The 2XKO team is off on holiday, but they’ve left a nice little roadmap of sorts for those keen to learn more about the game before they departed for office for sweet treats and boozy nights out. In short, there’ll be an update on what’s to come in February, and a chance for players to see this for themselves in March.
This alligns with what we already know, that the next play test will be coming sometime in Spring 2025. Spring, for those who’ve forgotten, comprises the months of March, April, and May. This, in addition to the game set up for a vague 2025 release date, has many believing that this upcoming playtest will be coming either in March, or soon after. Ben Forbes, the 2XKO editor-in-chief, further narrowed down the timing on this “major beat” as dropping in “probably late) March.
What this means on the surface is that we’ll have to sit back a few months and wait for more. But let’s have some fun, compile what we know, and speculate a little. Time is quickly running down until the eventual release date, even as it remains a mystery.
We know that Jinx is coming to the game courtesy of her gameplay trailer released during the Arcane hype season, and so it is not a far-flung assumption to say that she’ll be playable in the upcoming playtest. Indeed, the devs have a history of announcing characters only to have them playable at the next possible opportunity. Yasuo was announced the day prior to Evo 2023, where players were able to try him out themselves, and Braum was announced soon before Evo 2024 and the first alpha lab test.
Further digging brings up some more exciting tidbits. Fighting game player and content creator Diaphone was one of a handful of influencers who travelled to the Riot Games’ offices to play Jinx early, and revealed that he was able to try out other characters that are yet unannounced. This is not unusual. A while ago, Riot brought a large number of streamers to the offices to try out the pre-Evo 2023 build where they were able to mess around with Yasuo as well as other characters like Braum who were kept hidden from public eyes at the time.
From this, one could get their hopes up that a new character reveal is coming in February. This is by no means guaranteed, but when you consider that we’ve only got so many months left until launch and the game only has seven officially announced characters (plus Katarina, who lives in this weird semi-confirmed zone) there’s got to be some real momentum if the game is to hit that comfortable 10-character roster.
Other things that could be revealed is a more specific release date / window, which would be nice. I’d personally wager that a fall 2025 release window could be put out there. On top of that, Evo 2025 is soon approaching. 2XKO has had a longstanding presence at the event, and as such I’d not be surprised if more info on that topic was hinted at.
So there we go, another period of radio silence until more concrete info gets out there. What do you think they’re gonna reveal in February? Let us know below!