Fans of League of Legends assassin Katarina may be surprised to hear that she won’t be joining the fray in 2XKO at launch. While an early teaser featuring Katarina versus Jinx fueled speculation about her inclusion, Game Director Shaun Rivera revealed during a recent State of the Game Panel at EVO that the sinister Blade will not be among the list of champions available at launch.

Rivera revealed that Katarina wasn’t always meant for a tag-team format. In the early stages of the game, when it was still a 1v1 fighter, Katarina was the champion that was primarily used to test out new abilities and additions from new champions, making it feel like “only Katrina was playable,” he said. However, the transition to a 2v2 dynamic was a challenge.

“Katarina had a lot of mechanics,” Rivera explained, “and we felt like we weren't doing her justice and how cool we could make her, to elevate her fantasy, and so she's not going to be on the launch slate because we have to completely remake her.”

Rivera also revealed that he himself is a huge fan of the champion and promised that he wouldn't let the development team release the assassin unless she was "as good as hell."