Riot Games share update on future of Echo Fox’s LCS spot
Riot GamesThe League of Legends Championship Series Commissioner Chris Greeley announced his decision on Echo Fox’s future in the league which will see a new org joining for the 2020 season.
Riot Games and Echo Fox both agreed to end the team’s time in the LCS after a long saga stemmed from alleged racist comments from a member of the organisation’s ownership group.
The league gave Echo Fox a 60 day window to either sever ties with the members in question or sell their LCS spot, neither of which ever came to fruition. Now that the dust has settled, the LCS will be moving forward without the embattled org.
After a long and troubled road for Echo Fox, their time in the LCS has come to an end.Greeley briefly recounted the saga Echo Fox had found itself in before announcing that the two parties have reached an agreement to sell the tenth spot in the LCS.
“On August 13, the LCS and Echo Fox entered into an agreement that will terminate Echo Fox’s participation in the LCS,” Greeley said in the announcement. “As part of that agreement, the LCS will sell the now-vacant tenth slot in the LCS and will provide the bulk of the proceeds from the sale to Echo Fox.”
The LCS will look for a replacement for Echo Fox’s franchise spot.The decision means Echo Fox fans will no longer have their org to cheer on in the LCS and the now-vacated spot will be open to new partners as Riot will start looking for a suitable replacement.
“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,” Greeley said. “We’ll be using an expedited process similar to the 2017 system that we used to select our initial long-term partners.”
Echo Fox will not be in the 2020 campaign of the LCS.This will be the first time the LCS loses a founding team since Riot Games transitioned the league into a franchise system back in 2017.
While the league will look to “expedite” the process, they’re still sticking to the goal of having “an orderly transition as we add a new LCS team ahead of the 2020 season.”
As Echo Fox is no longer in the picture, the LCS is hoping to bring in a team who’s “ownership profile, brand strategy, business plan, and team operational plan” are compatible with the league.