As Riot’s upcoming fighting game, Project L is on the horizon, here’s everything you have to know.
In late 2019, Riot announced plenty of new and upcoming projects they were working on. One of these projects was a fighting game called Project: L.
Project: L will be a fighting game based on the League of Legends universe. Moreover, it will be a tag team fighting game, similar to Marvel vs. Capcom or Dragon Ball FighterZ. Unlike those two games, Riot’s fighting game will be 2v2 instead of 3v3.
Initially, there was an independent game developer named Radiant Entertainment. They were notable as they were making a traditional fighting game called Rising Thunder, designed around playing with a keyboard. It was a unique take, as most fighting games are made for controllers and arcade sticks. While this game was in development, Riot Games acquired Radiant Entertainment in 2016. Subsequently, the development of Rising Thunder was halted.
But in 2019, it was confirmed that Radiant Entertainment is working on Project L.
Not too long ago, Bruce Hsiang, a pro-fighting game player, was invited to play Project L in Japan. While he was not allowed to record gameplay, he was granted permission to talk about the game and reveal important information. So including the previously revealed information, here’s everything you have to know about Riot’s upcoming fighting game.
Read more: LoL Summer 2023 Event Skins Allegedly Leaked.
Riot’s Fighting Game: Project L
Possible Game Mechanism
Firstly, let’s talk about game mechanics that will make Riot’s fighting game apart from its competitors. This game will be a 2v2 tag fighter. Meaning that before the match starts, each player must choose two different champions to play with.
Around 5 months ago, Riot uploaded a dev log about Project L. In that video, they revealed a lot of information about basic, offensive, defensive, and tag team mechanics.
Basic Mechanics
This game will contain the same movement technique that we are used to in modern fighting games. Meaning we will have a dash, chain dash, jump, super jump, etc. Moreover, there won’t be any block buttons, which is to be expected. So the only way to block is by holding the back button or holding back while ducking.
The unique aspect of Riot’s fighting game is that each champion will have their own air mobility options. For example, Ahri has multiple arial dashes based on her ultimate in League of Legends. The fighting game example for Ahri’s aerial dash is like being in Moon Drive in Melty Blood. In moon drive, players can gain two jumps and two aerial dashes. So we can expect some amazing aerial combat in Riot’s upcoming fighting game.
Offensive Mechanics
Firstly, Project L will have 3 inputs for combat, light, medium, and heavy attacks. Furthermore, similar to other fighting games, players can use a combination of directional inputs and attack buttons to perform special attacks.
Speaking of special attacks, Rising Thunder, the game which was the baseline for Project: L, had a special attack cooldown. However, Riot’s fighting game won’t have a cooldown. It is a positive direction as Riot wants to mainstream this game and be suited for all types of inputs.
Defensive Mechanics
As for defensive mechanics, players can use their movements and special abilities as a safety tools. One thing to mention is that Riot’s fighting game won’t have a block button. So the only way to block is by pressing backward or backward while ducking.
There will also be a combo breaker as well. It will work similarly to the burst mechanic in Guilty Gear Strive. But unlike in that game where your main character performs the move, in Project L, the assist character appears to initiate the move.
Tag Team Mechanics
Like all tag team fighting games, players can assign a set move to their assist characters to use in battles. Players can use the assigned buttons to use the assist character, thereby using their assigned assist move.
Moreover, when the assist character is on the screen, the player can swap their character with the assist character. In this game, it is called handshake tag. Players can also initiate the handshake tag when performing the combo breaker. The Handshake tag is similar to the fighting game Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid. So you can play either this or any other tag team fighting game to earn an advantage over your opponent.
Confirmed Characters
Here is the list of confirmed characters in the game.
- Ahri
- Darius
- Ekko
- Illaoi
- Jinx
- Katarina
Other characters were rumored to be coming to the game. However, it was later confirmed to be false. But champions like Kindred, Zed, and Samira are likely candidates to be launching with the game.
Competitive Scene For Project: L
Riot has confirmed that there won’t be big tournaments for the game right from the beginning. But they want to ensure first that players are satisfied with the game.
For players, Riot’s fighting hopes to make professional players popular and allow them to earn money through tournaments and endorsement or sponsorship. Furthermore, players can compete in other fighting games while professionally playing Project: L.
As for the format, both characters must be KO’ed to earn the victory. Furthermore, each game will have two rounds.
Netcode and Server
It was already confirmed in the first dev log that Project: L will have a rollback netcode. Meaning players can experience a smoother experience regardless of their location.
As for servers, it will be similar to Valorant, Riot’s FPS game. Like Valorant, players will be assigned a region (like Asia Pacific, Latin America, EU West, etc.). Afterwards, they can pick their own server within their region in the menu. And then, the game will matchmaker the players with other players in the selected server.
Will Project: L be free to play?
It is confirmed that Riot’s upcoming fighting game will be free to play.
Platforms
While it is confirmed that Project: L will be coming out on PC, it is still not assured whether or not it will release on consoles. But Riot is coordinating with Sony to release the game on their console properly. It is a no-brainer decision as most of the fighting game player base plays on the PlayStation consoles.
When Will Beta Be Released?
Currently, this game is not yet in the closed-beta stage. Furthermore, Riot was supposed to release more information about the game in EVO 2023. But that plan has been cancelled. However, since they are still testing the game with other notable FGC players, we can expect it to go in the right direction. There are no confirmed dates for any betas, but we can expect public testing sometime around 2024.
Possible Release Date
As stated before, this game is not yet in the closed-beta stage, let alone release. But if there is a beta in 2024, then we can expect the game to release around 2024-2025.
