechanics and armor factored into his kit. Brawling him with an aggressive carry partner is often the go to play.
Zoning Characters
Jinx, Caitlyn & Senna all are great at space control from afar. Each of them is powerful against such low mobility champions but they become weak when enemy player gets near..hence choice of partner as a zoner really matters.
Support and Assist Characters
Senna and Thresh both utilize utility, with their assist providing more pressure for a teammate, instead of trying to win a fight alone. These 2XKO champions may not have the flashiest numbers overall, but tend to finish matches based on perfect positioning, and not higher damage.
Best Character Combinations
Team structure matters more than picking two favorites. A few pairing patterns that tend to work:
- Rushdown + zoner the zoner dominates the playing field while the rushdown exploits the forced movement.
- Grappler + lockdown restricted mobility increases the threat magnitude of command grabs by an order of magnitude
- Bruiser + support Tough frontline char with utility coverage.
- Zoner + defensive nature presence of a safety net while zoning to allow pressure on close consideration (players/net).
Don‘t put two characters with the same weakness together. If they‘re two rushdown 2XKO characters, they‘ll both suffer against zoning, and if they‘re two zoners, they‘ll both be looking for a way out once they get pressured.
2XKO Duo and Team System
How the 2v2 Tag System Works
Choose two 2XKO characters and run them by one as an assist or a tag-in. Assist calls not only allow for greater pressure on your opponent but also address being approached. Tag actions keep your partner in the game at all times. Handshakes occur when both players call assists at once and presuppose an exchange that neither side has a legitimate claim of victory. Fuses are team-specific mechanics designed to make you develop a game plan instead of two disparate fighters shoved together.
Choosing the Best Character Pair
The others can be applied to any combination, just asking: how do they get in from neutral, what do they do after a hit, how do they hold pressure, how do they get out of pressure, how does each assist help the other. The best zoner may be someone who provides the best cover for their teammate after launching a projectile hammer-down the synergistic role is more important than raw power in many cases.
Character Synergies and Combos
Team-based combo routing isn‘t always the longest solo combo. A lot of the time what makes a good route is keeping the tag safe, saving assist cooldown, or putting your partner in a good position. My opinion after testing around is the beginner players are placing to much emphasis on long flashy combos when a shorter combo that is tag safe can win more games in practice.
Upcoming 2XKO Characters
Characters Expected in Future Updates
Riot is set to add about five new champions each season of 2026, so there should be a consistent overall increase, not an all-in-one update. Riot hasn‘t officially revealed the exact names of the additional 2026 champions yet.
League of Legends Champions That Could Join 2XKO
Since we‘re still approaching 160 League champions in waiting for the 2XKO roster, the list of possibilities is practically infinite. Gaming community leaks have so far kept mentioning Ezreal, Lux, Sett, Riven, Rengar, Kindred, Karma, Samira as well as the eternal Katarina speculation. Nothing is confirmedthough, so it might be worth checking the roster breakdown of which 2XKO fighters are up next from time to time, Riot often unveil things on the fly with little bits and pieces revealed in advance.
Frequently Asked Questions
What number is contained in 2XKO?
There are a confirmed of 15 2XKO characters, with the latest (Senna and Thresh) as of 6/2026.
Who are the fighters in 2XKO?
The full list of champions for season 10 is Ahri, Akali, Blitzcrank, Braum, Caitlyn, Darius, Ekko, Illaoi, Jinx, Senna, Teemo, Thresh, Vi, Warwick and Yasuo.
Is Jinx in 2XKO?
Yes. Jinx has been playable since early access and is still the most distinct zoning specialist of the 2XKO characters.
Is Yasuo in 2XKO?
Absolutely, Yasuo is a launch character. He is an overall powerful mid-range all-rounder with good projectile defense.
Is Katarina a 2XKO playable character?
No, not at this time. She was shown in the first bits of Project L footage but there is currently no active development on her, so said Director Shaun Rivera.
If you are new to 2xKo, which of the 2XKOS is easiest to get into?
Darius and Braum are good buy for those who prefer fast, up close and personal decisions while it is better for those who want to play game from safety to buy a Jinx or Caitlyn.
Which new champs will be released? Are there going to be any new champs?
Most likely. Riot has a barage of approximately five new champions per year in seasonal updates, and since there are more than 160 League champions, the existing 2XKO potential champions is large.
If that was not your question then…how frequently does Riot introduce new champsonto 2XKO?
Occurs about five times a year, which is dependent on the quarterly release of seasonal content as opposed to a monthly basis.
Free to Play 2KO?
Sure, 2XKO is free-to-play on the PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Final Thoughts
Which 2XKO Character Should You Play?
No one “best” answer: it‘s about choosing between playing the range, grinding out close-range pressure, or creating situations your partner can take advantage of. If I was directing a rookie, I‘d recommend: 1 character who has a clear game plan, 5 solid techniques instead of the entire move list, and a partner who can fill your character‘s most critical gaps.
For now, the 2XKO cast is fairly limited; with Riot new season, this list will change by the time it‘s set. The best way to keep current is to visit Riot‘s page of champions, because biographies and move lists get up-to-date the second a new fighter lands.
I’m a content writer with a passion for games and strategy.I’m dedicated to creating content that is engaging and informative for today’s audience. I keep a close eye on the latest gaming trends and industry trends to provide entertaining and informative articles. Whether it’s exploring new tools or analyzing the sport, I bring a new accessible voice to each episode. Let us connect and enhance your content with knowledge and insight!
