Immortals (esports)

Last updated

Immortals
Immortals logo.svg
Short nameIMT
FoundedOctober 7, 2015 (2015-10-07)
Location United States (Great Lakes region)
CEOTBD
Divisions
Parent group Immortals Gaming Club
Website immortals.gg OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Immortals is a professional esports organization based in the United States owned by Immortals Gaming Club. It was founded on October 7, 2015, after the acquisition of Team 8's LCS spot. [1]

Contents

Immortals applied for a franchise partnership with the LCS when the league began franchising in late 2017, but their application was declined by Riot Games due to financial concerns, despite the fact that they were one of three North American teams to qualify for the 2017 World Championship. [2] [3] However, in mid-2019 they rejoined the LCS after their parent company, Immortals Gaming Club, bought out OpTic Gaming and their LCS spot. [4] [5]

Immortals previously competed in other esports titles, including Apex Legends , Arena of Valor , Clash Royale , Counter-Strike: Global Offensive , Dota 2 , Overwatch , Rainbow Six Siege , Super Smash Bros. and Vainglory .

Ownership

Immortals is owned by Immortals Gaming Club, a collective esports and gaming company. Other than owning the team their name stems from, Immortals Gaming Club owns MIBR and the Los Angeles Valiant Overwatch League team. Investors for the group include Anschutz Entertainment Group, Peter Levin, the president of Lionsgate Interactive Venture and Games, who co-founded Nerdist; Allen Debevoise, former chairman at Machinima.com; Steve Kaplan, a co-owner of the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies; serial entrepreneur Brian Lee, entertainment industry venture capitalists Machine Shop Ventures; Neil Leibman, a co-owner of MLB's Texas Rangers, and others. [6]

League of Legends

On October 7, 2015, it was announced that a new esports organization called Immortals had acquired Team 8's spot in the North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS). [7] On October 14, 2015, Dodo8 announced his retirement and moved to a management position in Immortals. [8] On December 8 it was announced that Seong "Huni" Hoon Heo, Kim "Reignover" Yeu Jin, Eugene "Pobelter" Park, Jason "WildTurtle" Tran, and Adrian "Adrian" Ma would be joining the team's inaugural roster. [9] Of these five players, only Pobelter remained on the 2017 roster. On December 7, 2016, Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett joined as Immortals' starting jungler, signing a three-year contract. [10] Top laner Lee "Flame" Ho-jong and bot laner Liyu "Cody Sun" Sun joined on December 9, 2016, [11] while support Kim "Olleh" Joo-sung was first reported as joining the team on December 12, 2016, [12] with a press release from Immortals officially announcing his signing on the following day. [13]

Following a seventh-place finish in the spring split, Immortals finished second in the summer regular season and advanced all the way to the summer finals, where they were defeated by Team SoloMid. [14] Nonetheless, Immortals qualified for the 2017 World Championship by having the most championship points at the end of the summer split. [14]

At the 2017 World Championship, Immortals were placed in Group B of the main event group stage, along with Europe's Fnatic, South Korea's Longzhu Gaming and Vietnam's GIGABYTE Marines. [15] After losing to Fnatic in the second round robin and one of two subsequent tiebreaker matches, Immortals and knocked them out of the tournament. [15] After failing to secure a spot in the newly franchised LCS, Immortals disbanded on November 20, 2017. [16]

In June 2019, Immortals announced that they had rejoined the LCS after their parent company, Immortals Gaming Club, bought out OpTic Gaming and their LCS spot. [4] [5]

In January 2022, Immortals announced a multi-year naming rights partnership with the Progressive Corporation, renaming their LCS team to Immortals Progressive. [17]

Current roster

Immortals League of Legends roster
PlayersCoaches
RoleHandleNameNationality
TopRevengeKaddoura, MohamedUnited States
JungleXerxeDragomir, AndreiRomania
Mid PowerOfEvil Schrage, TristanGermany
BotArrowNoh, Dong-hyeonSouth Korea
BotLostHui, Lawrence Sze YuyAustralia
SupportIgNarLee Dong-geunSouth Korea
Head coach

Gabriel "Invert" Zoltan-Johan

Assistant coach(es)

Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett


Legend:
  • (I) Inactive
  • (S) Suspended
  • Emojione BW 1F503.svg Substitute
  • Cruz Roja.svg Injury / Illness
  

Roster updated November 30, 2021.

