Esports organisation Fluxo has announced its entrance into the Brazilian League of Legends Championship (CBLOL) franchise after acquiring Rensga Esports‘ spot.
The official announcement occured months after the deal was closed. Esports Insider confirmed the acquisition in August this year.
According to Renan Philip, CEO of Fluxo’s managing company 3C Gaming, the deal had been settled even before that. “In theory, we made a second step [towards expansion] with our CS:GO team, but it actually was the third because we could settle the CBLOL spot deal even before starting talks about Counter-Strike,” he told Esports Insider.
It is possible to project June 2022 as the month when Fluxo reached a deal with Rensga for the spot. By that period, Rensga dropped its League of Legends roster and promoted players from its academy team to play the rest of the season.
The explanation by Rengsa was a change of plans by the organisation, which was pivoting its business model. The new direction taken by Rensga’s management became clearer in October when the organisation’s founders launched the game monetisation platform Tipspace.
Philip did not disclose figures for the spot acquisition but said that ‘it was good for everyone’. He hinted that the value kept below the $2m (~£1.66m) reportedly paid by Vivo Keyd Stars to Netshoes Miners, another recent spot acquisition that happened in CBLOL, but was still satisfactory for the sellers. The original CBLOL spot value when the franchise was launched by Riot Games in 2020 was approximately $750,000 (~£620,000).
According to Philip, Fluxo entered CBLOL to increase the organisation’s long-term stability. Part of this plan consists of expanding the amount of esports it is involved in, which led to entering the CS:GO scene. Thus, the CEO considers that entering a scene that is consistent for 10 years is important both for expanding Fluxo’s brand and providing stability.
Philip’s considerations about stability make more sense as Free Fire, the scene in which Fluxo’s co-founders gained fame and where the organisation started its operations, has suffered a significant viewership drop in its latest World Championship. Other organisations that started and grew on Free Fire, like Los Grandes and LOUD, have also acquired spots in the CBLOL franchise.
