European League of Legends AD carry Pierre "Steeelback" Medjaldi and mid laner Hampus "Fox" Myhre have interest in leaving the Unicorns of Love and competing in North America, sources close to the players tell ESPN.
Both players are under contract with UoL until Nov. 15, 2016, after the Riot Games World Championship. Steeelback has expressed interest in leaving the team early; it will reportedly require a $20,000 buyout to the Unicorns of Love to legally terminate his contract. It is unclear what Fox's buyout figure is.
With the Unicorns, Steeelback and Fox took fifth-sixth in the European League Championship Series playoffs after losing 0-3 to Origen. Before the playoffs, Unicorns took fifth place under G2 Esports, H2K Gaming, Team Vitality and Origen in the spring split. Both placements exceeded the expectations of most analysts and experts.
In the regular season, Steeelback was one of the best members of the Unicorns of Love squad. He holds a 6.8 Kill/Death/Assist ratio, second only to H2K star Konstantinos "FORG1VEN" Tzortziou among European AD carries. Steeelback is fourth in the damage for his team at his position, racking up 31.6 percent of his team's damage this season.
Fox resides fifth among the European mids in KDA, sitting at 4.2. His damage contribution sits at 27.6 percent, second-to-last in the region.
Those high numbers might net offers this offseason for Steeelback, and possibly Fox. But currently, neither have suitors from either North America or Europe.
Steeelback first gained recognition in Europe a year ago as a part of the European first-place, rookie-centric Fnatic team that also included Heo "Huni" Seung-hoon, Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin, Fabian "Febiven" Diepstraten and leader Bora "YellOwStaR" Kim. That squad attended the Mid-Season Invitational in May 2015 and notably took Korean giant SK Telecom T1 to five games in the semifinals.
Following that tournament, Steeelback was cut in favor of previous Fnatic staple Martin "Rekkles" Larsson. Steeelback then moved to North America to compete with former pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli's League team Odyssey Gaming, before it merged with Team Imagine.
He then became the starting AD carry at Team Imagine, replacing Ritchie "Intense" Ngo. Steeelback left the team during the offseason following a failed qualification for the North American LCS and joined the Unicorns of Love to compete back home in Europe this year.