C9 owner flexes on LCS rivals while offering Challenger players for ‘zero buyout’

Cloud9 owner Jack Etienne made a bold offer to the other nine teams in the LCS following his League of Legends team’s victory in the Spring Finals on Sunday: take the franchise’s Challenger-level squad if you want, free of charge. 

Etienne urged any LCS squad interested in taking one player (or the whole team) and putting them in their starting lineup to reach out to C9 as soon as possible, largely because he believes the team is ready for the big stage and wants to give them a chance to play at the highest level immediately. 

“They’ve had a winning record in scrims vs LCS teams (including C9 LCS) all year and they are ready for the LCS stage,” Etienne said on Twitter. “You could even take the entire team and most likely it’s an upgrade.”

The latter half of that statement could apply to some of the league’s lower-placing squads, who could potentially be in need of some reinforcements ahead of the Summer Split. Etienne would be willing to give the players on his Challengers squad a chance to play for any team in the league, so long as they are guaranteed to get the chance to start in the LCS. 

“My promise to each of these players is to develop their skills and give them a platform to get into the LCS,” he said.”

Four of the players on Cloud9’s Challenger-level squad already have LCS experience. FakeGod, Diplex, Lost, and Zeyzal have all played in the LCS at some point in the last three years, with the most recent appearance coming from Diplex, who played for Cloud9 during the first half of this year’s Spring Split. Only jungler Tomio has not played for an LCS squad in his career yet.

C9’s Challenger team won the NACL this Spring, defeating Dignitas’ Challenger squad in the Spring Finals. It’s only the second time in North American League history that the same organization has won the LCS and the Challenger/Academy titles in the same split. The last time it happened was in 2020, when C9 also pulled it off. 

LCS teams have a little under two months to contact C9 on Etienne’s offer, as the Summer Split begins on June 1. Until then, C9, alongside LCS runners-up Golden Guardians, will be representing the LCS at this year’s Mid-Season Invitational.