In a recent reveal, it was announced that 2XKO is set to introduce an offline mode with all champions unlocked, aiming to ease the lives of grassroots tournament organizers. These organizers, keen to host events centered around the game, often find themselves burdened by the need to unlock characters repeatedly on various accounts.
During a 2XKO community tour in France earlier this month, this announcement came to light. At a group Q&A session, Tom Cannon, the executive producer of 2XKO, initially pondered how much he should disclose. Then, with a casual “yeah, why not,” he decided to share the exciting news about the offline mode.
“I realize how tricky it can be to set up numerous systems for tournaments. We don’t want it to be a hassle. The goal is for you to run a tournament without needing internet and without jumping through hoops just to unlock champions,” Cannon explained.
“We’ve decided to allow offline play. Hopefully, that’s not a spoiler!” he joked. “Tournament organizers will be able to access all champions without grinding. While you won’t access all content—like skins, unfortunately—you’ll have the core game ready to go offline for tournaments. That’s our main attraction.”
Supporting grassroots tournaments remains a focus, as they’re keen on gathering feedback on useful features. This news is a potential game-changer for those hosting fighting game events aimed at competition. An online-only fighting game would typically face major challenges in such settings, where venue internet stability is a prerequisite, often accompanied by hefty usage fees. Additionally, not having to repeatedly unlock new characters on various accounts is a significant relief for organizers, who otherwise would need to invest considerable time to maintain competitive readiness.
One aspect that remains unclear after this reveal is how this new mode will interact with Riot Games’ Vanguard Anti-Cheat system. Vanguard, which initiates at computer start-up with kernel-level access, cannot be disabled when running Riot Games titles like League of Legends and Valorant. Consequently, an offline tournament mode might conflict with Vanguard’s intended function, considering it might launch via the Riot Games launcher as current 2XKO Alpha Lab tests do.
We’ve reached out to Riot Games for comments on this matter but have yet to receive a response at the time of publishing.
Nevertheless, this feature is bound to be a hit with the hardcore community, those willing to travel and compete in real-world events. It’s likely this feature won’t be broadly available to everyday players. As a free-to-play game, 2XKO needs to generate revenue from its community. Therefore, anticipate this offline mode to be a privilege primarily for certified tournament organizers.
We’ll await further updates on this offline feature and more. What are your thoughts on this new development? Feel free to share your opinions below!