Tournament results

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Immortals acquired Tempo Storm's fully Brazilian lineup on June 1, 2016. [18] The former coach of SK Gaming, Wilton "zews" Prado, replaced Gustavo "SHOOWTiME" Gonçalves on July 22, 2016. [19] On June 21, Immortals won DreamHack Summer 2016 after beating Ninjas in Pyjamas 2–0. [20] The team placed 3rd-4th at CyberPowerPC Summer 2016, losing to Cloud9 in the semi-finals. [21] Immortals won Northern Arena 2016 on September 4 after they beat Cloud9 in the finals. [22] After a disappointing showing at ESL Pro League Season 4 Finals in Brazil, Immortals replaced Wilton "zews" Prado with former teammate of boltz, Lucas "steel" Lopes. The most recent roster change involving the team was when João "felps" Vasconcellos was traded to SK Gaming in exchange for Lincoln "fnx" Lau. On January 27, 2018, the team investors acquired the MiBR branding, after some months of negotiation with Paulo Velloso (former MiBR CEO), planning to come back with a Brazilian roster in the future. [23] [24]

Tournament results

Bold denotes a Major

Super Smash Bros.

Immortals branched into Super Smash Bros. by signing the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Brawl player Jason "ANTi" Bates on September 13, 2016. [25] Three months later they signed Super Smash Bros. Melee player DaJuan "Shroomed" McDaniel, who was previously signed with Winterfox. [26]

Dota 2

On September 13, 2017, it was announced that Immortals had acquired the North American-based independent Korean squad Team Phoenix consisting of The International 2016 MVP Phoenix roster. [27]

On December 30, 2017, offlaner Forev announced via Twitter his departure from the team. [28]

Clash Royale

Immortals started their Clash Royale team as part of the Clash Royale League North America. The team started on August 20, 2018, as part of Season 1 of the Clash Royale League. They went 10–4 in the regular season and won the playoffs to make it the World Finals in Tokyo, Japan. They got 4th in the seeding tournament and then lost in the quarter-finals.

Roster

IDPosition
Royal1v1
ahcraaaap2v2
thegod_rf2v2
LaPoKaTi1v1
Trainer LuisCoach

Rainbow Six Siege

On June 5, 2018, the team have announced a new Rainbow Six: Siege team (the second Brazilian squad in the organization), acquiring the former team of BRK e-Sports. On August 3, the team was transferred to MiBR, an esports organization owned by Immortals.

Overwatch

On July 12, 2017, Overwatch developer Activision Blizzard officially announced that Noah Whinston, CEO of the team, had acquired a Los Angeles-based Overwatch League franchise spot for an estimated $20 million, after almost a year of discussion. [29] [30] [31] "For us, the crucial part of [our reason to join the Overwatch League] overall was the localization aspect — being able to have a local territory that we have control over and build deeper ties with a fan base than the current model really allows us to do," Whinston said in an interview. "That localization element, in addition the revenue sharing elements, and the stability and the strong competitive future of the game, all of those were important aspects for us when it came to making the decision." [31]

On October 23, 2017, Immortals revealed their franchise name as the Los Angeles Valiant. [32] [33] The team revealed their starting roster over a series of Twitter posts from October 30 to November 2, consisting of four DPS, four tanks, and three supports. [34]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Team Liquid</span> Dutch esports organization

Team Liquid is a multi-regional professional esports organization based in the Netherlands that was founded in 2000. With the release of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, Team Liquid signed their first professional players.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Team SoloMid</span> Professional esports organization based in the United States

