FC Barcelona joins League of Legends esports

After months filled with rumours and reports, FC Barcelona, ​​one of the largest football teams in Europe, will finally make its foray into League of Legends competitive, as part of the top-level Spanish League of Legends league.

Known as the Superliga, this competition has become one of the most important competitions around the European continent, thanks to both to its audience reach and to the legacy of the teams that have been part of it, the most important being the current two-time LEC champion, MAD Lions.

The official arrival of the Blaugrana club to the Superliga came after weeks of negotiations with Mediapro, the entity in charge of managing the tournament through their brand “LVP”, who announced the availability of a spot for 2022 after the departure of S2V eSports for the next season.

According to the outlet 2Playbook, the team chaired by Joan Laporta “sent the documentation related to the project and the purchase days before the last assembly of delegates, and Mediapro's legal services have already given the green light to it”.

Likewise, it was announced that among the clubs interested in acquiring this place were Sevilla FC and Case Esports, although in the end, it would be the Catalan organization that would keep it with a bid of 200,000 euros.

Barça’s internal structure for this new competition is unknown at the moment, although sources indicate they are already making the first signings.

In addition, it’s not known if the current financial situation of the club will put their stay at risk for more than one season, since the average budget of a League of Legends team in the Superliga is around 300,000 euros per year.

However, after they reportedly assumed the entire financial burden of the project with the agreement, it’s expected that their stay in the Superliga will be long-term.

FC Barcelona’s debut in the Superliga is slated for January 2022.

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Featured image courtesy of Riot Games.