Riot Games dropped 2XKO Patch 1.2.3 on June 9, 2026, and it is without question the largest update the game has seen since launch. Two brand-new champions, a full PVE mode, three new stages, a Chipotle crossover, and a stack of balance changes all landed at once.

The balance side is what most ranked players care about. Ahri and Teemo, the two characters widely considered to be sitting at the top of the meta, both received targeted nerfs. They are not gutted. They will still be strong. But the changes chip away at exactly the things that made them overbearing, and if you play against them every session, you will feel the difference right away.

Configuration CategoryLive Balance Passes & System MetricsMobile Build & Mode StrategyCompetitive Arena Impact

New PVE Mode

(The Climb)

• Format: Roguelike arcade run playable solo or co-op.

• Stacks randomized, champion-specific Augments.

• Health, Break, and Super gauges carry over between floors.

Manage At Campfires: Health pools do not auto-refresh. Rest at campfires to heal up before tackling the super-augmented final summit bosses. Provides a low-stress environment to master complex inputs. Earns baseline character chromas, unique avatar items, and Battle Pass XP.

Senna & Thresh

(New Roster)

• Senna: Dual-form spacer. Super triggers Wraith Form for hyper-mobile rushdown.

• Thresh: Long-range zoning trickster utilizing custom Lantern Tag positioning.

Free Unlock Event: Complete active recruitment event missions over a 4-week window to unlock both characters without spending KO points. Senna introduces complex transformation management to the neutral game, while Thresh grants dynamic, off-axis assist call points via the lantern.

Ahri Nerfs

(Air Dominance)

• Air Normals Stun: Lowered across the board (Air M down to 15f; Air H to 18f).

• Midair S1 Fireball: Slams +11 frames of recovery on whiff.

Exploit Gaps: Blockstrings are no longer flawless. Use standard push-blocks or launch air-to-air counters to break up her float setups. Drastically drops her safe offensive pressure. Deletes effortless “two-touch” round victories by forcing her to commit to weaker starter buttons.

Teemo Nerfs

(Zoning Checks)

• S2 Roll / Overhead: Block stun reduced.

• Midair Down H: Hitbox expanded for consistency but loses OTG properties.

• Expanded hurtboxes on back assists.

Punish the Recovery: Slower knockdown tracking makes his baseline spacing far less oppressive to navigate at close range. Surprisingly light nerfs. Crucially, his explosive Mushroom-assisted instant overhead mixups were left entirely unpatched.

Fuses Rework

(Teamfight Pass)

• Duration Scaling: 2 bars = 5s / 4 bars = 10s / 6 bars = 15s.

• Recovery frames spiked from 5 ➔ 12 frames.

• Block / Parry functions disabled vs. enemy Breaks.

Punish Passive Play: Striking a Teamfighting champion applies a massive 2.5x multiplier to their active timer reduction rate. Completely strips away invincible defensive stalling, converting Teamfight from an autopilot crutch into a high-risk operational resource.

Roster Micro-Tweaks

(Akali / Illaoi / Darius)

• Akali: Combo scaling increased on repeated loops; super damage reduced.

• Darius: Bleed debuffs persist even when hitting assists.

• Illaoi: Bug fixes only; zero balance nerfs.

Watch the Meta: With Ahri and Teemo checked, Illaoi and Akali emerge as the premiere, untouched high-tier anchors of the patch. Preserves Akali’s high-execution depth while capping runaway damage. Keeps the competitive bracket stable heading into upcoming majors.

System Mechanics

(Anti-Infinite Rule)

• Mid-Air Block Protection: Continuous aerial blocking for 4 full seconds triggers an automatic push-block on all subsequent hits. None required. Enjoy the seamless flow—rematches now skip introductory cinematics automatically if both players opt to skip once. Hard-caps degenerative aerial block-stun infinites, preserving total system integrity without requiring complex positional resets.

Events & Drops

(Pool Party)

• Free Stage: Abandoned Armory available via active Twitch Drops.

• Chipotle Event: June 16–28 & July 21–Aug 6.

• Pool Party Event: June 30–July 20.