Team SoloMid, commonly referred as abbreviated name TSM, is a professional esports organization based in the United States. It was founded in September 2009 by Andy "Reginald" Dinh. TSM currently fields players in Apex Legends, Dota 2, Fortnite, Rocket League, Super Smash Bros., Valorant, and Counter-Strike 2. The organization also briefly owned an Overwatch team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cloud9</span> American esports organization

Cloud9 Esports, Inc., or simply Cloud9 (C9), is an American professional esports company based in Santa Monica, California. The company was originally founded as a professional League of Legends team by Jack and Paullie Etienne in May 2013 and was incorporated into Cloud9 Esports, Inc. on September 6, 2016. Cloud9 has received US$78 million in total raised equity via venture capital funding and was ranked the world's fifth-most valuable esports organization in mid-2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Team Envy</span> American esports franchise

Team Envy was an American esports franchise based in Dallas, Texas, owned by Envy Gaming. Founded in 2007 as a professional Call of Duty team under the moniker Team EnVyUs, they fielded rosters in Counter-Strike, FIFA, Fortnite, Gears of War, Halo, League of Legends, Chess, Magic: the Gathering, Overwatch, Paladins, PUBG, Rocket League, SMITE, StarCraft, Super Smash Bros., Street Fighter and Valorant. Following the merger between Envy Gaming and OpTic Gaming, Envy Gaming retired the Team Envy brand in June 2022, shifting all of them to the OpTic Gaming moniker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Splyce</span> Former esports organization and media company

Splyce (SPY) was a professional esports organization and media company based in Rochester, New York. Their League of Legends team was a franchise member of the LEC, Europe's top professional league for League of Legends. Splyce announced its rebranding from Follow eSports in November 2015. On November 29, 2019, Splyce's parent company, OverActive Media, announced it had merged Splyce with its other esports subsidiary, MAD Lions, and that all of Splyce's teams would henceforth compete under that name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Echo Fox</span> Former American esports franchise

Echo Fox was an American esports organization. It was founded on December 18, 2015, by retired basketball player Rick Fox, who created Echo Fox after he purchased the NA LCS spot of Gravity Gaming. The organization had expanded into various games with teams competing in titles such as Gears of War, Call of Duty, CS:GO, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Injustice 2,Madden NFL 19, Mortal Kombat, Super Smash Bros., and Street Fighter V. Echo Fox had several fighting game players with championship titles and are a well known organization in the professional scene.

NRG Esports is an American esports organization based in Los Angeles, California. It has rosters in League of Legends, Overwatch, Rocket League, Valorant, Counter-Strike 2 and a number of streamers on the internet platform Twitch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adrian (gamer)</span> American professional esports player

Adrian Ma, better known mononymously as Adrian, is an American professional League of Legends player who was most recently the support for Echo Fox of the LCS. He graduated from high school early at age 17 to attend the first varsity college esports team in the world, the program at Robert Morris University Illinois. Adrian has also played for XDG Gaming and Team Impulse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tempo Storm</span> American esports professional video game team

Tempo Storm is an American esports professional video game team that has teams competing in Age of Empires II, FIFA, Magic: The Gathering, fighting games, and Shadowverse. They have formerly held divisions in Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Fortnite, League of Legends,Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, Vainglory, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege,World of Warcraft, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Huni (gamer)</span> South Korean League of Legends player

Heo Seung-hoon, better known as Huni, is a South Korean former professional League of Legends player. He is currently an analyst for Riot Games in LCK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WildTurtle</span> Canadian video game player

Jason Tran, better known as WildTurtle, is a Canadian professional League of Legends player who is the bot laner for Shopify Rebellion of the LCS. He previously played for Team SoloMid, Cloud9, CLG, Immortals, and FlyQuest. WildTurtle played in the 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2020 World Championships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pobelter</span> American professional esports player

Eugene Park, better known as Pobelter, is an American retired League of Legends player who was formerly the mid laner for Counter Logic Gaming. He is a three-time champion of the LCS and has made four major international appearances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dardoch</span> American professional esports player

