Project L fans beg Riot to revert new 2XKO name

Project L has been a much-anticipated title since it was announced considering Riot’s rich history with competitive, esports-oriented titles. However, the name being officially revealed as 2XKO has left fans of the game scratching their heads.

Since it was shown in 2019, the hype behind Project L has steadily built as the devs have drip fed new information about the fighting game. It’s been playable at a few events so far, and those who have played it came away with positive impressions.

Additionally, we now have an actual release window: 2025. It’s a pretty broad and non-specific window, but a window nonetheless. Along with that news came the game’s official name: 2XKO.

While people who were fans of Project L are still excited to get their hands on 2XKO, the response from potential players has been almost universally negative, with many players just sticking to Project L for now.

2XKO name doesn’t go over well with Project L fans

Project L was always meant to be a temporary name for the League of Legends fighting game, one that was borne from a time where Riot Games were working on a bunch of different projects for new games outside of just League of Legends.

However, due to the game’s lengthy development cycle, that Project name stuck around much longer than it was likely meant to. It’s not overly surprising that people who have been calling 2XKO by Project L for years are hesitant to call it by a new name.

Even with that in mind, response from fans of Project L to 2XKO’s new name has been negative.

Those who were excited for Project L have largely agreed to stick to that name rather than 2XKO, claiming that the new name is a huge downgrade. What’s more, people are confused as to how they’re even supposed to pronounce it.

It stands for Double Knockout, but people are confused about whether they’re supposed to say double knockout in full, or if there’s an abbreviated pronunciation. Fortunately, they’ve made a little graphic that explains it’s pronounced exactly how it looks.

The negative response to the name has been so immediate and universal that Executive Producer Tom Cannon has addressed it directly, claiming that he loves the final name they’ve landed on.

Though, he also conceded that “naming is hard“.

Ultimately, it seems that many players have chosen to ignore the new name and opt to keep calling it Project L rather than 2XKO. It’s still possible that the new name grows on people over time, but, for now, it seems that the Project L moniker will be a hard one to shake.