2XKO's Evo Prize Pools Just Got a Massive Boost

2XKO at Evo in 2026 just got way bigger!

The prize pools for 2XKO at this year's Evo tournaments have received a substantial boost, and it is the result of a model that the wider FGC should be paying close attention to. Riot's Frame Perfect campaign will be contributing $75,000 to each of the three Evo events, Evo Japan, Evo Vegas, and Evo France, on top of the prize money provided by Evo itself. Based on Evo's standard $12,500 base prize pool per game, that puts the expected total for each 2XKO Evo tournament at approximately $87,500.

What Is Frame Perfect?

Frame Perfect is a campaign introduced by Riot, which features competitive skin sets that players can purchase, with a percentage of the proceeds going to support tournament organisers around the world. It launched in January at Frosty Faustings, one of the FGC's longest running winter majors and 2XKO's first major event. The Evo tournaments make up three of the five slots for 2XKO majors on the calendar, and they will now all carry significantly heavier financial incentives for competitors.

Context: 2XKO's Road to This Point

This announcement carries extra weight given where 2XKO has come from. Back in February, Riot announced layoffs from the 2XKO team amid concerns about the game's momentum, and there was genuine speculation in the community about the title's long-term viability. Since then, Akali has been added to the roster, patches have been rolled out, and the Frame Perfect campaign has continued to deliver. The $75,000 injection into Evo prize pools is the clearest sign yet that 2XKO's competitive scene is stabilising.

What This Could Mean for SF6

A prize pool of this scale is not the norm for fighting games outside of flagship events, and Frame Perfect illustrates what is possible when developers actively invest in the competitive ecosystem through community-facing initiatives. Street Fighter 6 is the obvious comparison. The game is riding significant popularity, but outside of major events like Capcom Cup and the Esports World Cup, smaller tournaments, World Warrior events and other premiers, offer very limited financial incentives for players.

What makes this particularly pointed is that Capcom already ran this exact model. Street Fighter V's Capcom Pro Tour skin bundles pledged a percentage of proceeds directly to tournament prize pools, and it worked. Why Capcom has not brought this back for SF6 is a question without a satisfying answer, especially given that the community has consistently asked for more cosmetic content and has not received nearly as much as it would have liked.

2XKO is showing what a developer genuinely committed to its competitive community looks like. The FGC would benefit from more of it.