France prepares to defend home turf as 2XKO brings its fourth Major of 2026 to Evo France

One year ago, Wawa lifted the first 2XKO trophy ever awarded at Evo France in front of a home crowd. This weekend, the stakes are considerably higher. Riot Games’ tag fighter returns to Nice as an official 2XKO Competitive Series Major, and France is bringing one of the deepest groups of contenders anywhere in the world.

Riot’s new Players to Watch trailer puts that home scene at the centre of the story. Hosted by RZA and featuring Wawa, Yasha, Noka, Kayne and WADE, the video introduces five players who have spent 2026 repeatedly eliminating one another across Europe while also proving they can challenge the best competitors from North America, Japan and beyond. They will all enter the bracket at Evo France 2026 from October 9–11, with the surviving eight players taking the main stage on October 10 at 17:45 CEST.

Evo France has become one of 2XKO’s five biggest tournaments of the year

This is not a repeat of the smaller tournament Riot brought to Nice while 2XKO was still approaching its full competitive launch.

Evo France is now one of only five Major-tier events in the 2XKO Competitive Series 2026, joining Frosty Faustings, Evo Japan, Evo Las Vegas and the forthcoming Battle Coliseum in Brazil.

Riot’s first full competitive season consists of 20 sponsored tournaments split between five Majors and 15 Challengers. The organiser of each event retains control of its tournament, while Riot provides funding, promotion and additional prize support.

That structure has allowed 2XKO to attach itself directly to the existing fighting game community rather than constructing an isolated publisher circuit from scratch.

Evo France is particularly important because it is the last Evo Major of the year.

Frosty Faustings produced an early breakthrough for bleed. Evo Japan established Hikari as one of the game’s elite players. Hikari then repeated that success at Evo Las Vegas, surviving the losers bracket and defeating SonicFox and INZEM in the Grand Final reset to win his second 2XKO Evo title of 2026.

France now gets the next opportunity to interrupt that run.

And unlike at the earlier Majors, the local scene is arriving with months of tournament results showing that several different French players can realistically make the final stage.

Wawa already knows what it feels like to win 2XKO at Evo France

The most obvious player for Riot to highlight is Marwan “Wawa” Berthe.

His fighting game résumé was already exceptional before 2XKO existed. Wawa established himself as one of the greatest Dragon Ball FighterZ players of his generation, winning events including Evo 2022 and the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour Finals.

A tag fighter built around two-character teams was always going to attract attention from former DBFZ specialists, and Wawa adapted almost immediately.

His relationship with Evo France makes this particular Major even more significant.

When 2XKO appeared at the inaugural Evo France in 2025, Wawa won the 2 NICE KO tournament, defeating Supernoon 3–1 in Grand Finals and keeping the title in France.

That trophy came before the current Competitive Series existed.

Now he has an opportunity to win the first full 2XKO Evo France Major.

The journey through 2026 has not been completely straightforward. Wawa struggled at Frosty Faustings, finishing outside the upper positions, but recovered spectacularly at Evo Japan with a third-place finish, losing only after reaching the final stages of the bracket.

He later finished fourth at The MIXUP and narrowly missed the Top 8 at Evo Las Vegas, placing ninth to twelfth after being eliminated by Globo.

Then came another major result.

At Ultimate Montreal Airdashers, Wawa won the entire Challenger tournament, beating Devillion 3–0 in Grand Finals. His recent appearances have also demonstrated that he is willing to move between teams rather than locking himself permanently into the Caitlyn and Vi combination many players associated with his earlier 2XKO run.

That adaptability could matter enormously in Nice.

The current game is significantly different from the version Wawa won with at 2 NICE KO last year, and 2XKO’s competitive meta has continued changing as Riot adds champions and adjusts system mechanics.

The player remains the same.

Yasha has spent the entire year proving he belongs near the top

If Wawa represents France’s most decorated name, Yonis “Yasha” Ahamada may be one of the most consistently dangerous players in the European bracket.

Another elite Dragon Ball FighterZ veteran, Yasha has translated years of tag-fighter experience into a remarkably steady first full competitive season in 2XKO.

His biggest early statement came at Viennality XL in March.

Wawa reached Grand Finals.

Yasha beat him.

The Solary player won the Challenger event 3–1 after already navigating a bracket containing several of the other French names appearing in Riot’s new trailer.

That victory immediately established him as more than another strong European player waiting to see whether his results would translate outside local competition.

Since then, his year has contained several deep runs.

