Riot Games’ Project L Confirmed as Free-to-Play

When Radiant Entertainment was acquired by Riot Games in 2016, many assumed that this was done with fighting games in mind. Radiant Entertainment was in the middle of developing its own free-to-play fighting game called Rising Thunder and was founded by brothers Tom and Tony Cannon. The Cannon brothers are also famously known for starting the Evolution Championship Series (EVO) and for introducing rollback netcode to the fighting game community through GGPO software. Tom Cannon would confirm the assumption at EVO 2019 and later in the year confirm that it would be based within the League of Legends universe under the internal name “Project L”.

Ever since the announcement, everyone from fans to other fighting game publishers has been waiting for a confirmation on how it would be priced. Even when the team broke a two-year silence to show off gameplay and reveal it would be a 2v2 assist-based fighting game, the big question on everyone’s mind was if it would be like all Riot Games-based League of Legends games and simultaneously stand out from other fighting games by operating with a free-to-play model. Thanks to a new update from Tom Cannon, we know now that the game will be free-to-play.

While the recent release for the open beta of MultiVersus has been making waves in the FGC and does have a lot of big IPs attached to it, there’s still some hesitation around it. Some dismiss it for not being a more traditional fighter. Project L isn’t facing the same criticism and has a lot of potential to be set up as a huge proponent for how the free-to-play market could work within the genre. How monetization will work and whether it will be limited to just cosmetics or champions down the line has yet to be revealed, with only a promise to be “respectful of both your time and your wallet.”

He also relayed that the team is currently finishing up on the core mechanics and a majority of them are already working on the champions and other aspects. A blog post details further how they’re working to add another champion. Illaoi will be joining the game and the team is striving to balance her as a juggernaut that also employs the use of her tentacle god.

Another update on the game is expected to come before the end of the year. Chances are that means there won’t be anything shown at EVO this weekend. However, there should be plenty of exciting news shown there for many of the big game tournaments and maybe even some of the smaller ones as well.