Update August 26
$30,25 million is certainly big money, but it's a drop in the ocean for Kroenke Sports & Entertainment — current owners of Arsenal Football Club, the Los Angeles Gladiators (Overwatch League) and the Denver Nuggets (NBA). The LCS Committee is currently studying their proposal, and will soon release details.
Original Article
Following the racism case within Echo Fox, Rick Fox — founder of Echo Fox — throws in the towel. By separating from all his parts, the former NBA player plunged one of the teams of the League of Legends Championship Series into doubt.
Riot Games had set an ultimatum to the structure asking it to exclude Amit Raizada from the group and recover his shares, an ultimatum that had not been respected. On July 23rd, Riot Games decided to confiscate his slot from Echo Fox.
The structure seemed to have found a buyer with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, a group that owns many teams including Arsenal (LoL), Los Angeles Gladiators (Overwatch League) and Denver Nuggets (NBA), all for nearly $30 million.
The agreement was simply short-circuited. Rober Moore — co-founder and CEO of the Sentinels — sued the Kroenke Sports & Entertainment group. According to him, Josh Kroenke — a member of the Board of Directors and heir to the eponymous group — did not disclose his intentions and secretly concluded this agreement, which constitutes a violation of the verbal agreement between the two organizations. To put it in perspective, Robert Moore applied to take part in the LCS franchises in 2018 with his Phoenix1 team and did not get an entry ticket. It, therefore, considers that it has a right of control over all transactions concerning LCS slots.
The trial delaying any possibility of purchase, it is therefore up to Riot Games to take charge of the Echo Fox slot and find a replacement for the structure. LCS Commissioner Chris Greeley unveiled the upcoming selection process:
"Starting on August 16, 2019, we’ll be opening a 30-day application process to select our new long term partner for the open slot in the LCS. We’ll be using an expedited process similar to the 2017 system that we used to select our initial long-term partners. We will focus on evaluating each applicant’s ownership profile, brand strategy, business plan, and team operational plan. Our goal remains to have an orderly transition as we add a new LCS team ahead of the 2020 season."
As winners of the Regional Qualifiers, Clutch Gaming booked their tickets to Worlds as the LCS third seed. This comes after Doublelift and Team Liquid snatched a fourth title following five tense games against Cloud9 in the LCS Summer Finals.
