The Warriors, Rockets Owner Tilman Fertitta, and Cavaliers Owner Dan Gilbert are among the new owners welcomed into the upper echelon of American esports by Riot Games, winning bids to join the reconstituted North American League of Legends Championship Series starting next year. Riot has announced the 10 winners of long-term slots in the league, which is doing away with relegation/promotion and promising revenue sharing beginning in '18. The winners beat out more than 100 other applicants, sources said, and will each pay $10M to Riot for the privilege. Newcomers are required to pay an additional $3M.
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NA LCS TEAMS
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INTERESTED PARTIES WITH CONTROLLING STAKES
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100 Thieves*
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Cavaliers Owner Dan Gilbert, Courtside Ventures, Ludlow Ventures
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Clutch Gaming*
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Rockets Owner Tilman Fertitta
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Counter Logic Gaming
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MSG
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FlyQuest
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Bucks co-Owner Wes Edens
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Golden Guardians*
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Warriors
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OpTic Gaming*
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MLB Rangers co-Owner Neil Leibman via Infinite Esports & Entertainment
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Team Liquid
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aXiomatic, a group led by Jeff Vinik, Ted Leonsis and Peter Guber
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Echo Fox
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Cloud9
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TSM
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| CHART NOTE: * = New to the league |
To make room for the four new participants, Riot dis-invited four teams that participated in the '17 LCS: Dignitas, owned by Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment; Team Envy, who recently welcomed energy industry exec and financier
Ken Hersh’s fund as major capital partner; Immortals, whose investors include AEG and Grizzlies co-Exec Chair
Steve Kaplan; and Phoenix1. The loss of the LCS spots represent a major hit to the valuation of those organizations, affecting current and future investment talks. They will receive payouts in the low seven figures from Riot.
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The Immortals and Envy snubs were particularly shocking, given those organizations’ apparent strength as brands and businesses across esports today. But Riot officials apparently thought the skills of the new groups outweighed the track record of the endemics as they planned for the future. “We had a significant number of organizations whom we weren’t able to select who were either successful in the league prior, or we thought they had something compelling to bring,” said Riot Dir of Esports
Whalen Rozelle. “At the same time, that’s a great problem to have because we were ultimately able to choose 10 that we think bring a really good balance to the NA LCS.” Riot would not comment on any specific decision.
Even the teams that retain independent ownership have sports involvement. Echo Fox was originally founded by retired NBAer Rick Fox, and its largest shareholder, Vision Esports, welcomed the Yankees as a limited partner in October. WWE and Monumental S&E Vice Chair Raul Fernandez have backed Cloud9. TSM is the only endemic organization to have not taken outside investment this year. Free agency for League of Legends players begins tomorrow. The spring season begins Jan. 20.