Joshua Hartnett, better known as Dardoch, is an American professional League of Legends player. He was named Rookie of the Split for the 2016 NA LCS Spring Split.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gamsu</span> South Korean professional esports player

Noh Yeong-Jin, better known as Gamsu, is a South Korean professional League of Legends player. He began his professional esports career with League of Legends, playing as a top laner for several teams, such as Fnatic, Team Dignitas, and Samsung Galaxy Blue. Noh transitioned to professional Overwatch in 2016, competing for CONBOX in the OGN APEX Series. With the inception of the Overwatch League in 2017, Noh signed with the Boston Uprising before being traded to the Shanghai Dragons a season later. After one season with the Dragons, Noh signed with the Dallas Fuel. In late 2020, Noh retired from competitive Overwatch to pursue a career in League of Legends again. He played on 100 Thieves' academy teams until he was signed with Dignitas in mid-2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Misfits Gaming</span> Esports organization based in the United States

Misfits Gaming is a professional esports organization based in Boca Raton, Florida, with players competing in League of Legends, Overwatch, Call of Duty, Fortnite, and Roblox. It was founded on 18 May 2016 by Ben Spoont, initially launching as a League of Legends Challenger Series team. It is also partnered by creating a Youtube channel and a Roblox gaming studio called Pixel Playground created by Karl Jacobs and popular Roblox Youtuber KreekCraft on the 24 March 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Los Angeles Valiant</span> American professional esports team

Los Angeles Valiant is an American professional Overwatch esports team representing the city of Los Angeles, California. Valiant compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's West region. Founded in 2017, Los Angeles Valiant is one of twelve founding members of the OWL and one of two professional Overwatch teams based in Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Houston Outlaws</span> American professional esports team

The Houston Outlaws are an American professional Overwatch esports team based in Houston, Texas. The Outlaws compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's West region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Guardians</span> American esports organization

The Golden Guardians (GG) were an American esports organization owned by the Golden State Warriors. The organization was one of four that joined the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) in 2018 after the league began franchising, the others being 100 Thieves, Clutch Gaming and OpTic Gaming. On December 18, 2019, the Golden Guardians announced their expansion into the professional scenes of Apex Legends, Teamfight Tactics and World of Warcraft.

The 2018 NA LCS season was the seventh season of the North American League of Legends Championship Series, a professional esports league for the video game League of Legends. The season was divided into two splits: Spring and Summer. The Spring Split began on January 20 and culminated with the playoff finals on April 8, 2018. The Summer Split began on June 16 and culminated with the Spring Split finals on September 9, 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Immortals Gaming Club</span>

Immortals, LLC, doing business as Immortals Gaming Club (IGC), is a collective esports and gaming company. The company rebranded from Immortals to Immortals Gaming Club in 2019 after they acquired Brazil's Gamers Club. IGC owns and operates IGC Esports, which houses the Immortals, MIBR, and the Los Angeles Valiant, and also has a partnership with the Brazilian sports club Corinthians.

