Great news for grassroots tournament organizers—a new offline mode for 2XKO will allow all champions to be unlocked, alleviating the need for tedious account grinding. This exciting update was shared during a recent community tour in France. In a candid group Q&A session, Tom Cannon, the executive producer of 2XKO, cautiously debated how much information to reveal before finally deciding, “Yeah, why not?” He spilled the beans on the new development.
Cannon empathized with the struggles faced by organizers who need to set up multiple systems for a tournament. Requiring internet access and jumping through hoops to unlock champions wasn’t ideal, and the team wanted to streamline the process. “You’re going to be able to play this game offline,” Cannon announced with a laugh, suggesting it’s no spoiler. He reassured organizers that they’ll have access to all champions without the grind. While not all content, like skins, will be accessible, the ability to run an offline tournament with all champions available is their main selling point.
Supporting grassroots tournaments is a priority, and feedback from event organizers is welcomed to refine these features further. For those hosting competitive fighting game events, this is a game-changer. The pitfalls of always-online games are well-documented. Not only would organizers need a stable internet connection, but they might also face hefty fees for multi-day usage. Moreover, the hassle of grinding new characters across multiple accounts is a thing of the past with this feature.
However, there’s a bit of a murky area surrounding how this might work with Riot’s Vanguard Anti-Cheat, which is always online and requires kernel-level access from boot-up. Historically, Vanguard can’t be disabled while running Riot’s games like League of Legends or Valorant, posing potential challenges if the offline mode is accessed through Riot’s launcher, much like current 2XKO Alpha Lab tests. We’ve attempted to contact Riot Games for clarification, but as of now, there’s no response.
Despite these potential kinks to iron out, this upcoming feature is bound to be a delight for the hard-core community drawn to real-world events—eager to showcase their skills against fellow players. Personally, I don’t expect this mode to be widely available to the average player. Considering 2XKO’s free-to-play model relies on revenue generation, it’s likely this offline mode will be a perk reserved for official tournament organizers.
As we wait patiently for more details, what are your thoughts on this new offline mode? Do share your thoughts with us below!
