4 Big Takeaways from Frosty Faustings 2026

Welcome back to the Weekend Warmup. We’re on the other side of 2XKO’s first ever Major. Huge thank you to the Frosty Faustings team and everyone who came through to play and watch. Here are four big takeaways from the event!

4 Takeaways from Frosty Faustings

W bleed

Amid consistent upsets, bleed’s run was one of the hardest. An online prodigy heading to his first ever LAN; sending veterans Wade, Leffen, and Zando to losers; showing unprecedented mastery of Ekko and Illaoi; and culminating in a nailbiting back-and-forth against EG’s Supernoon. Oh, and he’s literally younger than League of Legends.

bleed’s win marks a solid kickoff for 2XKO’s Competitive Series, and I look forward to him continuing to write his legacy throughout the year. GGs to bleed and everyone who competed!

Duos showing up

The Duo tournament on Thursday was a fun watch, and seeing SonicFox and INZEM piece apart the 2WINz Haru and Toshi in the mixed bracket makes me hopeful for the future of the format.

There’s something really compelling about the on-stage dynamics of a 2v1 as well, where duos can strategise between rounds and solo players have to sit there and lock in. This got us thinking: what if we could record duo comms for future highlights? Something for us to explore in the future.

Co-streams and watch parties

We’re still working on how we can improve the broadcast for players at home. One standout for me was how co-streamers, IRL broadcasting, and watch parties came together to celebrate their local scenes, even if they weren’t at Frosty in-person.

Through the weekend I dual-monitored the main TNS broadcast with Chez_ib’s French FGC-focused stream, and the bilingual hype was something special. For the next event, I want us to expand co-streaming and make even more of the event accessible globally. 

Empowering TOs

Frosty was great, and that's thanks to the countless dedicated folks on staff who poured their hearts and souls into the event. We're going to continue investing in TOs, supporting them, and then getting out of their way so that they can do what they do best onsite and online. Riot’s role in this work will continue to be drawing more attention and celebration to what already exists in the scene. We’ll keep working on the best ways to do this as we go.

Competitive

2XKO Japan Series (2XJS)

In collaboration with PLAYBRAIN, we’re kicking off the 2XJS, a competitive event series for players that live in Japan. It’s a year-long series of tournaments, with offline cups and playoffs throughout the year, culminating in two finals (Summer and Winter) that will crown the best players in the country. The first cup kicks off on February 20, and more information on broadcast will be available soon. Check out the 2XKO Japan socials for more (if you’re fluent in Japanese).

Game Updates

Heartseeker Mega Bundle

Find love in the lobby. Heartseeker skins and accessories for Darius, Jinx and Teemo are now available for purchase in the store.

Upcoming Dates

• Feb 5: Heartseeker Mega Bundle live

• Feb 11: Arcade Mega Bundle leaves store

• Feb 13 - 15: Genesis X3 (2XKO Competitive Series Challenger event)

Closing Thoughts

After watching Frosty I’m feeling very driven to do better at Evo this year, and as a Tekken player, I feel like I have the resources to do so. I’m planning to spend as much time as I can this year sharpening up in casuals and learning more about rarer matchups. I’m diving into punish guides, watching highlights from pro play, and I even joined a character-specific Discord to chat to other mains about key tech.

I’m starting to see the early stages of that sort of ecosystem emerge from the 2XKO community already, and it feels so validating to see players make things aimed at shared improvement and community building. If you’re working on something for 2XKO that you want everyone else to know about, please let me know—I’d love to feature you in future episodes of the Weekend Warmup. Until then, I’ll be preemptively studying Kunimitsu counters.

—@draggles