2XKO’s Final Round: Sett, from the Top Rope!

Welcome back to the Weekend Warmup.

Sett is coming soon! He grabs, he punches, and he loves his mother. That’s pretty much all you need to know for now.

For this Very Special Weekend Warmup, we’re going to talk about Sett, the Boss. As a champion, Sett is a perfect representation of his own development story: when you’re down for the count, can you grit your teeth and channel a fighter’s spirit?

Throughout, you’ll hear from producer Thomas “Koos” Koos, balance lead Dawn “Yohosie” Hosie, and Sett’s designer Steve “UpToSnuff” Bankert.

Following the 2XKO team changes in February, we rallied around a new objective: stabilise 2XKO’s engagement before July. After a bumpy launch, we needed to see some of the metrics we track (playtime, new players, retention, etc.) go in a neutral-to-positive direction to show there was some sort of path to making the game sustainable. Near immediately, the remaining team leapt into action to meet that challenge head-on.

Not going down without a fight.

The Opening Bell

There was a lot on the docket already: developing and releasing the five champs in progress; continuing to balance the game by reacting to the evolving meta; fixing bugs, addressing matchmaking, console, and server issues; creating and finishing up skins and cosmetics; supporting competitive events and community programs; etc.

A large responsibility was taken up by the core gameplay and champs team: 2XKO needed more champs, faster. In planning, Thresh was accelerated to coincide with Senna’s release in June. Samira and Lux moved earlier from their original placements at the end of 2026/early 2027. No stone was left unturned to speed up champion development. Six champs per year. Let’s do it.

Beyond that, the team’s passion for a champ originally planned for mid-2027 was overwhelming, so they added another stretch goal for themselves. Regardless of whether development continued, could a smaller team fit one more champ into this new plan for 2026?

Filled with determination, the Sett pod was born.

High-Intensity Intervals

Sett’s production began in mid-February 2026. The Sett pod had to self-impose restrictions to adhere to a tight timeline, including an agreement that if he wasn’t reaching the bar of 2XKO’s other champs by July, he wouldn’t be released.

“Initially we pushed for development to be Thunderdome-style [Editor’s note: Thunderdome is an annual Riot-wide hackathon] where we pretty much didn’t have any other meetings,” Sett’s designer UpToSnuff recalls. “The entire work day was committed to Sett and all the other disciplines gave us a two week buffer to be like, ‘Hey, you don’t have to talk to any of us for two weeks, just cook, make the champ.’”

Early costuming ideas by concept artist arucelli. He wears them well. In the end, we brought him closer to his League design.

All existing steps in the champ creation process—including leadership reviews, team structure, and schedules—were changed to allow for speedier development. For example, most champs go through a “kit lock” milestone where they're cleared to move to the next step (normally to allow VFX artists and animators to work on the entire champ knowing there won’t be major changes), but Sett needed a different approach. “Rather than hitting a certain breakpoint where we locked the entire kit, we locked moves as we went,” UpToSnuff shares. “There was literally no other way for us to work.”

Training Montage

Sett is a champion for players who want to beat the living daylights out of each other.

UpToSnuff, referencing an earlier brief from narrative lead Alison “Jaredan” Hawkes, explained: “He’s the type of guy who kicks your ass. When Sett fights, your jaw hits the floor, followed by the audience’s. The strike is devastating, and the spectacle is incredible. It was really important for us to sell his size, his strengths, his freakish athleticism.”

Haymaker concepts by Knight “arucelli” Zhang and Jose “Anamanagucci” Estrada. The wolverine head clicked instantly.

“We knew Haymaker was [Sett’s] key iconic move. It was going to have to happen in some capacity, so we really focused our efforts at the start to make that move, and it got everything rolling,” producer Koos says. “This was the template we used for the rest of Sett’s development.”

Thanks to focused work between the art, design, and engineering teams, within two weeks, Sett had gone from a brainstorm to an entire model and kit prototype that was playable in game. “We were really moving at a high velocity,” says UpToSnuff, a fond smile on his face. “It definitely lifted us back up on our feet, starting the work of making champions again [...] I think it was huge for morale.”

An early Sett combo after just three weeks of development.

The Sett pod moved fast and broke faces for weeks, and he was starting to shape up. But as time moved on, so did many 2X devs (to other games at Riot), and a new challenge emerged.

Tag Team

April brought Akali to players in 2XKO.

At this time, Sett’s development pace had upended the existing dev model, where a single team took a champ from beginning to end. Koos says it was tough to plan for the future as Rioters found new roles internally and left the 2XKO team. “We weren’t sure we’d be able to finish Sett if we didn’t have artists and animators to work on him. Fortunately, we were able to swap people in and keep moving.”

As more 2XKO devs contributed to Sett, they each brought fresh perspectives and ideas to the table. “I think this was one of the themes of Sett’s development: people stepping up when called upon,” UpToSnuff says.

Stepping up while throwing down.

He credits gameplay engineer Ian “Zato” Torres, who joined the pod to cover a personnel gap, with reinjecting energy into the team. “We were in that lull where people were starting to get fatigued and we were worried about us completing the job. Ian had this really awesome rallying cry for us where he was like, ‘Hey, this might be the last amazing thing that players get on the project.’ That really reignited the fire for us, and got us all back on track.”

Here, the animators really went into overdrive to showcase Sett’s spectacle. “[Animator] Joon's work on Sett's Heavy chain grabs is one of my favorite parts of the champ,” UpToSnuff continues. “When you use Sett's ultimate in League, The Showstopper actually has multiple different animations that play out. As you power up the slam [in 2XKO], you'll see each animation between levels 1-3! It was such an awesome idea, and hit that sweet spot of bringing the champ to life while also being a nod to the League kit.”

