2XKO Removes Ranked and the Battle Pass as Riot Starts Its Development Wind-Down

2XKO has shipped what Riot calls its largest content patch yet, and it’s also the clearest sign of what the fighting game looks like once active development ends. Patch 1.3.1 removes Ranked and the Battle Pass, unlocks every champion automatically, and simplifies the store — while Riot says the servers themselves are staying online well beyond 2026.

Question	Current status
Active development ending?	Yes — end of 2026
Servers shutting down?	No announced shutdown
Ranked	Disabled in 1.3.1
Skill-based matchmaking	Still used in Casual
Battle Pass	Removed
Champion Tokens	Removed
Champions	All unlocked
KO Point purchases	Disabled since Aug. 20
Lux	Playable Sept. 8
Samira	Final champion, late October
Final major content patch	1.3.3 in October
Final bug-fix pass	Planned if needed in December
Offline play	Unaffected

Active Development Is Ending. The Game Isn’t Shutting Down.

Riot confirmed on August 20 that active development on 2XKO will conclude at the end of 2026. That’s a different thing from a shutdown: Riot has said servers will remain online after 2026, the game stays playable and downloadable on all current platforms, and offline play isn’t affected at all. Riot says it will give advance notice if any of that changes down the line.

Riot’s stated reasoning is broader than a simple player-count complaint. The company says retention never reached a sustainable trajectory, engagement stayed relatively flat even after content releases like Akali, Senna, and Thresh, and 2XKO now costs substantially more to operate than it brings in. Riot says it considered alternatives before deciding that winding down active development was the right call.

Ranked Is Gone — Casual Matchmaking Isn’t

Ranked mode is disabled starting in Patch 1.3.1. Riot’s framing is about consolidation, not disinterest: with a smaller long-term player base, splitting matchmaking across separate Ranked and Casual pools stopped making sense, so everything online now funnels into a single per-server pool. Casual lobbies still use skill-based matchmaking, and private lobbies remain available — Patch 1.3.1 actually expands private lobbies, adding voice chat and a large-lobby option that supports up to 40 players on the Casual map, aimed partly at tournament organizers who no longer need to split attendees across multiple rooms.

Lux Arrives, Every Champion Unlocks

Lux, the Lady of Luminosity, joined the roster September 8. Riot describes her as an all-rounder mage who uses unusual air movement and a spread of projectiles to fight at multiple ranges. She isn’t 2XKO’s final champion — that’s Samira, still coming in October.

Alongside Lux, Patch 1.3.1 adds Expert and Pro difficulty options to The Climb, plus an Ascension mode that lets players keep going past the final boss by stacking escalating debuffs. Lux, Thresh, and Senna each get dedicated Tales of 2XKO dialogue when picked as point champion.

Progression changes are just as significant: every champion is now unlocked automatically, Champion Tokens are gone, and the Battle Pass has been removed. Season 3 has been extended with no scheduled end date.

The Store Gets Simpler

KO Point purchases were actually disabled back on August 20, as part of Riot’s original wind-down announcement — Patch 1.3.1 builds on that rather than starting it. The rotating shop and Starter Editions are both gone, and most cosmetics — skins, chromas, avatar items, finishers, and select player cards — now unlock with Credits instead, with the purchase cap removed. The one remaining paid item is the 2XKO Ultimate Bundle at $39.99, which covers most of the game’s existing cosmetics; Patch 1.3.3 will update it with Samira-era content, and current owners get those additions automatically. Riot is also refunding KO Points and Starter Edition purchases made on or before August 20.

What’s Left on the Roadmap

Patch 1.3.3, arriving in late October, brings Samira and stands as 2XKO’s final major content patch. After that, Riot is targeting an optional Patch 1.3.5 in early December focused on bug fixes rather than new content — Riot has framed it as a final pass “if needed,” not a guaranteed release. Competitively, Riot’s own Competitive Series runs through 2026 with its final event in November; after that, tournament organizers can keep running community 2XKO events under Riot’s existing guidelines.

Taken together, the pattern is consistent: systems that require ongoing live-service upkeep — Ranked, the Battle Pass, seasonal cadence, the rotating store — are being removed, while the systems that let people keep actually playing — servers, offline mode, skill-matched Casual games, full champion access, private lobbies — are staying in place. For more on what else is shaking up the fighting-game space this year, see our Street Fighter coverage.