Bwipo has been on Fnatic’s League of Legends team since 2018. But the 21-year-old top laner recently revealed that he got a lucrative offer to play in North America a couple of years ago.
In the latest episode of “Summoning Insight,” an esports podcast hosted by Thorin and MonteCristo, Bwipo said 100 Thieves approached him with a $2.4 million, three-year deal in 2018 while he was a rookie on Fnatic.
That would’ve been one of the most expensive deals in North America at the time. But Bwipo wasn’t ready to give up on his achievement in Europe after reaching the World Championship finals with Fnatic in 2018.
“In the same day, I knew I wasn’t going to take it,” Bwipo said. “How could I? We went from Europe never making it anywhere past semifinals to Worlds finals, and I was a part of that.”
Bwipo joined Fnatic as a substitute in January 2018 and was soon moved into the starting roster in March after his great performance and sOAZ’s injury. Fnatic kept switching between the top laners over the course of the year, giving priority to sOAZ after he recovered. During the 2018 World Championship, however, Bwipo received more playing time after being seen as the better top laner at the time.
With Bwipo in the top lane, Fnatic made a deep run to the World Championship finals, helping Europe as a region advance past the semifinals for the first time since season two. But they fell to Invictus Gaming in a one-sided stomp by the LPL representatives.
After hearing about Bwipo’s $2.4 million offer from 100 Thieves, G2 Esports jungler Jankos jokingly picked up the phone to talk to CEO Carlos Rodriguez on stream earlier today.
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Published: Nov 3, 2020 11:07 am