Also, his ears wiggle. Tech artist Sarah “Sarand” Anderson made it a priority.

Confidence was high at this point on being able to get Sett in a good spot, and there were still weeks of development left to go.

Entering the Arena

In June, we announced and released The Climb, similarly developed as a group effort, and powered by the desire to deliver as much as possible in 2026. Senna and Thresh stunned the 2XKO community (I got around 20 devs banned from social media, my bad), and all the competitive superstars began to converge on Evo. Many members of the Sett pod put pencils down to celebrate with players in Las Vegas.

“We were with the people we made this game for, and in that sense, Evo was amazing,” Koos smiles. “I've never seen more positivity around the game than when playing with folks at the booth, or just walking around and talking to them [...] I mean the Evo Top 8 could speak for itself, but all of us who were in the crowd were just absolutely enamored. It was such an unforgettable time.”

Hikari continues his legacy. Photo courtesy of Evo / Robert Paul.

Balance lead Yohosie remembers the energy shift throughout the weekend: “I walked into Evo probably the most stressed I've been in my entire life. To be honest, as the person in charge of balance, Evo going well is one of the most important parts of my job. We had to put on a good show. Then the trailer happened, and the tears started flowing from the crowd and the team.”

“The trailer I think went perfectly. I was crying the whole time. Just so exciting to see Lux and Samira up there,” UpToSnuff tells me. “Man, to have that moment to put our little thumbprints on the history of the FGC in a way was special. And seeing the way the players responded to it as well. Evo went about as well as it could have gone in my mind.”

Refreshed and refocused, the Sett pod got back to work.

Judges’ Decision

As Evo wrapped and the buzz of the Lux/Samira announcement began to fade, the team still had one question on their minds: would Sett be good enough to meet players’ expectations?

From then onwards, all hands were on Sett’s deck—polishing animation, VFX and SFX, adding his VO, and fixing late engineering challenges (like Sett’s S2 Super, Facebreaker, pushing the limits of our existing gameplay systems). With near-final gameplay, the balance team enters the ring.

Oh? You’re approaching him?

Yohosie says that her team’s work isn’t just numerical tweaks. “People think of balance as just ensuring things are within the same power scale as the rest of the cast, but it's also making sure that things work properly,” she notes. This includes making sure combos are consistent, interactions aren't messy, and keeping strong moves strong, but not broken. “Sett has likely the best on-paper move in the game, which is his empowered Haymaker. It’s a 25-frame startup full screen attack that wall slumps. We’ve done a lot of work to balance that move that involved every single discipline.”

Ouch

She continues: “The other thing with Sett that was really important to us is that he’s not a technical character. He has some technical links, some technical combos if you decide to pursue it, but ultimately Sett is not that hard.”

The Bottom Line

To move quickly in these final weeks, the team requested fewer internal reviews. Game director Unconkable limited his official involvement on Sett to a single mid-point check-in, and a final approval called a “go/no go.” “Part of this can only come out of leadership having a lot of trust in the pod,” UpToSnuff says.

Each week, the entire 2X team reviewed all the metrics, community moments, competitive highlights, and upcoming content showcases in a Friday all-hands meeting. Through 2026, the patch-by-patch story began to repeat itself: improving community sentiment, gameplay depth increasing, spikes of interest around champ drops, but then the familiar return to an engagement baseline we were all hoping we’d see improve.

In July, we got answers to the biggest questions: we would end active development in December, but to leave 2XKO in the best place we could, Sett would be part of the final update delivered to players. It was a bittersweet moment, and one marked by a kind of wistful pride.

Ultimately, the Sett pod had done it. They had proven that through grit and determination, dozens of Rioters coming together, sharp decision-making, and a drive to do right by the FGC, they could deliver on a long-held player request that stretched back to the beginning of Project L. Sett lives!

He's the boss.

Ready For the Fight

That brings us to today—Sett comes out next week with Samira, completing the full roster, and we’re all excited to see what you can do with these two. Sett’s journey was unprecedented for 2XKO, and we hope you enjoy getting your hands around his big burly biceps.

“Fighting game characters are crazy,” Koos muses. “The amount of time and effort it takes to make something good is insane. And the fact we were able to cut all this down and make something as good as Sett, validates the incredible effort the team put in.”

Yohosie reflects on her own reaction to the news in February. She says it would have been easy to coast and let things play out, but that’s not the team’s style. “From my perspective, Sett’s development was a bit of a miracle,” Yohosie affirmed. “I think part of it is doing right by the players who wanted someone that just beats the living **** out of everyone. Showing players that we could do this, showing Riot that we could do this. And then using that self-determination to build something for players instead of kicking our feet up.”

“I think it’s all about the people,” says UpToSnuff. “Sett is a real testament to everyone on the pod, and really the project, supporting us too. We toss around the idea of ‘it takes a village to make a champion.’ But this is a case where we worked extremely hard and we all stayed super focused the entire time. I think it’s just a great example of what this team can do.”

Long live Sett; 2XKO is cool.

Upcoming Dates

• Oct 27: Patch 1.3.3 live (with Samira and Sett)
• Nov 6: 2XKO comms end
• (Targeting) Nov 12: 1.3.3b minor balance and bugfix patch
• Nov 20-22: Battle Coliseum (2XKO Major event)
• Nov 27-29: MINDSET 2026 (2XKO Challenger event)
• (Optional) Early Dec: Patch 1.3.5 (bug fixes only)

Closing Thoughts

If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading. This story is important to me and reflects the spirit of a team that just wants to do cool ****, y’all. I’m not allowed to swear in these blog posts or the age ratings team sends me scary meeting requests.

Sett’s chromas drop tomorrow (I suspect a couple of these will get a… strong reaction), and the rest of the roster’s skins will be shown off over the next few days. See you soon!

—@draggles