Claim Free Rewards: Watch category streams to claim the stage. US players can clear lobby missions to claim real-world food coupons. Introduces heavy summer aesthetic bundles (Ahri, Braum, Jinx) while injecting promotional support directly to tournament organizer pools.

Illaoi got nothing. Not a single balance change. For a character that has been consistently top-tier across every patch of the game so far, that is a decision that will keep conversations going in the community for a while.

Below is every meaningful change from the patch, broken down by what actually matters for your games.

The Climb Is 2XKO’s First Real PVE Mode and It Works Like a Roguelike

The biggest non-balance addition in Patch 1.2.3 is The Climb, a PVE mode that launched alongside everything else on June 9. It is playable solo or as a duo, and it works like this: you pick your champions and a Fuse, then fight a series of increasingly difficult CPU opponents in single-round matches. Win and you keep going. Lose and the run ends.

After each victory, you pick from a randomized set of augments that stack on top of each other as you go. Some augments work for any playstyle. Others are specific to individual champions, which means the mode naturally rewards you for understanding your mains deeply. Mid-bosses show up occasionally with their own augments, and beating them unlocks stronger buffs.

Health, Break meter, and Super meter carry over between fights. If your team is low, you can stop at Campfire checkpoints to heal before the next match. The summit of each run is a boss fight against a heavily augmented opponent, and the whole loop is designed to be repeatable at higher difficulties.

Completing The Climb’s missions earns base chromas, avatar items, and stickers, and every run also gives Battle Pass XP. Riot confirmed the mode will expand in future patches.

Senna and Thresh: What to Know Before You Pick Them Up

Senna plays as a long-range pressure champion in base form, using her relic cannon to control space. Her second form, Wraith Form, activates with her super and shifts her completely into a rushdown, mixup-heavy character with a multi-directional air dash. Wraith Form drains over time, and she returns to base form when it runs out if she is on the ground. Her base and wraith forms share the same S1 super (a beam of dark energy), while her S2 in Wraith Form lets her turn briefly intangible before unleashing a whirlwind attack.

Thresh is a trickster-style champion who uses his chain to create unexpected hit angles and his Lantern to teleport, leaving behind a summoned soul that can be called during a match. His Lantern Tag mechanic adds a layer of positional strategy that does not exist anywhere else on the current roster.

Both characters are available now for 1,000 KO Points or one Champion Token, or completely free through the shared Champion Recruitment Event running for four weeks.

Ahri Nerfs: What Changed and Why It Actually Matters

Ahri’s changes target her air approach and the damage she gets from it. Here is the exact breakdown from the official patch notes:

  • Midair S1 recovery increased by 11 frames when not cancelled into another action. This forces her to commit to an option after throwing the fireball rather than freely blocking if something goes wrong.

  • Air M block stun reduced from 16 to 15 frames. Air H reduced from 20 to 18. Air Down H reduced from 20 to 17.

  • Air J2 no longer true blockstrings into another Air J2 or into Air H.

  • Air M no longer blockstrings into another Air M.

  • Upward Spirit Rush damage reduced (her main combo conversion tool).

  • Held S1 Super second-hit damage scaling dropped from 66% down to 45%.

  • Slightly larger hurtbox on her back.

  • Midair Down M and Sweep both have more recovery frames; M recovery up by 1.

The practical effect: Ahri has to start her air approach with weaker buttons now. She is more susceptible to push block and to opponents simply jumping air-to-air to contest her after the fireball. She still hits hard and her kit is largely intact, but she can no longer just float above you and have an answer for everything simultaneously.

One high-level Ahri player on Reddit summed it up accurately: most of her play at the top level stays the same, but some two-touch scenarios drop to three-touch. That is a real difference in a game where single neutral wins and conversions decide rounds.

Teemo Nerfs: Surprisingly Light for the Character Many Think Is the Best

Given that a large portion of the playerbase considers Teemo the best character in the game right now, the nerfs in Patch 1.2.3 are measured:

  • Forward S1 has slower knockdown speed when hitting opponents low to the ground, reducing final-hit whiffs.

  • Midair Down H hitbox expanded horizontally (that part is a buff for consistency) but no longer hits OTG.

  • S2 block stun reduced, weakening his mushroom overhead setup and making that sequence easier to deal with after a throw.

