According to Esportmaniacos’ Yuste ‘Yuste’ Armero, KOI will own a majority share in the LEC spot. Rogue’s infrastructure (including offices and staff) will remain.
Less than a month after the announcement that Team Heretics would join the LEC with the acquisition of Misfit Gaming’s spot, another Spanish organization is reportedly set to enter the league. KOI, the organization of streamer Ibai Llanos, have reportedly signed a deal with Rogue to enter into a partnership for the LEC in 2023.
In a recent Esportsmaniacos livestream, more details were revealed about the nature of the partnership. Most notably, KOI would spend 20 million euros to acquire a 60 percent share of LEC slot.
🔴 SEGUNDA EXCLUSIVA DE @inyustificado:"KOI tiene el 60% de la PLAZA de #LEC" "El precio sería alrededor SEMEJANTE al que se comenta (20M)""Todo sería GRACIAS al ACUERDO de la PLAZA en VALORANT"#ESPM1565 | https://t.co/yNhA5ErvAZ pic.twitter.com/IvDWnC4fHo
— ESPORTMANÍACOS (@Esportmaniacos) August 22, 2022
KOI will become the third team to enter the LEC in the past two years after Team BDS, who purchased Schalke 04’s franchise slot in June 2021, and Team Heretics.
More details about the Rogue/KOI partnership
According to Yuste, the majority of Rogue’s infrastructure will remain the same throughout the merger.
“Rogue will continue with part of, or most of, their existing infrastructure,” explained Yuste, “like their offices and such. This is because KOI don’t have that kind of infrastructure in place, and because it’s already been proven that it works for Rogue.”
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During the broadcast, discussion also turned to the extent of the partnership outside the LEC. And while nothing is confirmed as of yet about how the deal will work in other esports titles, certain details were discussed with regards to a potential partnership in Valorant’s new international league.
He explained that Rogue’s application to join the Valorant partnership system was “not going well”, and that if KOI were offered a spot in the European international league, then they would compete in partnership with Rogue.
Sources: Full list of teams that advanced to next round of VALORANT EMEA 🇪🇺 partnership process-Teams Selected-How RIOT will choose the teams and what they will be based on-More details about franchiseRead my article here⬇️https://t.co/zOaXkBeLZv pic.twitter.com/3qYHBs5Sbl
— Alejandro Gomis (@anonimotum) July 29, 2022
KOI currently compete in Valorant’s Spanish regional league, while Rogue does not currently have a team competing in this esport. According to a report by Blix.gg, both Rogue and KOI were among the 20 organizations that made it through to the second round of franchise applications as of July 29.
The selected teams for Valorant franchising have not yet been confirmed in any region.