Since the start of the 2015 season, Riot Games has limited organizations to only having 2 teams. For Dignitas, this was not a problem, not until their European Challenger team made it into the LCS, now Dignitas has a NA and EU LCS. Oh well, what is Dignitas to do…sell off to the highest bidder that’s what! Got a spare 500,000$ lying around? Well then you can make the opening bid! Over at pcgamesn.com, Jeremy Peel spoke with Dig owner Michael “Odee” O’Dell:
Odee doesn’t know how high the winning bid is likely to be. Or, indeed, which team is likely to go – though either way, they’ll probably be replaced by a new Dignitas Challenger team.
“It all depends on what bids come in,” he says, carefully. “We’ve spoken to some people from the Middle East. But I can’t say who or what at this point.”
The eventual buyer will need to work through Riot’s system of checks and balances to make sure their new hires still qualify for the LCS. And, perhaps a harder challenge, they’ll need to gain Odee’s trust. Some of the interested parties have been around e-sports “for a long time”, while others are brand new.
“I’ve got to understand who I’m selling it to,” reasons Odee. “Who the new people are – what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.”
His unease is born of years spent watching e-sports suffer as a result of iffy investments. In 2009, Odee was made a Community Council member for UKeSA, which was to be the UK’s governing body for e-sports – until the organisation collapsed into bankruptcy the same year.
Odee talks more on why he really wants to sell the team off to the right buyers, and what he wants to after the sale, and a possible move into Dota2. Lots going on, so check out the full article here.