  • Midair Darts and back assist hurtboxes are now larger, giving opponents more to work with.

  • Jump M hitbox reduced in size.

  • S2 Super scaling damage reduced (universal change).

  • Midair Down M first-hit damage reduced. Charge-to-H damage slightly reduced.

What did not get touched: the Overhead with mushroom super. That specific sequence, where mushroom sets up a near-instant overhead into a long combo, is widely considered one of the most frustrating things to deal with in the game right now. The community expected Riot to address it here. They did not. Riot has not indicated when that particular interaction will be looked at.

The Teamfight Fuse Received a Major Redesign

Teamfight, the Fuse added in Patch 1.2.1, was creating situations where one player could hold a near-invincible defensive stance and block Break activations without real counterplay. Riot overhauled it significantly:

  • Duration now scales with meter: 2 bars gives 5 seconds, 4 bars gives 10 seconds, 6 bars gives 15 seconds, with a cap of 3 bars per champion.

  • Recovery frames jumped from 5 to 12.

  • A Teamfighting champion can no longer block or parry a Break activation.

  • Successfully parrying a Teamfighting champion immediately ends Teamfight.

  • Hitting a Teamfighting champion applies 2.5x more duration reduction.

These changes turn Teamfight from a passive defensive tool into something with a clearer cost. You still get the benefit, but opponents now have real options to end it early or punish the recovery.

Freestyle Fuse nerfs are also confirmed as coming in a future patch. Riot did not include them in 1.2.3.

Other Champion Changes at a Glance

Akali: S2 minimum damage reduced with more scaling on the first hit (targeting the loop of repeated S2s in air combos). Azuna Drop Super damage reduced. Super Assist initial hit damage down by 10. OTG now increments combo scaling twice. She is still expected to be one of the best characters in the game.

Blitzcrank: Throw hitbox now extends further inside Blitzcrank to catch rolls at close range.

Braum: Throw advantage increased by 5 frames. Back Assist duration shortened, which is a meaningful nerf given how long it previously lingered.

Caitlyn: Super Shield does slightly less damage.

Darius: Bleed no longer gets removed when opponents hit an assist champion. Forward S2 is more consistent.

Ekko: Mega Time Winder damage reduced.

Illaoi: Bug fixes only. No balance changes despite being in the top tier of the meta across every patch so far.

Jinx: S1 no longer adds 1 second to combo scaling. Her arrow combo now works the same whether S1 connects on the ground or in the air. Bug fixes included.

Vi: No changes.

Warwick: Gains more blood off throws, with better conversions after air throws. His tick-throw game is already strong and this makes it better.

Core Gameplay Fixes Worth Knowing About

A few systemic changes landed in this patch that will affect everyone regardless of character:

  • Jump input priority updated: diagonal inputs pressed before a jump now prioritize direction over the upward jump.

  • Break Bonus generation resets if Fury expires while you are being comboed, closing an exploit where opponents could give you Fury immediately after a full combo.

  • Infinite block stun protection added: blocking in the air for 4 consecutive seconds triggers automatic push block on every subsequent hit.

  • If both players skip intros at the start of a match, rematches skip them automatically going forward.

The Abandoned Armory Stage Is Free Right Now

The new Abandoned Armory stage is available as a free Twitch Drop this week. Watch anyone streaming in the 2XKO category on Twitch and it unlocks directly in your account. No purchase required.

Pool Party Skins and the Chipotle Event

The Pool Party event runs in Casual Lobbies from June 30 to July 20. Available bundles include Pool Party Legendary (Braum, Jinx, Senna), Pool Party Nights Ahri (two skins), Pool Party Nights Caitlyn (two skins), and Pool Party Nights Darius (two skins), along with the Senna and Thresh launch bundles.

The Rift Quest Megabundle (Teemo, Yasuo, Illaoi, Braum) and Frame Perfect Megabundle (returning with a new Championship Blue Chroma) are both available again. A portion of Frame Perfect bundle proceeds go toward 2XKO tournament organizers.

The Chipotle in-game event runs in two windows: June 16 to 28 and July 21 to August 6. The Casual Lobby gets a Chipotle theme during both periods. US residents can earn real Chipotle coupons by completing in-game missions.