It’s been over four years since NRG Esports last took part in professional League of Legends. But today, the organization revealed that it’ll be making its return to the scene by acquiring Vietnam’s best team and recent 2021 VCS Spring Split champions, GAM Esports.
The team has partnered with Vietnamese entertainment company CMG.ASIA to form NRG Asia and the first decision made was to pick up GAM ahead of next season. The group will provide “top quality training, resources, and infrastructure” for the team in an attempt to make another World Championship appearance, according to a press release.
“With so much passion around esports in Southeast Asia, we thought Vietnam was the perfect place to launch NRG’s global expansion,” NRG co-founder and CEO Andy Miller said. “Besides, Randy Dobson, CMG.ASIA Chairman, and Mark Mastrov, the founder of 24-Hour Fitness & co-founder of NRG Esports, have a history of successful collaborations going back over two decades.”
The last time NRG had a pro League team was in 2016 when it acquired the slot of Team Coast in the North American LCS. At the time, its roster consisted of players like Quas, Santorin, GBM, Ohq, and KiWiKiD. The team finished in fifth place in the Spring Split and ninth in the summer. With relegation systems still in place, NRG ended up getting relegated out of the league, losing the spot to Phoenix1 ahead of the 2017 Spring Split.
Meanwhile, GAM have constantly been a top-three team in Vietnam. They finished first in the regular season four times in a row from the 2019 Summer Split to now and just won the 2021 VCS Spring Split championship after finishing with a 13-1 record. The team is also known by multiple fans across the globe after their performances at various World Championships.
With the support of NRG at their side for next season, we could see GAM return to the Worlds stage again when October rolls around.
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Published: May 13, 2021 09:30 am