On August 9, the League of Legends fighting game 2XKO will welcome its first online beta, AlphaLab, and Riot Games invited players in select regions to participate in the beta and provide feedback to help them improve the game for the official launch in 2025. This test is only a very early version, and many interface and UI elements are still in development, so let's not expect everything to be perfect, some features may not work properly and players may experience crashes or other bugs.
There are two very important things to be aware of. The first one is to make sure you are logged in to AlphaLab with the correct Riot account, double-check the username in the access email, if you create a new account or log in to the wrong Riot account, you will not be able to access AlphaLab. The second is not to show the process of linking the Riot account and the console account casually, anyone can scan the QR code used for the link, and others can scan the code to log in to your 2XKO account.
After the end of AlphaLab on August 20th, players who participated in the beta will receive a feedback survey via email. Here's what you'll experience when you launch the game:
**Casual Match**
Select "FIGHT!" and then select Casual mode to enter the public lobby, where you can play against other players. During AlphaLab, you can team up with friends before entering the lobby, find a partner in the lobby, or join the game alone. Press the button that appears next to the "Find a Match" pop-up window to queue up. When you find a match, go to the highlighted console and accept the match to start playing.
In addition to the queuing system, there are several other ways to get into the game. You can challenge the other players in the room directly, or sit on an empty console and warm up in training mode and wait for other players to join the queue. The designers believe that playing with friends and meeting new people is an important part of the fighting game experience, so 2XKO's lobby design is designed to bring that vibe into the online space.
**Private Match**
Choose Private Mode to create your own personal room with a training console for you and your partner to use. You can invite up to 16 players from your friends list to this room.
**Personalize**
For the first time, AlphaLab players will see skins, stickers, colorful skins, and customizable avatars.
**Avatar**
Your avatar is your display image in the 2XKO lobby. You can unlock new customization options through your Battle Pass progression. Subsequent releases will provide more ways to change the look.
**Colorful Skin**
Colorful skins are alternate color options that can help distinguish what two players will look like when they have the same hero, and are a way to show off their personality. Unlock the colorful skins of your base heroes by navigating to the "Heroes" section of the main menu, selecting a hero, and then highlighting the "Skins" option. During AlphaLab, colorful skins can be unlocked with 100 credits, but the currency and fees may change in subsequent versions.
**Emoticons & Stickers**
There are many ways you can express yourself in the lobby. Use emoticons to make your avatar perform an action, such as cheering or giving a thumbs up. Use stickers to display an icon above your avatar. Press the (-) key on your PC in the lobby, XboxSeriesX|RT button on the S, or R2 button on the PlayStation 5 to open the expression wheel. In this test, the Emote Roulette cannot be customized, but it will be equipped automatically when new stickers are unlocked.
**Skin**
Skins can change the appearance of your heroes. During AlphaLab, Yasuo and Ahri's skins can be unlocked for free through the Battle Pass, and the designers hope that players will experience what it's like to use different skins in this test. Once unlocked, skins can be equipped in the hero selection screen before each match. AlphaLab's Battle Pass also unlocks additional colorful skins for skins.
**Tutorial Mode**
Select "FIGHT!" in-game and select Tutorial Mode from the menu at the top of the screen. Follow the guide on the left to learn how to operate.
**TRAINING MODE**
Use the training mode to familiarize yourself with the game or try out new heroes.
**Training Robot**
In Training Mode, your default opponent won't move, block, or attack. To play against bots, visit the settings menu. Open Settings (your input will appear at the bottom of the screen), select Robot Settings, and switch the controller settings option from Training Robot to CPU. Here, you can change the bot's behavior, such as the difficulty level and playstyle.
It's important to note that when using the "dynamic" CPU difficulty, the bot will adjust its behavior based on your performance. Turning off infinite health will result in a higher quality match experience.
**Cooperative Training Mode**
You can enter cooperative training mode on the leftmost console in any private lobby. Use this mode with a partner against bots. Another group of partners can join a second console, or you can train alone with a group of partners. Regardless of the team mix used, you can experiment with friends.
**BATTLE PASS**
All AlphaLab participants will automatically unlock an early version of the Battle Pass for free. It will contain 20 levels of rewards that can be unlocked by playing the game and completing quests. Designers are still tweaking the details of the Battle Pass, which is not necessarily the final version.
**Task**
Completing quests unlocks rewards such as points. Designers are tweaking many details of the task, such as completion speed, refresh rate, and bonus content.
**Integral**
Points are the main currency you earn by playing 2XKO. During AlphaLab, points can be used to unlock colorful skins, but in future tests, they will also be used to unlock new heroes. All account progress, including colorful skins, skins, and other unlocked rewards, will be reset between tests, so feel free to spend all your points and have fun.
**Hero**
During AlphaLab, Ahri, Bron, Darius, Ike, Aloy, and Yasuo will be available. All six heroes will be available to every player on the first day of the AlphaLab beta, but in future tests, some heroes will need to be unlocked through quests or points.
**Map**
During AlphaLab, the designers will offer four maps: Soul Hill, Bridge of Progress, Dreadnought, and Island Lair. 2XKO's maps don't affect the balance of the game, except that different maps have different background music.
**2XKO Network Code**
Riot Games implemented a rollback of the netcode to minimize latency, and they are still testing these systems and will monitor for any anomalies throughout AlphaLab. The designers will publish an in-depth article in the future that will discuss 2XKO's netcode technology in detail.
**Friends List**
Form a team of two with players from your friends list. Your friends list can be accessed via the Tab button on PC and PlayStation 5 with Xbox Series X|S on the menu button access. Add friends by searching for the player's full Riot ID (including tags), e.g. sara#CN1.
**Cross-Platform Play**
Cross-platform play supports PC, XboxSeriesX|S and players on PlayStation 5 who are in the same region.
**Cross-regional play**
Riot Games plans to support cross-region private matches in the future, but will not be offering cross-region matchups during AlphaLab.
**Offline & Local Play**
2XKO's offline and local game modes will be available in the future, but will not be available during AlphaLab.
**Anti-cheat**
2XKO will use Riot's proprietary anti-cheat tool, Vanguard, which League of Legends and Valorant players are already familiar with.
**Feedback**
All players in the beta will receive a feedback questionnaire at the end of AlphaLab, and the designers will continue to develop 2XKO based on your feedback. Whatever you like or don't like, Riot Games takes your experience very seriously and can fill in what you want to change, and the designers say they read every AlphaLab feedback survey.
Plus, this won't be the last test of 2XKO in 2024. If players register on the AlphaLab website, you will be notified when more registrations open later this year.