Riot Games has dropped a workaround after tournament organizers were left unable to spectate 2XKO matches.

The latest patch dropped Akali into the struggling FGC, but a severe glitch impacted online matches. Players reported matches getting stuck on the loading screen, which would go on indefinitely until the game eventually shut down.

Riot found that the glitch was tied to the game’s match spectating, so they had to disable that feature. And it may be gone for weeks, with devs thinking it would come in May along with the new Fuse. This heavily impacted anyone attempting to stream 2XKO tournaments and matches.

Luckily, Riot has come up with a workaround for tournament organizers. After filling out a form, Riot will “grant permission ASAP.” I’d normally say it’s not even news at this point, but the timing just cannot be worse.

It may be too late for 2XKO either way

2XKO is attempting to save face in the FGC esports space, but it’s not going well. In late March, Riot introduced the Community Events Program, which would offer rewards to 2XKO players outside of major events. This was an attempt to increase attendance at local and online tournaments.

There are rewards for attending multiple events and winning events, with players earning up to 2,000 Credits at offline tournaments. It’s a smart move, since 2XKO has failed to go mainstream as Riot initially intended. Why not focus on the actual FGC and strengthen 2XKO’s presence in this niche space?

But it may be too late.

Riot seemed to believe from the start that 2XKO would transcend normal fighting game interest. Maybe because League of Legends champions are in it or because Riot’s supporting it. Either way, it didn’t work out that way. Riot ended up laying off a lot of 2XKO staff after super expensive skins failed to fund the game. To this day, players are angrily ranting about the skin prices, which is overshadowing recent efforts.

Said one FGC player: “I hope this game manages to stick around long enough to get cool League characters but they really fumbled in a lot of ways… FOMO rotating shop, shop prices, lack of characters, too much focus on mechanics, name unrelated to IP, weird launch schedule that left people confused if the game ever actually came out, absurdly long dev cycle, and probably lots of other things, too.”

Riot is not in the passion business. And I think 2XKO will not make enough money for Riot to keep pushing in the near future. And I don’t think any issues with the spectating feature will help the matter.