It's been a slow week for eSports as a whole, but League of Legends made sure to pack in a whole month of news over the last seven days. With the League of Legends World Championship looming on the horizon, a number of intriguing storylines have popped up on the business end of the game. Some good. Some very, very bad.
So here's the latest Weekly Rushdown of eSports news.
League of Legends Politics Getting Uglier?
The first bit of news in a League-heavy installment of the Rushdown is the most important. Nearly three weeks removed from Riot Games co-founder and president Marc Merrill kicking a hornets' nest of quiet frustration with a Reddit call-out of Andy "Reginald" Dinh, the company's inner working have come under intense scrutiny, and to be blunt, it's not looking pretty.
PVPLive.net's James Chen (who has previously worked with Riot) wrote up a lengthy piece detailing the dissatisfaction surrounding Riot's Director of eSports, Whalen Rozelle. The report details a popularity-driven internal culture at the company that has resulted in less than ideal candidates falling into top positions in the company. On top of that, incredibly high turnover at the top of Riot's eSports department has resulted in a lack of consistency and a lack of communication between the company and major teams.
While this may not seem like a big deal, things feel like they are quickly unraveling for Riot, as teams look to other titles for bigger cash opportunities and more long-term security. Chen's report backs up any and all suspicions that came from Merrill's initial statement and casts a bleak picture of one of the largest gaming publishers in the world.
Any fan of competitive League should take a look at the piece.
League of Legends Team Banned
European League of Legends squad Team Huma is effectively done. According to a statement handed down Thursday, the European Challenger Series team and its owner have been banned from Riot Games-sanctioned competition.
"After an investigation during the Spring Split, Huma received a warning in regard to negligence in their duties of ownership," Riot said in the statement. "Since March 2016, there have been verified instances of late payments towards their players and Huma not meeting all of their contractual obligations towards their players."
As with Renegades earlier this year, Huma's owners are being compelled by Riot to sell the team and their spot in the European Challenger Series. This comes six months after Riot formally warned the team (via Daily Dot's Jacob Wolf) for late payments to players, which was followed by owner Behdad Jaafarian stating he would divest ownership of the team.
Whether Huma will be able to find a new owner or will be forced to completely liquidate is anyone's guess. Either way, this is bad news for Jaafarian and worse news for the players who could be looking for a new home in the near future.
Video contains profanity.
Conor McGregor's Appearance in Call of Duty: Infinite War
Conor McGregor is a hot commodity these days. The UFC featherweight champion is in demand in the sports world, in Hollywood and even in Silicon Valley! The latest proof? McGregor's gig working with Infinity Ward for the upcoming Call of Duty: Infinite War.
Check out the above video featuring his motion-capture session for the game.
Infinite War was heavily featured at this year's Call of Duty XP event alongside the 2016 Call of Duty Championship. Team EnVyUs took the $800,000 USD top prize, defeating Splyce 3-1. While there wasn't as much buzz as there could have been for the event, CoD could quickly become one of eSports' premier shooters in the coming years.
Soccer Club Looking to Obtain a LoL Team?
Business is picking up between European soccer and eSports. According to French newspaper L'Equipe (via Daily Dot's Josh Raven), soccer club Paris Saint-Germain is looking to enter the realm of eSports...but not just FIFA, either. The Parisian squad is looking to put together a LoL team.
It's the latest example in what is becoming a serious trend in Europe. The Rushdown has previously discussed the Premier League's West Ham United and Manchester United signing competitive FIFA players, and as Raven points out, Germany's FC Schalke 04 and Turkey's Besiktas JK have both dabbled in competitive LoL in the past.
According to the report, Paris Saint-Germain may be looking to partner with French organization Millenium, which plays in the EUCS and also competes (or has competed) in Hearthstone, StarCraft and other titles. It would be a strong pairing, and it's a discussion worth checking in on over the coming months.