Teemo, the Diabolical Creature, Joins the Cast of 2XKO

It was known for a while now that Teemo would be the final character of the 10 character launch roster for 2XKO, but Riot has finally confirmed it with a very extensive Dev Update video that goes into great detail about the character and questions surrounding him.

People wanted weirdos and there you have it, Teemo is pretty much a definitive weirdo. Even if 2XKO has a generally simple framework, this is a good example of how depth a character can have. And if you thought his 2XKO version is going to be less annoying than the heartless monstrocity that he is in League of Legends, well, too bad.

Perhaps the most reassuring thing about Teemo is that despite his small size, the game does accomodate for it. Yordles represent some of the smallest characters in LoL, and with Teemo being one of them, it only makes sense that the 2XKO team would ensure your attacks work just fine even against the smallest character. Though some of your specific options might still whiff.

When it comes to his actual kit, Teemo has some very potent options to harass you. As you might expect, the mushrooms are one of the staples. He can place multiple explosive mushrooms that will explode when the opponent touches them. Get enough mushroom explosions and he will get a scout badge that upgrades his mushrooms, making them poisonous, which will apply a nice chunk of grey damage on opponents. He also has multiple unique interactions with them. Like bounching mushrooms on top of each other, bouncing off of them, or uprooting them with his shovel to send them towards opponent. Don't worry, however, you can still deal with mushrooms by hitting them, hitting Teemo, or by blocking the delayed explosion, just make sure to not breathe in the poison.

Speaking of scout badges, he has two more that fill up as you use the related abilities. The second has to do with his blow darts. Just by pressing light attack, you can string up to 3 dart projectile attacks, which can also be done in the air to send those darts down at an angle. Much like with the shrooms, once you get the badge, darts will be able to apply poison. Luckily, developers felt like being merciful, so only the first dart in the series will be poisonous.

His last badge is for the slingshot, another projectile, but very distinct from the darts. This one sends out a rock at different arcs, which can also be done in the air or charged to change the travel distance and trajectory. These will also interact with the mushrooms by bouncing off of them, which can lead to some tricky attack patterns. Once you land enough hits, your rock graduates from being a rock to being a burning fire rock, which naturally applies more hitstun and enables new combos.

When playing against Teemo, you might want to be extra careful about letting him earn his badges, because these will persist between rounds and make him a stronger character as the game goes on.

That said, even outside of badge specials, he has some interesting tools. Like throwing himself at you as a spinning mutli-hit deathball, gliding across the stage on his parachute, becoming invisible if he gets down to sit for a few seconds, or place down long grass. Like in League of Legends, he will become invisible by entering the grass, which will persist for some time after he leaves the grass. This grass also serves two other functions. You can either use it as a teleport to retreat or confuse your opponents, or set it on fire, either by pressing 2H in the grass or throwing a burning rock at it. This grass will do 3 hits of damage, and also acts as updraft for your parachute.

His supers are no less interesting. Your basic LVL1 allows you to freely fly around and shoot up to 9 darts. LVL2 summons a whole gang of mushrooms. These are much harder to avoid because they can't be destroyed (though you can still bait out a proximity explosion) and if Teemo sends these flying with a shovel, they will continue bouncing towards you instead of stopping after the first bounce. His LVL3 or Ult is much more straightforward, serving as a projectile super that can connect from long range and deals a fair bit of damage.

Lastly, his assists. Forward and back assists will have Teemo throw out a mushroom or shoot darts respectively, but his ultimate assist is quite special. Teemo will fly in on a hot air balloon and carpet bomb the screen with a bunch of small mushrooms that explode on impact.

Despite all this weirdness and complexity, Teemo was apparently made to play well even in the hands of beginners who potentially never tried a fighting game before. This largely comes through in the fact that all his tools have a relatively straightforward application, but combining them and using them well definitely leaves a lot of room for experienced players to explore.