A big bang in the LCS: Evil Geniuses and Golden Guardians are returning their starting places to organizer Riot Games. Next year, only eight teams will compete in the North American League of Legends league.
As organizer Riot Games’ e-sports president John Needham announced, the decision was mutual. “The change allows us to be more flexible as we restructure the league for future success,” he said, according to a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
The former champion TSM had previously given up its starting position, but found a buyer in Shopify Rebellion. The two now departing teams apparently failed to do this, meaning the place goes back to Riot.
Evil Geniuses had recently separated from the Dota 2 team, and the Valorant team was reportedly asked to take salary cuts after the World Cup victory. Golden Guardians, which is backed by the ownership group of the NBA team Golden State Warriors, finished its last LCS season in fourth place.