We're approaching the time when Riot is gonna announce the next 2XKO character at the Game Awards that is a Season 1 character of 2026, and they don't have to just announce the next character, but also show us some sort of Season Pass-style yearly character roadmap that has five characters, each labelled with a Season and also pull a Tekken 8 and reveal the Season 2 character at the end of the Season 1 character trailer. That or reveal the rest of the characters right off the bat. So today, I'm gonna list five characters potentially coming to 2XKO in 2026.
Before I begin, I need to make a statement that this post does not provide a firm information on who are the characters will actually be or confirm that these are actually the 2026 characters coming to 2XKO. This provides educated guesses and a theory on which of the five 2026 characters could be coming. But there are some small pieces of information I came across on the Internet that can draw us closer to seeing who the characters will actually be in 2026.
That said, I'll be listing the five characters that I think could hypothetically come to 2XKO in 2026. If you don't think that my theory could be true, it's fine. Just refer to the pieces of information I came across that can confirm it.
1. Katarina
If you remember what happened to Katarina, she was Thanos-snapped from the game's early stages of development because Riot had to go back to the drawing board after looking at the art style from League of Legends and changing the art style to something that fits well in a fighting game. But look at the game's Wikipedia page that is now updated to reflect when the game is launching on console, which is January 2026, a perfect date for the game's official launch, her name is on the list of confirmed characters with a [b] mark after her name representing that she is guaranteed to be announced at the Game Awards as the 12th character.
And it's not just her name being listed in the game's Wikipedia page that confirms this, but Arucelli did her magic in working on a concept art for Katarina and submitting it to the designers as well to also confirm this. The part of the video shows the game's early phase of development and it turns out that Katarina wasn't the only victim of being Thanos-snapped from the game because Jinx was also Thanos-snapped from the game in its early stages as well, but thankfully made her debut. So if Jinx can make her debut after she was cut from the game in its early stages, then Katarina can. Thankfully, Katarina is confirmed because of her name being listed on the game's Wikipedia page and Arucelli's work on her concept art to submit to designers for her redesign process.
2. Caitlyn
The Piltover Sheriff and the noble member of the Kiramman family is known for wielding her Hextech rifle. You would know that Caitlyn is a Marksman character, so if she comes to 2XKO, her kit will be innovated into something that fits in the fighting game genre so that she can use her fists with normals and have not just Yordle traps, but Hextech grenades in her arsenal as well. So what is really cool is that like when Teemo uses his slingshot with S1, Caitlyn would throw her Hextech grenades with S2.
There was one video on YouTube that talks about Warwick and Caitlyn being confirmed. Like, we know Warwick is confirmed, so I think that our rifle dudette of Piltover could potentially be confirmed to be in 2XKO as the guaranteed fifth character to come with an Arcane skin at launch. And I think it's also because she is Vi's best friend.
3. Kennen
As you watched the Teemo trailer, there is a Yordle in the background of Bandlewood Crossing. Since Riot has stated that no character is deconfirmed, this indicates that Kennen is likely to have a guaranteed chance of making his debut with 2XKO in 2026. But since Kennen is a Mage character, he'll swing his lightning and maybe have a Sonic Spinball dash Teemo has, but with lightning imbued in it. And he'll be a decent and less annoying Yordle than Teemo would be. But I do believe what Teemo did is offering a shining light of hope to any Yordle fans out there.
If you have doubted that your favorite Yordle could never make their way into 2XKO, whether if you're a fan of Rumble, Poppy or Lulu, a precedent has been set that if Teemo can be well-adapted into 2XKO, then any other Yordle can be well-adapted into 2XKO. Does it really sting that we found out that Teemo, of all characters, has confirmed to launch in 2XKO? Yeah, it does, but just a little. That includes that one Ionian Yordle in my wish list, Kennen, the Heart of the Tempest. But thankfully, because of the cameo in the background of Bandlewood Crossing, Kennen is confirmed to be one of the planned 2026 characters and he's gonna be a savage Yordle with lightning.
4. Akali
I have came across some fanart regarding what would Akali look like in a fighting game after Googling fanart of Akali in 2XKO. I think that Akali could have more a chance of coming to 2XKO, because of not just the fan art of her, but she banks on missing mechanics or aesthetics and has a unique matchup with Ahri in League of Legends in terms of builds. She may be hard to learn in terms of combos like Yasuo is. We can find out if she's gonna be easy or hard to learn. Either way, Akali would be peak and savage.
5. Miss Fortune
What is interesting is that Caitlyn is not the only gun character I'm theorizing because I am also theorizing another gun character being Sarah Fortune, the Bounty Hunter of Bilgewater, to have innovations to her kit that fit in 2XKO. Because of the twin pistols she wields, not only she'll be mobile and agile and have the same performance and playstyle as Noel from BlazBlue, Eltnum from Melty Blood and/or Star-Lord in the upcoming Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls to deem her a rushdown character, but she'll be a short ranged character as well. This is a great definition of a missing mechanic or aesthetic from the current roster and also a little nugget of information that may confirm this.
