Seven years after Riot acquired developer Radiant Entertainment, and four years after it revealed fighting game Project L among a litany of other spinoffs, the League of Legends fighter will finally be playable next month.
Riot's announced that Project L will have a playable demo at the Evo 2023 show floor, which runs from August 4 through August 6. The demo, however, will only be available the first two days. Three playable champions have been revealed so far: Ekko, Ahri, and Darius. A fourth, currently unannounced champion will be added closer to the event.
This is good news for intrigued Evo attendees, but it's also among the most significant updates we've had on Project L in quite some time. This may be a siloed-off demo tied to one tournament, but the fact that Riot is ready to show Project L to the public, especially ravenous fighting game fans, is a good sign.
A video letter from executive producer Tom Cannon was released alongside Project L's Evo announcement, setting expectations for its playable debut. "Project L isn't just a tag-based fighting game," he begins. "It's a 2v2 team-based fighting game. This means that teams of two players can face off together in the same match with each player piloting a single champion. So we're building a game where you can play with your friends as well as against them."
Core rules designer Daniel "Clockwork" Maniago and game director Shaun Rivera showed off Project L's "dual-play" system more in-depth. Rivera describes it as "a bit like tag-team wrestling" in that one player controls the on-stage champion while the other "waits off-screen for their teammate to find the right moment to tag them in." You can build combos, save each other, and inevitably bicker when you get your asses handed to you online. That last bit is just my prediction, mind.
Curiously, Project L will support 1v1, 2v2, and 2v1 matchups. The latter lets a solo player control both champions and swap between them as you might in a more conventional tag-team fighting game, but you can face off against a team of two with their own champ. I have to admit, that's a pretty cool intersection for matchmaking and design. Another interesting wrinkle is how tag-team champs use "Fuse" abilities, like empowering each other or combining ultimates. It'll be interesting to see how the fighting game community reacts to the formula at Evo. For now, you can watch a 2v2 match from the devs:
Devs Patrick Miller (@pattheflip), Caroline Montano (@RiotShyvana), Maxine Virtue, and Dan Sell face off in a Project L showcase match. pic.twitter.com/NMdlHXY770July 26, 2023
Last month, devs from League of Legends, Overwatch, Apex Legends, and basically every other big PvP game revealed a new hero brawler.