References

  1. "Immortals esports team raises money from an elite investment consortium". VentureBeat. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
  2. Rosen, Daniel (October 18, 2017). "Report: Immortals NA LCS application declined". theScore esports. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
  3. Fischer, Ben (November 21, 2017). "Immortals Disappointed By Riot Games' Decision Not To Include It In NA LCS". The Esports Observer. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
  4. 1 2 Goslin, Austen (June 12, 2019). "Immortals Gaming acquires Infinite Esports parent company of OpTic Gaming and Houston Outlaws". Polygon. Retrieved December 5, 2019.
  5. 1 2 Cleary, Daniel (June 12, 2019). "Immortals confirm OpTic Gaming buyout and reveal plans for the brand". Dexerto. Retrieved December 5, 2019.
  6. Lingle, Samuel (October 7, 2015). "Meet the Immortals, the venture capital-funded esports franchise that bought Team 8's LCS spot". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
  7. Jarvey, Natalie (October 7, 2015). "Entertainment, Tech Investors Acquire Esports Franchise". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved November 1, 2015.
  8. Lingle, Samuel (October 14, 2015). "Dodo8 ends his playing career, moves on to player management". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
  9. Raven, Josh (December 7, 2015). "Huni, Pobelter, WildTurtle headline star-studded Immortals roster". The Daily Dot . Archived from the original on December 11, 2015. Retrieved December 8, 2015.
  10. Volk, Pete (December 7, 2016). "Immortals signs Dardoch as new jungler". The Rift Herald. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  11. Volk, Pete (December 9, 2016). "Immortals signs Flame, Cody Sun on new roster". The Rift Herald. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  12. Wolf, Jacob (December 12, 2016). "Sources: Immortals sign Olleh, will compete Tuesday". ESPN . Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  13. "Introducing Olleh as the Immortals support". immortals.gg. December 13, 2016. Archived from the original on April 9, 2018. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  14. 1 2 Abbas, Malcolm (September 4, 2017). "TSM defeat Immortals to win their third straight NA LCS title". Dot Esports. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
  15. 1 2 Goslin, Austen (October 12, 2017). "Worlds 2017 Group Stage: Group B finale recap". The Rift Herald. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
  16. Li, Xing (October 19, 2017). "Why kicking Immortals out of the NA LCS is a mistake". Dot Esports. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  17. Immortals (January 13, 2022). "Immortals and Progressive Insurance Announce Multi-Year League of Legends Naming Rights Deal". www.prnewswire.com.
  18. Wolf, Jacob. "Immortals purchase Tempo Storm's Counter-Strike team". ESPN. Retrieved June 1, 2016.
  19. "IMMORTALS CS:GO Division Update". immortals.gg. Archived from the original on July 25, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  20. 1 2 Gonzales, Dennis. "Immortals win DreamHack Summer 2016 after 2-0 victory over NiP". theScore esports. Retrieved September 13, 2016.
  21. 1 2 Malachowski, Michal. "C9 win CyberPowerPC Summer 2016". HLTV.org. Retrieved September 13, 2016.
  22. 1 2 Robichaud, Andrew. "ESPORTS Sep 4 Immortals beats Cloud9 to win Northern Arena". The Sports Network. Retrieved September 13, 2016.
  23. "Paulo Velloso confirms talks with Immortals over mibr brand". HLTV.org. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  24. "Draft5 - O calendário do CS brasileiro". Draft5 (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  25. Wolf, Jacob. "Immortals signs CEO 2016 champion ANTi". ESPN. Retrieved September 13, 2016.
  26. Wolf, Jacob. "Immortals pick up Smash Bros Melee player Shroomed". ESPN . Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  27. Rose, Victoria (September 13, 2017). "Immortals acquires Korean Team Phoenix roster". The Flying Courier. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
  28. Bonifacio, Patrick. "Forev makes his exit from Immortals' Dota 2 roster". Dot Esports. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
  29. Chouadria, Adel (July 12, 2017). "Blizzard announces team owners and locations for Overwatch League". ESPN. Retrieved July 8, 2018.[ verification needed ]
  30. "Overwatch: Bigger than the Premier League?". BBC News. BBC. July 12, 2017. Retrieved July 6, 2018.[ verification needed ]
  31. 1 2 Takahashi, Dean (July 14, 2017). "Immortals CEO relishes chance to kick the a** of Patriots owner's team in Overwatch League". Venture Beat. Retrieved March 20, 2019.[ verification needed ]
  32. Carpenter, Nicole (October 23, 2017). "Immortals' Overwatch team is now known as the Los Angeles Valiant". Dot Esports. Retrieved July 10, 2018.[ verification needed ]
  33. Stubbs, Mike (October 23, 2017). "Immortals CEO Noah Whinston Reveals Los Angeles Valiant 'Overwatch' League Franchise". Forbes. Retrieved March 20, 2019.[ verification needed ]
  34. "Los Angeles Valiant unveil roster". over.gg. November 2, 2017. Retrieved March 20, 2019.[ verification needed ]