The LCS has evolved immensely since 2015, with the premiere North American League of Legends circuit having grown since its days of relative infancy. Back in 2015, it felt as though the rapidly modernizing LCS was getting as advanced as it could, and since then, the league has only grown more.
Eight years ago, the biggest quality that the LCS had was its promotion/relegation system that consistently allowed teams looking to prove themselves to rise up through the ranks and get a chance to compete on the LCS stage. One of those teams was Gravity, who purchased its slot in the LCS after Curse Academy qualified for the league via the 2015 Expansion Tournament. And in a recent AMA thread on the official League subreddit, former Gravity team owner Davis Vague went into detail about his time as the team’s figurehead.
When the LCS expanded from eight teams to 10 prior to the 2015 season, Gravity was welcomed in as one of its new additions. But the team didn’t stick around all that long as its slot in the league was sold to Echo Fox just 11 months after Gravity was formed.
In Vague’s AMA, subject points included the team’s chemistry during its brief LCS run, his reflections on the mistakes he made as a young owner, and perhaps most importantly, the origin story of how the team got its signature leather jacket uniforms. In short, they were a last resort—”the first thing [they] could find” in a small shop in southern California.
At the time of Gravity’s tenure in the league, Vague’s ownership of the team had been heavily criticized. And in last night’s AMA, the former owner called much of the criticism he received “valid” and said he has had plenty of time to reflect on it all since selling the team’s slot shortly after its only season.
“I was too young, too inexperienced to manage a team, and frankly I was just excited to be out there doing it, so I didn’t take it as seriously as I should’ve,” Vague said. He also noted that he “[does] and [doesn’t] regret the sale, but mostly [doesn’t].”
Gravity was mostly a self-funded, out-of-pocket project that was given legs to stand on by Vague’s own money. Although many organizations at the top of the LCS food chain have found ways to keep themselves afloat, Vague said in his AMA that he can empathize with organizations that have felt the need to drop out of the league due to financial circumstances in recent years. “I think established orgs have found great sustainable ways to remain profitable, but I couldn’t do that, and I can see why some orgs drop out like we did,” he said.
Long before he got a chance to serve as the head coach of Cloud9 in 2022, Nick “LS” De Cesare got his start in the LCS with Gravity back in 2015. Vague specifically said he expected someone in the comments to ask about his experience with LS and that it was the “only thing I don’t want to talk about.”
On the subject of LS, Vague left only an eponymous answer: “He and I did spend time together and we were friendly for the large majority of time working together,” he said. “I’d just say we didn’t see eye to eye on some things and leave it at that.”
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Conversely, Vague spoke on the fond memories of his relationships with players and staffers on the team such as top laner Hauntzer (who was a true rookie that season), coach David “Cop” Roberson, as well as mid laner Keane. He also noted that Team Liquid owner (and former Team Curse owner) Steve Arhancet “was always so gracious” following the sale of the Curse Academy slot to Gravity.
“I think our players did most of the heavy lifting in terms of getting our name out there,” Vague said. “As I said in another comment, the jackets were a spur-the-moment thing and they did well for branding. I thought the logo was cool too—but again it was the players who made our name exciting.”
As for Vague these days, he has no intention of buying another LCS team and spends only some time keeping up with professional League while growing as a streamer.
Published: Aug 10, 2023 03:59 pm