Yasha placed ninth to twelfth at Evo Japan, third at VSFighting XIV and most recently reached second place at Ultimate Fighting Arena 2026, where his run ended only after a close 2–3 Grand Final against Leffen.

The one result he will want to erase is Evo Las Vegas.

Yasha made the Top 24 but finished seventeenth to twenty-fourth after running into Kayne, another French player. That result illustrates the uncomfortable reality of the current French 2XKO scene: many of its strongest competitors are capable of beating international opponents, but they frequently eliminate one another before reaching the final stage.

Evo France gives Yasha another opportunity to convert his European consistency into a Major podium.

And this time, he will be doing it in front of the largest possible home audience.

Noka has already reached an Evo Top 8 this year

Hasni “Noka” Rivallin enters Nice with perhaps the strongest recent Major result among the five French players featured by Riot.

At Evo Las Vegas 2026, Noka reached the Top 8.

That alone places him in an extremely small group. More than a thousand players entered 2XKO at the tournament, making it the game’s largest competition of the year to that point, and Noka survived all the way to seventh-eighth place before Poka ended his run.

The result was not an isolated anomaly.

A month earlier, Noka finished third at The MIXUP.

Then, in July, he won VSFighting XIV in Birmingham.

That tournament produced an almost complete French occupation of the podium.

Noka finished first.

Kayne finished second.

Yasha finished third.

Noka defeated Kayne 3–1 in the final using a Thresh and Ekko team, demonstrating how quickly he had adapted to a roster that had already expanded considerably beyond the characters available during 2XKO’s earliest competitive events.

His history with WADE is also worth watching.

The pair competed together during the Duos tournament at Frosty Faustings, finishing third, and later won the Red Bull Knockout Last Chance Qualifier before reaching third-fourth place at the main Red Bull event.

That is one of the more interesting characteristics of 2XKO as an esport.

The game supports traditional solo competition, where one player controls both champions, and genuine Duo Play, where two people control one character each.

Competitors can therefore become rivals in one tournament and teammates in another.

Noka and WADE have already demonstrated that they can do both.

Kayne may be France’s most dangerous bracket spoiler

Mohamed “Kayne” Sobti has spent years competing across several fighting games, but his 2026 transition into 2XKO has been particularly effective.

He finished fifth-sixth at Frosty Faustings, making him one of the best-performing French players at the first Major of the season.

Then came Evo Japan.

Kayne reached seventh-eighth place, losing to eventual fourth-place finisher bleed after a strong international run.

His biggest victory arrived at home.

At The MIXUP 2026 in Lyon, Kayne won the entire 2XKO Challenger tournament, defeating Opal 3–1 in Grand Finals.

His Warwick and Jinx combination became one of the most recognisable teams associated with his tournament play during that part of the season.

A month later, he nearly added another Challenger title at VSFighting.

Noka stopped him in Grand Finals, leaving Kayne second.

Even his Evo Las Vegas result demonstrated the threat he represents inside a bracket. He finished thirteenth-sixteenth but eliminated fellow French contender Yasha during the Top 24 before his own run ended against Zane.

Kayne’s tournament history throughout 2026 makes him difficult to categorise as an outsider or secondary contender.

He has already won a Challenger.

He has already reached an Evo Top 8.

He has already beaten several of the players Riot is promoting alongside him.

There is very little theoretical about his ability to make another deep run.

WADE arrives after another tournament victory

The fifth player in the trailer is Mael “WADE” Jomie, another competitor whose reputation predates 2XKO.

WADE reached the Grand Final of the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour twice, making him another example of the extraordinary concentration of tag-fighter talent currently present in France.

His 2XKO results have been less consistent than Noka’s or Wawa’s at the largest events, but the peaks remain significant.

He finished third at Viennality XL.

He reached seventh-eighth at Combo Breaker.

Alongside Noka, he won the Red Bull Knockout Last Chance Qualifier and then pushed all the way to third-fourth in the main event before losing to Japanese duo Haru and Toshi.

And his most recent recorded tournament victory came at ClashMania 2026 in September, where WADE defeated Run 3–1 in Grand Finals.

That recent win matters.

WADE’s Evo Las Vegas run ended earlier than he would have wanted, with a seventeenth-twenty-fourth finish, but he is not entering France after months of decline. He has already demonstrated since Vegas that he can win an offline bracket.

Like several other players in the French scene, he has also shown considerable team flexibility across the season.

