Naming Is Hard

Welcome back to the Weekend Warmup.

There’s a programming joke from the 90s that goes: “There are only two hard things in computer science: cache invalidation and naming things.” I’m sure this is funny (I don’t know what cache invalidation is), but given the KOnversation earlier this week, I wanted to talk a bit about the process of how we named 2XKO, why it’s so weird, and why we love it anyway. 

Before we get into it, this is a genuine look behind the scenes at what our team considered during the naming process, which took place across late 2022 and early 2023, over a year before it was revealed to players. Terms and conditions apply, this was our thought process at the time, not every game at Riot will follow this, remember this happened several years ago, yada yada. Let’s jump in!

The Project Formerly Known as L

There are plenty of places to read up on Project L’s history, so I won’t belabour it here, but we knew we couldn’t stay as an ephemeral codename forever. Riot used Project [#] as its template for all announced in-development games—mainly to give space to the crew responsible for naming to work from a blank canvas. In Project L’s case, players had already started to grow attached to the name, so though we had to break some hearts eventually, we went into it knowing we had to establish some ownability away from the R&D pack.

What Should a Name Say?

A name doesn't exist in a vacuum. It’s one piece of a whole—it will always live alongside the logo, the gameplay, the roster, the key art, the IP, and the overall vibe of the game. It’s ultimately only as powerful as the things it’s connected to. In 1998, no one would have predicted that a company named Google (or previously, Backrub (this is real)) would become a ubiquitous verb for searching the whole internet.

Names in the fighting game genre are rich and varied, and established series have existed for decades. The FGC’s shared consciousness has space for everything: from the highly functional Fighters, to deep references to an IP, to complex fragment-bracket-syllable subtitles, so there were a ton of places we could explore. We were also working on a brand new game, so we couldn’t just slap a number on the end and call it a day (...though no one said anything about putting numbers at the beginning).

It’s dangerous to KO alone, take this.

Talking ‘Bout Name Generation

Then we got to the meaty stuff. We spent time talking to the game’s leadership team about what the game meant to them at a really high level. Through those conversations, and in line with our b r a n d  p o s i t i o n i n g (this is a story for another Weekend Warmup), we landed on five potential areas a name could fall into, ranked by importance:

• Social aspects: duos, lobbies, IRL play, locals
• Progress-minded: something new, fresh, previously-unseen
• Tonally tough: aggro, bold, in-your-face
• IP-inspired: Runeterra, League of Legends terms
• Fighting game terminology: VS, attack, block

A name can’t hit all of these, so if we had to prioritise League-association vs not, we looked back at who we made the game for in the first place: the FGC. But even with that weighting in mind, if we did choose a non-League name, Ahri’s giant hand in the box art featured front and centre would welcome League players into the fray (they could probably all fit).

All said and done, the vibe was clear that we all wanted to move away from the simplicity as League of Fighters or Fighting Legends—we needed something much bolder, and focused on the strengths of duo play. We still loved League, though, so the goal was to get tons of options on the table, all aimed at different combinations of buckets.

With this direction, our creative team went into overdrive. Can you believe we developed 400(!) potential names for Project L? Functional options like Rising Legends and Runeterra Rumble were not hitting the team’s desire to be bold and forward-facing. More extreme options like FIGHT4, DARE2BE and MYMAIN were– look, there are no bad ideas, okay? We listen and we don’t judge. Get ‘em on the board.

She pressed the button.

Enter 2XKO

We then rounded up our favourite ten names and looked at them in different contexts—in visuals, in text, in video. After a couple of rounds of discussion, 2XKO (“two times knockout”, or two-ecks-kay-oh, and “2X” as shorthand) came out as the clear favourite. It had everything we wanted: referenced duos, leveraged KO as a global term in fighting games, and it was striking when we saw it on the page when compared to other frontrunners like Double Edge, Ascendion, and simply Duality.

While we were excited to have a name we all rallied behind, there was still a lot of work to be done. How do we make sure League of Legends champs are seen alongside the name to tie it back to the universe? How do we tell players we picked a kinda crazy name for this thing? We also had to do all the legal, regional, copyright, and social media checks to get everything ready for the announcement. 

We hit the button, and everyone cheered. “I love 2XKO!”, they all said in unison.

Okay, that didn’t happen. We were Marty McFly in that scene from Back to the Future, where only a handful of players saw the same vision as us. Over time, I think we’ve really grown into the name, though. There are many elements I personally like: it’s super ownable, the logo looks sick, the varied regional pronunciation (shoutout deux-ix-kah-oh), and there are few better feelings in game than dropping the title card on your opponent when you get a clutch Happy Birthday. 

Go Again?

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach for naming. It’s hard, and highly subjective. Process-wise, I think we did all we could to land on a name we all loved; a rigorous, weeks-long effort, where everyone got to have their say and pick their fave. From there, it’s a mix of art and science to find the best total package to represent the game. 

So—is 2XKO the right name? It’s out there, sure—but it’s bold, it’s weird, it’s first alphabetically in a lot of lists, it’s a little clunky, but it’s one we’re proud of. We see the jokes (we make some of them ourselves), and we embrace them with our whole hearts. Long live Tuco Taco Tuxedo 2XKO. 

I’ll die on the hill that Lethal Tempo was not it, though.

Upcoming Dates

• July 23: Patch 1.2.5 live
• July 24-25: VSFighting XIV (2XKO Challenger Event)
• August 1-2: KOMITÊ ARENA 2026 (2XKO Challenger Event)

Closing Thoughts

Sorry for the absence the last couple of weeks! After a kickass Evo (GGs again Hikari), Riot took its yearly summer break, and then last week I was so tilted about England v Argentina I messed up my back. I am reaching stereotypical levels of mid-30s. Absolute textbook case.

Shoutouts to anyone putting creative work out into the world. It’s a vulnerable exercise, and all fighting games are special flowers we must protect. Go play one today.

—@draggles