Team EnVyUs and Phoenix1 had their applications rejected to join the North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS), according to a report from ESPN.
Both teams will be eligible to receive an exit fee, which is comprised of $3 million paid per each team accepted into the NA LCS that wasn’t already an existing participant. Any team that competed in the LCS or North American Challenger Series this year but is not accepted into the LCS for next year will be eligible to receive part of that money.
Both teams will have to release or sell the remaining players they have under contract. For Phoenix1, that includes Michael “MikeYeung” Yeung, Choi “Pirean” Jin-sik, Kieran “Allorim” Logue and Raymond “Wiggily” Griffin, who are all under contract until November 2018, according to Riot Games’ global contract database. For ENVyUs, the players are Apollo “Apollo” Price, Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer and Alexey “Alex Ich” Ichetovkin. The contracts for all other players on both teams expire next month.
Riot announced the franchise model in June, giving teams multi-year contracts without risk of being relegated, and revealed last month the NA LCS will remain at 10 teams. The Challenger Series will be replaced with an Academy League. Team Dignitas also reportedly had its application denied.