The question is whether he can finally turn that ability into the kind of Major result his tag-fighting pedigree suggests should be possible.

France’s strength comes from having several players capable of beating each other

The five names in Riot’s trailer tell only part of the story.

France has developed one of the deepest regional 2XKO scenes in the world.

Players including Senshii, RZA, BRZ, Kuroten, Orochi, Slauw, Jila and others are also registered around a scene that has been grinding local events, online competition and international tournaments since before the game’s full competitive launch.

Riot was already highlighting that strength before Evo Japan.

At the time, the company specifically identified Wawa, WADE, Noka, Kayne, Senshii and Yasha as representatives of a French community looking for redemption after a disappointing opening Major at Frosty Faustings.

The following months largely validated that assessment.

Wawa reached third at Evo Japan.

Kayne reached seventh.

Noka made Top 8 in Las Vegas.

Wawa won Ultimate Montreal Airdashers.

Noka won VSFighting.

Kayne won The MIXUP.

Yasha won Viennality and reached the final of Ultimate Fighting Arena.

WADE won ClashMania.

The problem is obvious from those same results.

They keep running into each other.

At Viennality, Yasha beat Wawa in Grand Finals.

At The MIXUP, French players repeatedly crossed paths.

At VSFighting, Noka, Kayne and Yasha occupied the entire top three.

At Evo Las Vegas, Kayne eliminated Yasha before being eliminated himself.

For France to keep the Evo trophy at home, somebody will probably have to survive several familiar matchups before even worrying about the international favourites.

Hikari arrives in France chasing a third Evo title in the same year

The local players are not competing in a vacuum.

The most obvious international threat is Hikari.

The American player has become the defining figure of 2XKO’s first full Evo season.

He won Evo Japan 2026, defeating Supernoon and adding a 2XKO championship to an Evo résumé that already included major Dragon Ball FighterZ success.

Then he arrived in Las Vegas and did it again.

His route through Evo 2026 was considerably more difficult. Hikari was knocked into the losers bracket by Japanese duo Haru and Toshi before the Top 24, meaning he had to fight through K7 Showoff, Leffen and JakeyTheSnakey simply to reach the final eight.

He kept going.

Eventually Hikari reached SonicFox and INZEM in Grand Finals, won the first set to reset the bracket and then defeated the duo again 3–1.

That gave him back-to-back 2XKO Evo championships.

Winning in Nice would produce something extraordinary: an Evo Japan, Evo Las Vegas and Evo France sweep within the same competitive year.

French players have a very obvious incentive to prevent it.

Leffen, INZEM and Japan’s strongest players make the bracket even deeper

Hikari is far from the only international threat travelling to Nice.

Leffen appears among the registered entrants after already proving himself capable of winning high-level 2XKO competition. His recent victory over Yasha in the Ultimate Fighting Arena Grand Final makes him particularly relevant to the French field entering this weekend.

INZEM is also registered, bringing one half of the duo that has repeatedly competed alongside SonicFox at major events.

Other notable North American entrants include ChrisG, Globo, JakeyTheSnakey and K7 Showoff.

Japan is sending players including 2WINz Haru, Churara, Ikoan, Jiro, Taiyakipro, 2WINz Toshi and Masao, giving the bracket another region with extensive tag-fighter experience and increasingly strong 2XKO results.

The field also includes competitors such as Zando, GenisGod and King Rasta, reinforcing how quickly the game’s tournament scene has internationalised during its first year.

That is why Riot’s trailer focusing on France should not be mistaken for a prediction that a French player will win.

It is a statement about the local storyline.

The home favourites have the depth.

The rest of the world has the results required to ruin the party.

Wawa’s 2025 victory gives Evo France a story other Majors do not have

There is also a historical layer that makes this Major different from Evo Japan or Las Vegas.

France already considers the first 2XKO Evo France trophy its own.

When the game appeared at the event in 2025, it was still in its early competitive period. Riot operated booths, demonstrated upcoming content and organised 2 NICE KO, while also using the weekend for exhibition matches and community programming.

Wawa won.

That created a ready-made narrative for 2026.

Last year, France defended its home tournament before the official Major structure existed.

This year, international competition is substantially stronger.

2XKO has been released longer.

The roster is larger.

Players have accumulated thousands of tournament games.

Dedicated team compositions have been refined.

Major champions have emerged.

The game that returns to Nice is therefore significantly more mature than the version Wawa won with twelve months earlier.

Keeping the trophy in France will be much harder.

