As the LCS gears up to combine with the CBLOL and LLA to form the multi-region Americas League (which will reportedly feature a North and South conference system), two teams are set to leave the League of Legends esports scene to make room for the merger.
The first time is not too surprising – Immortals – who have in recent memory just not been having the best time in the league. It makes sense that, when faced with the prospect that they just haven’t been competing and the seemingly endless pool of money that some of the more successful orgs are dumping into the LCS, they would want to take this opportunity to depart. It’s a loss of a historic competitor for sure, but there’s only so many splits of mid-tier-peaking and small-fanbase-having that are viable to endure.
The second team reported to be leaving the LCS is considerably more surprising, that being NRG. NRG only recently returned to the scene when they acquired CLG’s spot in 2023, and since then have won the LCS and made NA’s deepest recent run into an international tournament. To say that leaving this quickly would be an odd choice is an understatement.
That would leave the six North American organisations making the merge as Cloud9, Dignitas, FlyQuest, Shopify Rebellion, Team Liquid, and 100 Thieves, although the thieves may still be on the way out and looking to sell their spot as they restructure.
Of course, take all of this with a pinch of salt, as nothing is official until Riot announce the 2025 participant organisations (thanks, Dot Esports).