Project L news: More info discreetly revealed to pro players ahead of Evo Japan, still no release date

Reset the clock, we've got more Project L news. Riot Games' very own in-development fighting game rarely pops its head up, but the latest news from Evo Japan stands out as one of the most impactful early info drops we've seen to date.

This information comes from professional player GamerBee, who was invited to a behind-closed-doors "banquet" where Riot staff showed off a new Project L video to select players, answering their questions and addressing their concerns. While recording was not allowed, attendees were allowed to share waht was discussed online. As such, GamerBee did us all a favour by translating their notes into English and posted them online.

However, these notes were translated via ChatGPT and as such aren't 100% accurate. We reached out to Riot to confirm the validity of GamerBee's notes. A spokesperson responded by saying the gist of the post was correct, although as an AI translation it was not a verbatim representation of exact points made at the meeting.

A Riot Spokesperson told us: "While in Tokyo for EVO Japan, Riot met with a handful of local fighting game pros to talk shop about gameplay and our goals for the game, as well as ask the local FGC about their current needs, pain points, hopes for the genre moving forward, etc… since Project L is still deep in development". As such, we can go ahead and dive into GamerBee's notes with confidence, just take the exact wording of each point with a grain of salt.

Let's start with the new gameplay stuff. In the presentation, a "retreating guard" was showcased. This apparently is one of many defensive systems in the game, which allows you to get some extra distance from your opponent. Other defensive options weren't shown, but are apparently in the game. Note that we've already seen the dynamic save system in the last dev diary.

Riot Games is also reportedly working alongside Sony to ensure input lag is the same across all platforms. This is a whole other massive topic but, to put it simply, some games have a significant difference in input delay between platforms. This means that there's a quantifiable advantage on some platforms compared to others, which is a big deal to competitively-minded players. Making everyone the same when it comes to input lag would resolve this issue.

The game will have three attack buttons, and special moves won't require complex direction inputs. Instead, all special moves will be performed with an attack + direction combination (example: forward + heavy punch). Normal moves will be cancellable into aerial or grounded chain combos, with those aerial combos making use of a launcher attack to send opponents skyward. For reference, check out some Marvel vs Capcom gameplay – a series GamerBee notes as similar. As a final gameplay note, both characters on a team must be eliminated for a player to win a match.

Moving onto the Project L competitive bits, this is where the real juicy info is. According to GamerBee's notes: There will be a Pro esports environment, and some may worry that official tournaments will displace community events. Therefore, there will be a limit on official tournaments, and community tournaments can use [Project L] to organize events".

Let's break this down. There will be a limit on official Riot Project L events, and community-run events (anything from your weekly Gaming Cafe events to annual massive tournaments) will fill the rest of the ecosystem. Here, Riot staff are essentially confirming a system in which non-Riot controlled events can still operate with Project L present. There's obviously no word on what sort of agreement tournament organizers would have to agree to, but it's a start.

In addition, GamerBee's notes later state that Project L can be hosted at events with other fighting games, and professional players will be able to compete in other fighting games whilst remaining a Project L player. This had been an issue for Riot Games pros in the past, notably Yiliang Peng (aka Doublelift) who stated their position os a Riot LCS player had prevented them from competiting in Street Fighter 4.

If the notes are to be believed, thank God. Fighting game events are all about mingling and sharing a space with players from other games, so a barrier preventing players from touching other games competitively would be an awkward measure that would divide players from their peers.

These notes also put a damper on any assumption that Riot Games was going to be throwing huge piles of money at tournaments. The notes state that the Project L team hopes to make players "become stars" rather than simply giving them big paychecks, so they can earn more money through endorsements or sponsorships. In addition, tournaments are planned for a small start while the team ensures players are happy with the state of the game, before slowly growing the scene. Don't expect the Mandalay Bay year one.

There are way more notes on the philosophy behind-the-certain decisions and potential mechanics that haven't yet been locked in, but we recommend you read the tweet yourself for a full view of what was discussed. Overall, it's wild that this sort of info came out second-hand from a pro player. Ultimately, early chats with pros this early on in development must be followed up by actual, tangible action from the development team and Riot as a whole.

Nonetheless, for now it all seems like good news! Here's hoping we get an official update soon to confirm these points and elaborate where needed.

For more Project L articles, check out the rad Project L Akali model a fan made almost six months ago. Fun fact: Riot hired the guy!