Immortals Academy Head Coach Kublai "Kubz" Barlas has announced his departure from the roster, looking to return to Europe for the Summer Split. In his statement, he had mentioned having an opportunity to grow his career in the region.

This Spring Split, Immortals Academy finished in ninth place, with seven wins and eleven losses. Carrying over from the previous split with OpTic Gaming, which entered 2020 as Immortals following a rebrand, Kubz had seen a difficult time with the previous couple of seasons of Academy, finishing ninth and seventh in standings during Spring and Summer of 2019.

His statement follows:

“Coming back to North America has been a wonderful opportunity for me to reconnect with people and forge new relationships, but it’s time for me to go back to Europe. The culture of North American League of Legends isn’t suited for me and the vision Immortals has for their League of Legends division is vastly different from my own. At the end of the Regular Season, I asked Immortals for my release and they have been gracious enough to comply. With that in mind, I will be mutually parting ways with the organization and returning to Europe for the 2020 Summer Split.

During my time on OPT/IMT, I have had the chance to work primarily with domestic players and have had the good fortune to see many of them compete on the LCS stage. I’ve enjoyed my time living in Los Angeles and am glad I was finally able to come back and experience the North American scene for myself. I’ve enjoyed the challenge of player development and am proud of the program I helped build. That said, I still have the passion to compete at the highest level in the West as a Head Coach, and that means finding a path back to the LEC.

This is my 8th full year coaching, I am proud of everything I have accomplished so far and I am looking forward to focusing on results and trying my best to win, something I haven’t had the chance to do since 2018. I’d like to thank all of the players who have played for me during my time in North America along with Keaton, Ryuke, Laclypse, GoToOne and all the non-League of Legends staff at IMT (who are all wonderful people who I wish I had gotten to work with more!!!) Best of luck in the Summer to you.

There is domestic NA talent in Academy, some that is even LCS ready and I am hopeful that teams will be more willing to take risks and use them moving forward. I’ll have news on where I’m going soon. Thanks to everyone who supports me, the future is looking bright and I can’t wait.”