Riot Games hit with backlash after revealing '2XKO' as official name of new League of Legends fighting game

Many found the name 2XKO hard to pronounce, with Riot Games even putting out a post explaining how to pronounce the game's new official name.

Anna Bernardo
·Contributor
·4 min read
No one has complaints on how the gameplay trailers looked like so far, but many are struggling to like 2XKO, Project L's new name. (Photo: Riot Games)
No one has complaints on how the gameplay trailers looked like so far, but many are struggling to like 2XKO, Project L's new name. (Photo: Riot Games)

It has not been that long since the reveal of 2XKO, the new name of Riot Games’ League of Legends (LoL) fighting game which was formerly known as 'Project L'.

Yet the negative feedback from the player community is quite strong, and this coming from both the LoL fan base and the fighting game community (FGC).

It’s not that everyone felt that the trailer was terrible, or that the gameplay felt “mid.” It’s just that the title of the game doesn’t seem to click with the players. It’s quite understandable, since the name itself is hard to pronounce, so much so that only seconds after the announcement, many replied to 2XKO’s tweet, asking, “How do I pronounce this?”

“Whenever you have a video game title and the people are not exactly sure how you say it, I think you failed,” anime and fighting game content creator Globku said in a YouTube video.

“Everyone should just decide to call it 'Double Knockout' instead, then act confused when people try and correct it,” Youtube user @LadyRamkinFP said in response to the Globku’s video.

“We can safely say that absolutely NOONE on this planet predicted this name. Interesting,” Popular LoL content creator Vandiril wrote in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Others like @elpablobeltran complained that whoever thought of the name “really didn’t think [through] the language barrier,” since “spelt as pronounced” would be different across languages.

LoL content creator Necrit was surprised by everyone’s reaction to the name and everyone’s confusion as to how it’s pronounced.

“I did not have a flood of people asking about pronunciation on my bingo card,” he wrote.

Some from the FGC were just as confused with the name. “Real talks, If you have to go out of your way to state this then the name probably needs a revision,” @Shoyoumomo_said.

2XKO’s announcement gathered so much backlash, that there were even some quite hilarious reactions to the new name.

“2XKO isn't the name you give a fighting game, it's the name Elon Musk gives his next kid,” @Kenshi917 tweeted.

On top of this, the name having nothing to do with LoL is something the LoL community is having a hard time with.

Even I, as a LoL fan, feel quite confused with the name; to me, it sounds more like a new name for a K-pop boy band, more than a fighting game that has something to do with League.

“This would be like if Marvel vs Capcom called itself Happy Birthday, or if Tatsunoku vs Capcom called itself Baroque Cancel, ”X user CosmicKirby said.

X user @aurelyoung.“Something I would have loved to see is it being an already used term or ability from [the] OG game, the way all Riot bands are named (KDA, True Damage, Pentakill, Heartsteel etc.).”

Some LoL players went on to suggest names that would resonate better with the community, but one of the more popular names that came out of it was a suggestion LoL streamer i0ki.

For context, Lethal Tempo is a popular LoL rune related to attack speed. With how easily it could be remembered and pronounced, many agreed with this suggestion.

However, 2XKO did get some positive feedback, with people like @CoreAGaming expressing how they liked the new name, stating, “Not having any reference to the motif with an IP like LoL is extremely bold and actually pretty sick.”

2XKO executive producer Tom Cannon addressed the backlash against the new name in a tweet on Friday (23 February). “Naming is hard,” he admitted, saying that he “didn’t really dig” names of past projects he worked on, but that “they grew on me over time.”

“The team worked really hard to land on #2XKO,” he added, saying that he loved the name right away. He also showed appreciation for the “so many” fans who loved the name as well.

With this statement, it looks like the dev team is sticking to the name. However, with the amount of backlash vs positive feedback, we have yet to see if there will be any name changes soon.

Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.

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