Team SoloMid, Cloud9, CounterLogic Gaming and Team Liquid have all succeeded in their applications to rejoin the North American League of Legends Championship Series, according to a report by ESPN.
Just hours after news broke that OpTic Gaming were reportedly successful in their bid for a franchise spot, the four North American esports powerhouses seem to have joined them in securing a place at the NA LCS table. Riot Games supposedly notified each franchise’s owners last week via individual calls.
A reformatting of the NA LCS will see the league swap to a franchise-based model next season. The revenue-sharing model is so popular that Riot has apparently had to narrow down from over a hundred applications – including from beleaguered EU LCS teams – to the teams which have been successful thus far.
As it stands, the current franchises which have reportedly had their fate in the league decided are as follows:
IN:
- Team SoloMid
- Cloud9
- CounterLogic Gaming
- Team Liquid
- OpTic Gaming
- Joe Lacob, majority stake owner of the NBA team Golden State Warriors
OUT:
UNDECIDED:
- FlyQuest
- Echo Fox
- Immortals
Each successful team will have to pay a $10 million (£7.61m) buy-in fee, with half of that up-front and the rest in delayed installments. Existing teams who are denied entry will be receive compensation from a pool of funding provided by new teams entering the league, who will have to supply an addition $3m (£2.77m) each. With three teams seemingly already out, there will be at least one more as-yet unannounced franchise to enter and complete the ten-team league in 2018.
Esports Insider says: No real surprise here – these four are titans of the North American League of Legends scene, and it would’ve been a real shock if any didn’t make the cut. CLG supposedly came the closest, with a last-minute investment from the Madison Square Garden Company coming at just the right time.