In the summer of 2024, I completed six projects for close friends in the Fighting Game Community. The entire process, from start to finish, took about three months, which is why I’m calling these six projects the Summer Six series. This is one of them, created for a friend who couldn’t be more excited for Riot’s upcoming fighting game – 2XKO.
Initial Design Ideas
My friend, who is also my co-commentator for Capcom’s official Street Fighter 6 World Warrior South Asia qualifiers, is a Kimberly player. However, his interest in Street Fighter 6 had been waning in the weeks leading up to this design. On the other hand, he was growing more excited for 2XKO, especially with the closed beta having just ended.
None of my friends knew I was designing artwork for them. Initially, I planned to surprise him with artwork for Kimberly—his favorite character. However, I decided against it, as I didn’t want to tie him to a character or game he might not play in the future. Instead, I based the design on 2XKO.
Thank You, Riot Games
Riot Games and the 2XKO team have openly shared a lot of official art assets for the community to use. Their website and social media are full of high-quality renders for wallpapers, lock screens, or controller artwork.
To get an idea of which character my friend wanted to play, I asked in a common social media channel what characters everyone planned to main when 2XKO dropped. One of the characters he mentioned was Ekko, so I made him the centerpiece of my artwork.
Some FGC members have already created 2XKO art, but most stick to Riot’s official colors. If I remember correctly, Ekko’s wallpaper has a teal background. Instead, I used a clean black-and-white background taken from Riot/2XKO’s Twitch channel banner. I had to upscale it using AI tools, but the end result looks like an official controller you could buy off the shelf.
On the back, I placed Jinx and Ekko together, along with sleek 2XKO branding, to make the controller feel even more official.
The Big Reveal
As I mentioned, my friend and I are both part of the commentary team for Capcom’s World Warrior South Asia tournaments. We happened to be co-casting one of these events when his controller—featuring my artwork—was delivered. I couldn’t wait to see his initial reaction, so I recorded it since we were already on a group call.
To add more context to his reaction, earlier during another break in our broadcast, I had asked my friend how he would like to customize his controller, once he gets it. He said that he might put 2XKO artwork on it, perhaps Ekko, and maybe replace the buttons with colorful buttons – exactly the modifications I had done for him.
While this design wasn’t the most painstaking or detailed, it was still refreshing to do something relatively minimalist and official-looking. My friend’s reaction to the artwork made it all worthwhile.
Key Points:
Controller(s):
Haute42/Cosmox T16
Modification(s):
Artwork creation, printing and cutting
Button Caps: Ticknot Red 26mm Button Caps x6, Ticknot Green 26mm Button Caps x4, Ticknot Blue 26mm Button Caps x2
Credits:
RIOT Games
