Immortals (esports)

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

Immortals
Short nameIMT
GameLeague of Legends
FoundedOctober 7, 2015 (2015-10-07)
Based inLos Angeles, California
LocationUnited States
OwnerNoah Whinston
Clinton Foy
CEOAri Segal
Parent groupImmortals Gaming Club
Websiteimmortals.gg

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, OpTic Gaming 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, 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]

Team staff
ID Name Position
Keaton Keaton Cryer General manager
Zaboutine Thomas Si-Hassen Head coach
Kublai Kublai Barlas Academy head coach

Tournament results
  • 1st — 2016 NA LCS Spring Round Robin
  • 3rd — 2016 NA LCS Spring Playoffs
  • 2nd — 2016 NA LCS Summer Round Robin
  • 3rd — 2016 NA LCS Summer Playoffs
  • 7th — 2017 NA LCS Spring Round Robin
  • 2nd — 2017 NA LCS Summer Round Robin
  • 2nd — 2017 NA LCS Summer Playoffs

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Main article: Made in Brazil (esports)

Immortals acquired Tempo Storm's fully Brazilian lineup on June 1, 2016.[17] The former coach of SK Gaming, Wilton "zews" Prado replaced Gustavo "SHOOWTiME" Gonçalves on July 22, 2016.[18] On June 21, Immortals won DreamHack Summer 2016 after beating Ninjas in Pyjamas 2–0.[19] The team placed 3rd-4th at CyberPowerPC Summer 2016, losing to Cloud9 in the semi-finals.[20] Immortals won Northern Arena 2016 on September 4 after they beat Cloud9 in the finals.[21] 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.[22][23]

Tournament results

Bold denotes a Major

  • 1st — DreamHack Summer 2016[19]
  • 3rd-4th — CyberPowerPC Summer 2016[20]
  • 1st — Northern Arena 2016[21]
  • 2nd — PGL Kraków Major 2017
  • 2nd — DreamHack Montreal 2017[24]

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]

Former roster
ID Name Games Main character(s) Join date
ANTi Jason Bates Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Super Smash Bros. Brawl		 Mario, Cloud Strife
Meta Knight		 2016-09-13
Shroomed DaJuan McDaniel Super Smash Bros. Melee Sheik 2016-12-22

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
ID Position
Royal 1v1
ahcraaaap 2v2
thegod_rf 2v2
LaPoKaTi 1v1
Trainer Luis Coach

Rainbow Six Siege
Main article: Made in Brazil (esports)

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
Main article: Los Angeles Valiant

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]

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. Goslin, Austen (June 12, 2019). "Immortals Gaming acquires Infinite Esports parent company of OpTic Gaming and Houston Outlaws". Polygon. Retrieved December 5, 2019.
  5. 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. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
  9. Raven, Josh (December 7, 2015). "Huni, Pobelter, WildTurtle headline star-studded Immortals roster". 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. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  14. Abbas, Malcolm (September 4, 2017). "TSM defeat Immortals to win their third straight NA LCS title". Dot Esports. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
  15. 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. Wolf, Jacob. "Immortals purchase Tempo Storm's Counter-Strike team". ESPN. Retrieved June 1, 2016.
  18. "IMMORTALS CS:GO Division Update". immortals.gg. Archived from the original on July 25, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  19. Gonzales, Dennis. "Immortals win DreamHack Summer 2016 after 2-0 victory over NiP". theScore esports. Retrieved September 13, 2016.
  20. Malachowski, Michal. "C9 win CyberPowerPC Summer 2016". HLTV.org. Retrieved September 13, 2016.
  21. Robichaud, Andrew. "ESPORTS Sep 4 Immortals beats Cloud9 to win Northern Arena". The Sports Network. Retrieved September 13, 2016.
  22. "Paulo Velloso confirms talks with Immortals over mibr brand". HLTV.org. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  23. "Draft5 - O calendário do CS brasileiro". Draft5 (in Portuguese). Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  24. "DreamHack Montreal 2017". Liquipedia Counter-Strike Wiki. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  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.
  30. "Overwatch: Bigger than the Premier League?". BBC News. BBC. July 12, 2017. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
  31. 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.
  32. Carpenter, Nicole (October 23, 2017). "Immortals' Overwatch team is now known as the Los Angeles Valiant". Dot Esports. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
  33. Stubbs, Mike (October 23, 2017). "Immortals CEO Noah Whinston Reveals Los Angeles Valiant 'Overwatch' League Franchise". Forbes. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
  34. "Los Angeles Valiant unveil roster". over.gg. November 2, 2017. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
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