https://preview.redd.it/ec6tlwbo00gh1.png?width=593&format=png&auto=webp&s=4ab5cf6c6b91ef2d8f6d434efad6a505007654a7

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/couchwarriors2

The Riot Games Twitter tweeted:

>Starting later today, Vanguard will be able to run in on-demand mode for players on Windows 11.

>You just need to enable some optional security features for your motherboard, and your taskbar can have 256 of its pixels back. Take it away, @deteccphilippe.

>Why today? Well, our friends at the XBOX OS Security Team at @Microsoft have added some new toys for us that, when paired with hardware-backed security settings, enable Vanguard to run much later in the system lifecycle.

Dev blog: https://www.riotgames.com/en/news/vanguard-on-demand

To enable, settings include:

• Windows 11

• UEFI Secure Boot

• TPM 2.0

• VBS

• HVCI

• IOMMU

Welcome back to the Weekend Warmup.

Before we get into the fun stuff, I want to address some of the console crashing issues many folks have been seeing. We’ve tracked down the cause, but it’s pretty systemic (related to the amount of content we’ve been adding recently) and not something that can be fixed with an easy one-shot. The team is working on a solution now, and we aim to release a patch in July. Thanks for your patience.

In the meantime, 2XKO’s new PVE mode is live, and y’all have been hitting The Climb hard, giving us great feedback, and domain-expanding your way through randomly-augmented runs.

I sat down with 2XKO’s design director, Brad “Bradido” Merritt, and product lead Alison “Jaredan” Hawkes, to get the scoop on how The Climb came to be.

While 2XKO has had a lightweight PVE mode (Bot Beatdown) since launch, we’ve heard requests for a way to play against bots with more unlocks, progress, or story. The Climb came together in a few months, built on a prototype Survival mode we had lurking in 2XKO’s development backlog. As such, what you see in The Climb today is our first attempt at bringing some of that sauce together, knowing there are still a ton of updates we could make as a next step.

Bradido emphasises that the mode is not intended to replace a standard Arcade mode, but to be a playground for breaking the rules of the game.

“The Climb is about expression,” says Bradido. “We wanted to create a mode where players could explore new builds, discover unexpected combinations, and experience how augments can reshape a champ’s gameplay. Some runs might turn your main into something completely different. Others might double down on the strengths you already love.”

This alone opens up a ton of possibilities for 2XKO’s core gameplay. For high-level players, difficulty tiers challenge you to find new ways around tough bots. For newer players, The Climb is a low-pressure lab to learn matchups, try out new tag synergies, and get to grips with core combat against realistic opponents, without the stress of Ranked Points on the line.

Developing our take on PVE (using the bones of Survival) presented a unique set of design challenges. The ultimate goal was to find a balance between rewarding skill and embracing the chaotic fun of familiar deckbuilder gameplay from Teamfight Tactics, Legends of Runeterra’s Path of Champions, or League of Legends’s ARAM Mayhem.

There were a lot of surprises as we were developing The Climb's features. Elements we thought would be easy ended up being incredibly difficult, while some of our wildest ideas came together faster than expected.

“For example, we wanted an augment where Vi could mash S2 on her Crater Maker Super for a comically long time, doing tons of damage. Seems easy, right?,” Bradido quips. “Due to the way the animation systems work, it was not doable without a significant animation overhaul. Meanwhile, game-changing augments (like Assists coming out of Thresh’s lantern), were done in a few minutes, since the Thresh team had experimented with that ability during development.” Spoiler: it was deemed way too good for 2XKO’s base gameplay, but anything goes in The Climb!

2XKO’s engineers were instrumental in identifying what cool stuff was feasible. They combined their deep knowledge of the game’s systems with a genuine love of fighting games and roguelike deckbuilders to bring some really fun augments to life.

Jaredan, product lead on The Climb, notes that development was truly a group effort with input from across the team. “Our biggest challenge was not coming up with ideas, it was deciding what to save for later,” she explains. “Some of our favorite moments during development came from builds and interactions that became delightfully chaotic in ways even we didn’t predict, and we can’t wait to see the combinations players uncover.”

(Editor’s note: I saw firsthand how much the Rioters working on PVE wanted to get into The Climb’s first release, and they worked up to the final day of development adding more augments and polish. For those that know the story of TFT’s development, it was kind of like that.)

As the development of The Climb continues, we’re cooking up new node types, tougher enemy encounters, and weirder augment combinations. We’re also looking at how to make the most of champion interactions to add a bit more personality and colour.