That is precisely why doing it would mean considerably more.

2XKO’s Duo system continues to make its competitive scene unusual

Evo France is also another chance for Riot to demonstrate what makes 2XKO structurally different from most fighting games on the Evo stage.

Every team contains two champions.

But those champions do not necessarily belong to one player.

A competitor can enter alone and control the entire team, or two players can compete together with one champion each.

That distinction creates radically different competitive dynamics.

Solo players have complete control over their assists, tags and timing. They never need to communicate an intention to another human player because both halves of the composition belong to them.

Duos sacrifice that perfect individual control in exchange for something potentially more flexible.

Two players can think independently.

They can specialise in one champion.

One competitor can react while the other is actively controlling the point character.

But communication becomes an additional execution requirement.

SonicFox and INZEM have been the most visible example of how powerful that structure can become at the highest level.

Haru and Toshi have also demonstrated the potential of dedicated duo play from Japan.

Wawa and Yasha, as well as WADE and Noka, have competed together in duo environments during 2026.

That means Evo France’s bracket is not merely comparing champion combinations.

It can also compare fundamentally different ways of controlling them.

Riot’s Competitive Series has given 2XKO a remarkably international first year

The tournament in Nice arrives late enough in 2026 that Riot’s competitive experiment can finally be judged with some evidence behind it.

The initial plan was ambitious.

Five Majors.

Fifteen Challengers.

Events spread across North America, Europe, Japan, Brazil and other competitive regions.

Direct Riot support without turning every tournament into a Riot-operated esport.

So far, that strategy has produced a surprisingly diverse list of champions.

bleed won Frosty Faustings.

Hikari won Evo Japan and Evo Las Vegas.

SonicFox and INZEM captured major Challenger victories as a duo.

Kayne, Noka, Wawa and Yasha have traded European titles.

Poka has emerged as one of Japan’s strongest players.

Other competitors have continued appearing through regional events instead of needing to travel to every Major simply to participate in the official ecosystem.

There is still another Major after France.

Battle Coliseum 2026 in São Paulo is scheduled for November, giving South America the final Major-tier event currently listed for the inaugural Competitive Series.

That makes Nice the penultimate opportunity to win one of Riot’s biggest 2XKO trophies of the year.

The Top 8 takes over Evo France’s main stage on Saturday

The 2XKO tournament begins alongside Evo France on Friday, October 9.

The event itself runs through October 11 at the Palais des Expositions in Nice, with eight games forming the main competitive lineup: Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, Guilty Gear -Strive-, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game and 2XKO.

2XKO reaches its conclusion before the final Sunday.

The Top 8 begins Saturday, October 10 at 17:45 CEST, matching Spanish mainland time, and is scheduled to run until approximately 21:15.

The final bracket will be broadcast on the main Evo Twitch channel.

That positioning gives 2XKO a prominent Saturday evening slot after the Avatar Legends Top 8 and before Evo shifts its attention on Sunday toward Marvel Tōkon, Tekken 8 and Street Fighter 6.

By the time the broadcast begins, only eight players or teams will remain.

Whether Wawa, Yasha, Noka, Kayne or WADE actually occupy those seats is the real question behind Riot’s new trailer.

France has five obvious contenders and no guaranteed champion

There would be an easy version of this story in which Wawa simply returns to defend the title he won last year.

The results from 2026 make that interpretation too simple.

Wawa has the biggest legacy and already owns an Evo France 2XKO trophy.

Yasha has beaten him in a major European final and arrives after finishing second at UFA.

Noka has already achieved what most of the field has not by reaching the Evo Las Vegas Top 8, then added a VSFighting title.

Kayne has an Evo Japan Top 8 and a MIXUP championship.

WADE has repeatedly demonstrated that he can threaten deep brackets and arrives after another offline tournament victory.

Any one of them could lead the French challenge.

Any one of them could also be eliminated by another French player before the audience ever sees them on the main stage.

And beyond that internal battle waits Hikari, the two-time reigning 2XKO Evo champion, alongside some of the strongest competitors North America, Japan and the rest of Europe can produce.

That is what makes the new Players to Watch trailer effective.

Riot is not trying to manufacture a rivalry for Evo France.

The rivalry already exists.

For the French 2XKO scene, this is the Major they have been preparing for all year.

Evo France 2026 runs from October 9–11 in Nice, with the 2XKO Top 8 scheduled for Saturday, October 10 at 17:45 CEST on twitch.tv/Evo.