Everything we know about Project L, the Riot Games fighting game

If there’s one game that has everything biting their nails in anticipation, it’s Project L. A fighting game based in the League of Legends universe, this title is drawing the attention of fighting game players, longterm League players, and more as the game slowly moves forwards to its eventual release. Whenever that is.

With Evo 2023 finally here, we're due to get a wave on new announcements, with the Yasuo official reveal coming meer hours before the show opened proper.

For those looking to stay informed on this project, this article will take you through everything we currently know about Project L. As more information comes out, this piece will be updated, so be sure to pop back every once in a while if you’re unsure what’s been revealed or not.

• What is the Project L release date?
• What kind of fighting game is Project L?
• What platforms will Project L release on?
• What characters are in Project L?
• Who is making Project L?
• What's the deal with Project L esports / competitive?
• How long has Project L been in development?
• When is the next Project L beta?
• All official Project L updates

What is the Project L release date?

As of right now, there’s no official word on when Project L will be released. That being said, in their 2021 game showcase in November 2021 as part of the huge Arcane event, they explained that the game was still far from done, and unlikely to be released at any point in 2022.

As of the last major update, a behind-closed-doors interview at Evo Japan 2023, the game is still far from a closed beta. So we've got some time to kill. Play Street Fighter while you wait!

What kind of fighting game is Project L?

Project L is a 2D fighter, with 2v2 combat as each player takes control of a pair of League of Legends characters. It's a three button fighter (meaning there will be a light, medium, and heavy attack button), and special move inputs with be simple direction commands ather than traditional fighting game inputs. For example, instead of doing a quarter circle motion for a fireball, you'd just do forward + attack input. If you've played the Smash Brothers series, it'll be similar to that series' smash attacks. Both characters on a team must be KO'd to win.

The game has Duo Play - allowing for two individual players to take control of one character each on a team. You can also make use of the fuse system to change how you interact with your assist character, allow for addition assist attacks, better assist supers, etc.

The game has numerous defensive options, many of which have not been showcased yet. One of them is a retreating guard, which seems to allow you to cancel backdashes into a guard. Also, as a tag fighter, there are numerous tag mechanics which were shown off in the Project LJanuary 2023 dev diary.

In terms of close comparisons, the game looks to have the fast pacing and a flexible tag mechanic that harkens back to titles such as Marvel vs Capcom or Dragon Ball FighterZ.

Project L is also free-to-play! Announced in the August 2022 dev diary, the game will have no cost of entry like all the other Riot Games products.

What platforms will Project L release on?

There’s no word yet what platforms Project L will be coming to. However, it’s safe to assume with Riot Games titles almost entirely featuring on PC that it will have a presence there. Console versions are yet to be confirmed.

What characters are in Project L?

The following characters have been seen in promotional material for Project L. However, only Ahri, Darius, Ekko, and Yasuo have been revealed as playable in demos as of Evo 2023:

• Katarina
• Darius
• Ahri
• Ekko
• Jinx
• Illaoi
• Yasuo

As for future characters, we have no word on who we can expect or how many we can expect to see in the final roster. However, each character does hav a selection of chromas, allowing you to customize their colour schemes in the character select.

Who is making Project L?

Aside from Riot Games, the company who is behind the title, there are some truly interesting people behind the creation of Project L. Tom and Tony Cannon have been positioned as the faces of the Project so far, both of which have long standing history in the fighting game community. Tom is the founder of Evo, the largest fighting game tournament in the world, while his brother Tony was behind the groundbreaking arcade netcode software GGPO. Cool stuff!

Seth Killian, another legendary name in the western fighting game community, also had a part to play in the development of Project L early on. However, he quietly left to work at Epic Games back in 2019. There’s been no official word on why he left.

In addition, one Shaun "Unconkable" Rivera is also present on the team! A super old school American FGC head who was competing in Tekken all the way back in the early 2000s alongisde big names like ChetChetty and of course the UK's very own Ryan Hart in his prime. Having worked at Riot Games for over a decade now, he now fills the role of Associate Game Director and Gameplay Design Lead on Project L.

These few senior developers, alongside a team of other Riot R&D developers are creating Project L at Riot's San Francisco offices.

What's the deal with Project L esports / competitive?

While the esports bubble is exploding around us, Riot Games appears to be stepping away for the full franchises format of League of Legends and Valorant, with the Cannon's pledging to keep grass roots fighting game tournaments a signficant part of the ecosystem.

This includes not forcing pro Project L players to drop other games, and allowing Project L to be played at tournaments where other fighting games are present. In a way, it's similar to how Riot Games handled the professional League of Legends scene before they stepped in and took everything over int he 2000s.

With that being said, nothing has been set in stone yet. There are no written contracts, and things change over time. There hasn't been any interviews diving into this subject, nor official blog post / dev diary going into it. Stay tuned for more details.

How long has Project L been in development?

Technically, Project L may have been in the works as early as 2016 when the company acquired Radiant Entertainment. That developer was staffed by Tom and Tony Cannon, as well as Seth Killian as they developing Rising Thunder. This game, while still playable now via a publicly available community version, was cancelled to make way for Project L.

When is the next Project L beta?

As of right now, there is no word of an upcoming beta for Project L. There have been invite-only playtests, but nothing close to a public, or even closed online beta are coming soon.

All official Project L updates

If you'd like to read through everything that has come directly from Riot Games' gigantic scary mouth, you can find a list of all the official updates below:

• Project L official reveal ( Novemebr 20, 2021)
• Project L dev diary "The Latest on Project L ( August 1, 2022)
• Project L Dev Diary "Gameplay Basics & Tag | dev diary" ( December 5, 2022)
• Project L Evo Japan interview ( April 8, 2023)
• Project L Dev Diary "Introducing Duo Play" ( July 26, 2023)
• Project L: Yasuo, The Unforgiven - Champion Reveal ( August 4, 2023)

There's also an official Riot Games blog where written updates for all their games are posted. There, we got a character design blog on Illaoi in Project L, and it's where we can expect to see similar posts in the future. As of July 26 2023, Riot Games launched the official Project L website too!

Are you excited for Project L? Let us know below, as well as anything you want to see from the game!