“We wanted to get The Climb into players’ hands early so we could learn what resonates most and continue evolving the experience,” says Jaredan. “This initial release is just the first node on our team’s ascent, and we’re excited to see where players take it from here.”

The Climb PVE is live now on PC, PlayStation 5, and XBOX Series X|S.

Local Spotlight

Siouxper Battle Opera (Sioux Falls, SD)

From the organisers: “Siouxper Battle Opera is the local for Sioux Falls, SD! We've been running weeklies on Friday evenings and a monthly tournament on Saturdays near the end of the month for about two years now, playing everything under the sun however we can. While we might be on the smaller side, our players are consistently strong in their respective games, getting strong placements out of pools at several majors. For 2XKO, we've been playing the game since the September 2025 Closed Beta, doing a pop-up bracket for it at our monthly and it's been a consistent game for us ever since. We hope to see you out at Izzi's Gym in Sioux Falls!”

Sign up for Siouxper Battle Opera 17 here.

Reminder: Top-placing 2XKO players will also take home Chipotle Free Entrée cards!

Upcoming Dates

• June 19: Sajam Slam finals
• June 20-24: Supernoon’s Pre-Evo Bootcamp
• June 26-28: Evo 2026 (2XKO Major Event)

Closing Thoughts

The Weekend Warmup stands on the shoulders of This Week in Destiny, so to see it coming to an end is a bummer. Eyes up, Guardians.

The console crashes are also getting me down, and the team has been working hard on identifying and solving the root cause. If you want more context on why it’s taking us a bit to address it, there’s a bit in The Life of a Patch, but I know that’s not really an excuse for it. We’ll make sure to keep you up to date as timing for a fix is locked in.

Looking to more positive horizons, how is it time for Evo again already? The play patterns post-1.2.3 are shaping up pretty interestingly for our next Major. Watching TNS and the Sajam Slam coaches, I feel like Thresh has a lot of broad utility and clear strengths, but Senna seems to be less meta at top tier. I wonder how much of that is unexplored strength? Will we see a Senna team come out of nowhere and sweep through pools? Will bleed ever switch off Ekko/Illaoi? WILL BLITZCRANK WIN A MAJOR? We will all find out together in a couple of weeks.

The Evo 2026 teaser film drops next week and it is probably top three on my favourite all-time 2XKO videos. Can’t wait for y’all to see it. See you then.

—@draggles 

There Are So Many Things Happening Right Now

And I must contribute to the discourse.

Announcements5/21/2026

Welcome back to the Weekend Warmup.

I took a couple of weeks to let the Teamfight Civil War play out (not sure why we’re not calling it the Teamfight Teamfight but whatever), but there has been so much happening in the world of 2XKO, I needed to collect it together and put it in a neat pile like a gold-hoarding dragon. For those of you who disconnected and need a catch-up, here’s everything you need to get back into the discourse.

We’re Nerfing Teamfight Next Patch

Look, we love Teamfight, but there are definitely some rough edges and unexpected interactions we wanna fix. Enjoy the madness while you can before the next patch; we’re tuning down some of Teamfight’s overwhelming power, but keeping the chaotic duo magic intact. Let us know what you think when the changes release in patch 1.2.3.

COMBO BREAKER Starts TOMORROW

2XKO’s next Challenger event, COMBO BREAKER, is finally here. As ever, TheHadou and the gang will bring the vibes (and the plaid) to the heart of the midwest. Across three days, players globally will come together to settle the score on coastless neutral ground. Whether you're turning up in person or watching pools from the comfort of your couch, this will be one of the most explosive and stacked tournaments to date, so don’t miss it!

COMBO BREAKER is live from tomorrow at 10am CT on twitch.tv/tenomedia. Top 8 is Sunday at 10am CT over on twitch.tv/TeamSp00ky. 

AT&T Annihilator Cup is TODAY

If you can’t wait for CB, AT&T’s Annihilator Cup 2XKO tournament is today, Thursday May 21. Led by team captains Ludwig, TheBurntPeanut, Adapt and Tyler1, some of gaming’s biggest creators are competing across several other titles, including League of Legends, the MOBA based on 2XKO. I’ll see if that one sneaks through the blog post review.

Catch all the action at twitch.tv/att. 

We’re Paying Out Top 24 at Evo

Evo 2026 signups close very soon, so to sweeten (and extend) the pot, we’re paying out prizing for the top 24 placing teams. Evo’s standard Top 8 prizing will be layered on top. We’ve also got Pool Party skins for progress through pools, and you can pick up a sweet Jayce, Man of Progress Riftbound card onsite!

