It was a dark Sunday for big investors in the League of Legends scene as NRG Esports and FC Schalke 04 were both eliminated from the North American and European League Championship Series, respectively.
NRG Esports, co-owned by the likes of Andy Miller of the Sacramento Kings and basketball Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal, was eliminated from the NA LCS after making the quarterfinals thanks to a promising start in the spring split. After rebuilding and dropping all but one member of the starting roster in the offseason before the summer split, the team was never able to find the chemistry it needed to thrive. While teams like Phoenix1 improved as the season went along, NRG never found the consistency needed to make it back to the playoffs, and it fell into relegations. NRG's back-to-back losses to Cloud9 Challenger, C9's minor league team, and last-place Echo Fox sealed the team's fate, placing them into the Challenger Series, Riot's minor league.
Over in Europe, the same could be said of FC Schalke 04, the European football giant that also misstepped at the tail end of the season to find its way into relegations. Following a loss to Vitality in the last game of the regular season, S04 was forced to fight for its life, but it fell in straight matches to last-place Roccat and minor league champions Misfits. The summer split started strong for Schalke, which looked to be much improved under the new brand, but the team fell back to earth as the end of the season approached.
NA LCS 2017 Spring Split Teams
Team SoloMid
Immortals
Cloud9
Counter Logic Gaming
Team Liquid
Team Envy
Apex Gaming
Phoenix1
Echo Fox
Cloud9 Challenger (Team to be sold)
EU LCS 2017 Spring Split Teams
G2 Esports
Splyce
Giants Gaming
H2k Gaming
Fnatic
Unicorns of Love
Team Vitality
Team Roccat
Origen
Misfits