And one Bilgewater stage being the Brazen Hydra has a decorative pirate ship attached to it and has couple pirates in the background. I think it's a safe case to say there is enough evidence that our red-haired pirate lady can have a guaranteed chance of coming to 2XKO as one of the 2026 characters. We do have one Bilgewater character being Illaoi, but she's not a pirate.
I was gonna put Gangplank in as one of the 2026 characters, but decided to put Miss Fortune on the list instead and he might come as one of the 2027 characters in Season 1 to pick up where Sarah's arrival in Season 5 of 2026 left off. We'll see.
Predicted 2026 Champion roadmap:
Season 1 - Katarina
Season 2 - Caitlyn
Season 3 - Kennen
Season 4 - Akali
Season 5 - Miss Fortune
Season 2 - Caitlyn
Season 3 - Kennen
Season 4 - Akali
Season 5 - Miss Fortune
Here's the predicted roadmap of planned Champions coming to 2XKO. Trust me, this is important to understand that this is a theory that it may not be a planned roadmap I am theorizing.
Predicted 2026 character roster:
Ahri
Akali
Blitzcrank
Braum
Caitlyn
Darius
Ekko
Illaoi
Jinx
Katarina
Kennen
Miss Fortune
Teemo
Vi
Warwick
Yasuo
Akali
Blitzcrank
Braum
Caitlyn
Darius
Ekko
Illaoi
Jinx
Katarina
Kennen
Miss Fortune
Teemo
Vi
Warwick
Yasuo
I'm gonna take the predicted 2026's 16 character roster and divide them by two sides, the SEGA and Capcom sides, imaging the left side as the SEGA side and the right side as the Capcom side of the character select screen across the board. Because these characters are listed in ABC order, it holds a SEGA-Capcom-SEGA-Capcom pattern, and the 16-character roster for 2026 is perfect for a 2v2 tag fighter like in X-Men vs. Street Fighter. Let's get to dividing the roster. We'll start with the SEGA side as usual.
Ahri, Ekko and Jinx remain on the SEGA side, but Blitzcrank, Teemo and Warwick move to the SEGA side with Ahri, Ekko and Jinx to pave the way for Caitlyn and Kennen to be on the SEGA side with Ahri, Blitzcrank, Ekko and Jinx, Teemo and Warwick. The predicted 2026 SEGA side now has Ahri, Blitzcrank, Caitlyn, Ekko, Jinx, Kennen, Teemo and Warwick.
Darius and Illaoi remain on the Capcom side, but Braum moves to the Capcom side with Darius and Illaoi, paving the way for Akali, Katarina, Miss Fortune, Vi and Yasuo to be on the Capcom side with Braum, Darius and Illaoi, putting Akali, Braum, Darius, Illaoi, Katarina, Miss Fortune, Vi and Yasuo on the predicted 2026 Capcom side.
Predicted 2026 character roster on the SEGA side:
Ahri
Blitzcrank
Caitlyn
Ekko
Jinx
Kennen
Teemo
Warwick
Blitzcrank
Caitlyn
Ekko
Jinx
Kennen
Teemo
Warwick
Predicted 2026 character roster on the Capcom side:
Akali
Braum
Darius
Illaoi
Katarina
Miss Fortune
Vi
Yasuo
Braum
Darius
Illaoi
Katarina
Miss Fortune
Vi
Yasuo
So we now have the predicted SEGA and Capcom sides for 2026's 16 character roster containing eight on each side. Again, this is just my imagination because they are not actually from both companies, so don't report me for defamation. And honestly, I'm not surprised that the red-headed female characters known for wielding dual weapons would ALL be on the Capcom side.
As I said before, this post does not provide a firm information on who would actually be the 2026 Champions for 2XKO nor confirm the full 2026 character roster or the actual order of launch. This is just an educated guess for what I believe on who they are and which Season that they will launch in. And honestly, I'm not surprised that the red-headed female characters known for wielding dual weapons would all be on the Capcom side.
2025 is coming to a close as we're approaching the New Year and the Game Awards is fast approaching. Just to be honest, I watch the awards show for game announcements and that's what the show is known for. Once 2026 comes, we'll find out if my prediction is true or not in couple updates regarding my theory in future posts.
This month is gonna be a strong Cinderella story because we have announcements regarding not just 2XKO, but SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level as well, as Madxruler is announcing something big and ambitious for their fan project that has something to do with the "Alpha" sign from the Street Fighter Alpha logo. But what does the "Alpha" sign mean? I don't know, maybe it's the game having an Alpha Lab test or being akin to Street Fighter Alpha. But either way, we do know one thing for sure. One that obvious and factual is that SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level can learn from the things 2XKO has done to become a phenomenal game. If you want to know more about this, here's the link to the post.
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