Sign up for Evo 2026 now at evo.gg/register. 

Hikari and bleed Teamfought on TNS

Did y’all catch last week’s TNS? Hikari and bleed teamed up to take on the weekly bracket, and there was no denying the combined power of two Major champions. A great showing from Puerto Rico’s Mrchupy01 running Akali/Caitlyn nearly got the upset, but was routed in Grand Finals by the duo. A really entertaining bracket watch!

Watch the VOD on TNS’s YouTube channel.

The 2WINz Took the Red Bull Knockout

Congratulations to the 2WINz for an absolutely dominant run at last weekend’s Red Bull Knockout event in France. To summarise the whole tournament in a few sentences would be a disservice, but the twists and turns (particularly the developing competition between Haru/Toshi and SonicFox/INZEM) came to a dramatic conclusion.

Check out the VOD on Red Bull Gaming’s YouTube channel.

XBOX is All Caps Now

You heard me. This has nothing to do with 2XKO, but four-character all caps names are trending. 

Sidenote: you can play 2XKO right now on XBOX Series X and S.

Local Spotlight

RunTheMonthly (Roseville, MN)

From the organisers: “RunTheMix founded the RTM Gaming Lounge to give the MNFGC a place to gather. Our mission is to get people offline and hanging out in a room together for competition and grinding with a side of fellowship in an era where gaming is mostly online. We host competitive scenes for a wide variety of games at our monthlies and weeklies. Thanks to how strong our 2XKO scene started off with the hype for Midwest Mixfest's duos-only bracket, we still regularly see 2 duos in grand finals in our brackets. We run 2XKO every Wednesday and at every Monthly event.”

Sign up for RunTheMonthly 18 here.

Reminder: Top-placing 2XKO players will also take home Chipotle Free Entrée cards!

Upcoming Dates

• May 21: AT&T Annihilator Cup
• May 22-24: COMBO BREAKER (2XKO Challenger event)
• (approx) June 9: Patch 1.2.3 live

Closing Thoughts

I am a big Teamfight liker. The frantic energy of getting in there with another player has been a lot of fun, and the inevitability of being opened up by a coordinated duo makes me blame myself less. I get the nerfs, though. Goes to show that the old game developer adage of “we get more testing in the first hour of something being live than in the entire development process” still rings true.

Also, wow, we’ve got a packed few weeks coming. This weekend is CB. Evo is a month away. Lots more to share on patch 1.2.3 too. Can’t wait!

—@draggles

Teamfight Fuse Adjustments

We launched Teamfight last week, and we love that it lets duos reach new, chaotic heights. We also want to make sure that it works best with good coordination and strategic use. With that said, we’re adjusting Teamfight to make it more interactive for both attackers and defenders.

In its current form, Teamfight allows for explosive offense, but counterplay is high risk with little reward. In high-level play, having a second body to hop in and parry or block to prevent Break activation is too oppressive, and doesn’t line up with the Fuse’s intended identity.

To increase the decisionmaking around Teamfight, we're changing how it interacts with meter and adding more options for defending against it. Teamfight enthusiasts will need to work a little harder to tap into its maximum potential.

These changes are coming in patch 1.2.3, which is slated to go live June 9.

Offensive Adjustments

Teamfight can now spend up to 6 bars of meter when used. (Up to 3 per champion.)

Teamfight duration now depends on the number of meter bars spent to activate it.

• 2 bar: 5 seconds
• 4 bars: 10 seconds
• 6 bars: 15 seconds
• Meter cost is still paid by both the Assist and Point champs. If one champion has 3 bars and another has 1, Teamfight will only use 2 bars total—1 from each champion.
• Teamfight will always activate at the highest level possible. If you have the meter, there’s no way to choose a lower activation level.

Teamfight now has 12 frames of recovery, up from 5 frames.

• Performing a Teamfight into parry was too strong as a defensive option.
• 12 frames of recovery when performing Teamfight keeps combos intact, but severely reduces the viability of using it defensively.

Defensive Options

Teamfighting champions can no longer block or parry an opponent’s Break activation.

• Performing Teamfight then having the Assist block was creating unexciting play patterns with little counterplay.

Successfully parrying a Teamfighting champion now immediately ends Teamfight.

• Parry in 2X is already a high risk high reward option, and parrying a Teamfighting champion previously did not lead to a significant advantage for the defender and was incredibly risky.

Hitting a Teamfighting champion now applies 2.5x more Teamfight duration reduction.

• Successfully attacking an opponent’s Teamfight will now disable it significantly faster.