Riot Games declared that there are 25 teams that submitted an LOI (Letter of Intent) for the 2021 League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) franchise league.

While the ten LCK teams and eight Challengers Korea teams have submitted an LOI, several foreign esports teams such as those of traditional sports franchises have also expressed their interest.

Foreign esports organizations such as NRG Esports, Pittsburgh Knights, and FaZe Clan have shown their intentions. NRG Esports is an esports group owned by NBA team Sacramento Kings co-owner, Andy Miller. Shaquille O’Neal, Alex Rodriguez, Jennifer Lopez, etc are some of its investors. Pittsburgh Knights are in partnership with the NFL team, Pittsburgh Steelers.

Other than these teams, esports consulting group, World Game Star, and MCN group, Treasure Hunter submitted an LOI.

An official from Riot Games said, “Submitting an LOI is just simply declaring their intentions. We’ll have to see if it would lead to actually applying for the franchise. However, some of the teams have partnerships with large investors; it’s true that they seem very interested.”

LCK is an esports league that has an average of 463 million unique viewers per day. There are about 820 thousand average concurrent viewers. About 62% of the viewers are from foreign countries. Riot Games explained that one of the reasons for the interest is that the LCK is the last franchise league of the major regions.

The applications will be received up to the 19th of June and the screening process will follow starting from the 22nd.

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