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NBA-backed League of Legends teams continue to struggle in the NA LCS

Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets and Cleveland Cavaliers all bought franchises for this year's NA LCS.

League of Legends

The start of the new League of Legends season brought with it big changes, at least in the North American LCS. 

New franchising rules saw new organisations created to compete, with each spot in the league costing at least $10m. With few esports organisations having that kind of cash to throw around, a number of NBA teams built new organisations to enter the league, but most of those have had a rough start.

With the third week of the season now over, it is becoming clear that some of these new-look organisations with NBA backing might have needed a little more time to get prepared. Of the three directly backed NBA teams, one sits last, with another third from bottom.

The Golden Guardians, the esports division of the Golden State Warriors, are yet to pick up a single win, with a 0-6 record. In week two they fired head coach Choi "Locodoco" Yoon-seop after a 0-4 start. In week three they again failed to pick up a win. Losses to NA LCS veterans Team Liquid and Team SoloMid keep them locked to the bottom of the table.

Clutch Gaming, the esports arm of the Houston Rockets, are also off to a difficult start in the league. They occupy joint seventh place with two wins and four losses. They too had a winless week, with defeats coming at the hands of Cloud9 and 100 Thieves.

Arguably the only NBA-backed team to be doing reasonably well are 100 Thieves, who are backed by the Cleveland Cavaliers. The organisation, managed by esports legend Matthew "Nadeshot" Haag, have collected four wins and two losses, which is enough for fourth in the league. They picked up a win against Clutch Gaming but fell in a very important match against TSM.

Elsewhere in the league, fellow newcomers OpTic Gaming are also struggling, with just one victory and five defeats, with FlyQuest sitting just above them with a 2-4 record. The big NA organisations then fill out most of the top half of the table. CLG and TSM sit in joint fifth place with 3-3 records, 100 Thieves are fourth at 4-2 and then Echo Fox, Team Liquid and Cloud9 all top the league with 5-1 records.

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While franchising seems to have been a positive for the NA LCS, it is clear that these new organisations are struggling. Out of four new organisations in the league, three of them are in the bottom four, with five of the six older teams occupying the top six. FlyQuest are the only team who played last year to be in the bottom four, while 100 Thieves are the only new organisation in the top half.

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