Update (January 18th 2023): OG LDN UTD have departed Valorant after ‘carefully evaluating options’.
Update (August 30th 2022): A report by Gliscor for Blix claims that LDN UTD are ‘looking to leave Valorant and the competitive esports scene in general’, opting for event hosting and tournament organising instead of fielding competitive rosters.
Gliscor writes that ‘lack of funding motivated the changes’ and a ‘change in strategy would take place unless new investments come into play’.
However, Esports News UK understands LDN UTD may not be stepping away from fielding esports teams entirely – it may have a grassroots team in Valorant for example. While they’re revising their strategy, LDN UTD originally were set up as a grassroots org and LDN’s rise in Valorant (with OG etc) looks to have come quicker than expected – and at a cost.
Update: LDN UTD posted the following update:
The news comes as Valorant franchising is in the works, with Riot speaking to several orgs who hope to become partnered teams.
Original article (August 17th 2022):
UK esports organisation LDN UTD have stepped back from League of Legends in the UK and Nordics’ Northern League of League Championship (NLC).
They were most recently playing in Division 2 of the NLC, which doesn’t have a prize pool.
The decision was made after sweeping changes impacted UK and Nordics League of Legends this time last year, with Freaks 4U coming in as tournament organiser and implementing a multi-division structure similar to the German Prime League, while closing third-party grassroots LoL leagues like the UKEL, which LDN UTD had previously won.
LDN UTD’s League of Legends team most recently finished ninth in the Summer 2022 Season, placing them into the Division 2 promotions/relegations tournament.
Here, as first seed, they were set to play against fourth seed K5B, the winners of the recent Division 3 Summer 2022 playoffs lower bracket final. The other match will see Division 3 champions (and second seed) Verdant and last-place Division 2 team Lucent Esports go head-to-head.
However, with LDN UTD withdrawing from the NLC, this means that K5B will now get a bye in the Div 2 promotions/relegations tournament, and whoever loses in the Verdant/Lucent match will get a bye in the lower bracket round one.
The winner of this promotions tournament will qualify for NLC Division 2, while the runner-up will qualify for a winter split Div 2/3 playoff, and the third and fourth place teams will fall into NLC Division 3.
Some had contacted Esports News UK questioning the NLC’s decision to give the fourth seed a bye against LDN UTD instead of higher seeds Verdant or Lucent. But the 2022 LoL European Regional League rulebook has nothing in it regarding such a situation, where a team has dropped out prior to the tournament starting.
The news comes following some controversy around a last-minute change that Freaks 4U had made to the NLC Division 2 promotions format.
The tournament structure has been changed so one team promotes from Division 3 to Division 2, instead of two teams. This is due to there being no Division 2 Winter Split to send Division 2 teams to relegations, but the late change irked affected teams.
LDN UTD founder and CEO Oliver Weingarten had recently commented on this below:
LDN UTD’s LoL team had recently included Omar, Beartree, Woldjo, SARG/gras, RustySniper, Buzzy and Jamsu.
LDN UTD still have UK League of Legends streamer Miss Baffy on their books.
LDN UTD had also played in women’s League of Legends tournaments with their Ice team, who recently participated in the qualifier for the GirlGamer Oradea Festival.
The org also compete in Valorant, with their LDN UTD and OG partnership, and their FIFA player CallumN17 recently became a free agent.
Esports News UK understands there may be other internal challenges at LDN UTD, with the org expected to provide an update in due course.
While the lower tiers of UK/Nordics LoL have been criticised by some, NLC Division 1 has prizing and financial subsidies for teams, yet it is harder for lower division teams to reach. The promotion tournament to Division 1 takes place once per year, instead of twice per year as it used to in prior UK League tournaments.
Esports News UK reached out to LDN UTD and NLC for comment.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
