Fans finally got an update on Project L today after more than half a year, with Riot Games and project lead Tom Cannon confirming that the game will be free-to-play, include Illaoi as a playable character, and additional insight into how the dev team is crafting its roster. But this also almost certainly removes any possibility that the game will appear in any form at Evo 2022.
In the initial dev diary post, Cannon notes that he is about to leave for Las Vegas to attend Evo, an event he helped found back in 1996 as Battle by the Bay. And in subsequent follow-ups, he added to that with wording that should dampen expectations for a potential reveal between Aug. 5 and 7.
As the biggest fighting game tournament in the world, Evo is more than just a stage where the top players gather to compete against each other. Companies and developers also use the event as a chance to showcase new products, get feedback from players, and reveal upcoming content for their games.
Related: Illaoi is a ‘Big Body Juggernaut’ that will overwhelm opponents in Riot’s Project L
Project L was originally revealed live at Evo 2019, but it is unlikely to make an appearance at the tournament series’ return to in-person competition this year. Cannon commented on speculation regarding a potential announcement, essentially shutting it down.
The team is aware of how anticipated each new piece of information for the game is, even mentioning that seeing the feedback from last November’s reintroduction reassured them on the direction of development, but the game is still in the middle of production.
The actual blog post discussing Illaoi and general character development for Project L also mentioned that while the game is in active development, the next update fans should expect will come “before the end of the year.” This likely means another November update similar to the one we got last year that reintroduced the game for the first time since the reveal.
