LMQ CEO joins Royal Club as CEO
After previous rumor surrounding Royal Club's ownership being in turmoil, the Royal Club Weibo updated with a new logo image and the name "Star Horn," indicating changes to come. This was nearly two weeks ago. Today, Royal Club officially announced the identity of their new CEO, Li "eNo" Yande, who will lead the Star Horn HuangZu Club in LPL.
Through amiable negotiations with American club LMQ, current LMQ_TC CEO eNo officially joins SH HuangZu Club as CEO, and at the same time will be responsible for North American team LMQ as well as Chinese SH team HuangZu operations.
Li Yande (eNo) was previously event director for L.ACE, and during his role there led Chinese teams out to the 2013 All Star and the S3 World Finals. In December of 2013 he led LMQ in expanding into North America, becoming the first non-China-based team to advance into professional leagues with Chinese players. We hope that he can lead SH HuangZu and LMQ to further successes, and we look forward to it!
—HuangZu Weibo, 2014
Yande, also known as "maniac" and "eNo" comes with experience as a L.ACE director and current CEO of LMQ. New ownership and a new logo also complements changes to the roster, as Royal Club picked up star solo queue player, corn, as their mid laner for the International Esports Tournament. More roster changes could follow before the new LPL split begins.
This sparks lingering questions about how LMQ will be affected by this new decision. According to the LCS rulebook, no LCS team owner is allowed to own a team in any other main professional League, including OGN Champions, LPL, EU LCS, NA LCS, and GPL.
3.1 Team Ownership Restriction
No Owner or Affiliate of Owner may own or control more than one “Professional”team, where “Professional” is defined as a team competing in the highest division or tier of the NA LCS, EU LCS, Garena Premier League, OGN Champions, or Tencent League of Legends Pro League. If an Owner or Affiliate of Owner is found to have any financial interest or benefit or any level of influence in another team, he/she will be required to immediately divest said interest in one of the two teams and may be subject to punishment by the LCS.
It is likely the Club has a course of action to deal with the rules or, perhaps, the ownership is temporary. If not, LMQ could see future difficulties in the LCS as a result.
In addition to questions concerning the LCS rulebook, many are still searching for hints regarding the whereabouts and circumstances of Royal Club and LMQ's previous owner and manager. Popular Chinese streamer, R2becca, revealed on Weibo that previous manager, 油条, is no longer part of the Royal Club organization, and has disappeared, supporting previous rumors that the organization was abandoned.
HuangZu 油条 is no longer HuangZu. Took over 300k of the coaching guild 90110's money and ran, disappeared. This includes 45 days of my hard earned salary. Who can tell me, who should I go to for help? Am I really going to have to just let it go??? If I can't get the money back, then can we expose him? How many of us has he caused to not be able to pay back our credit cards, our rent, our debts. Caused my heart to break.
—R2becca, 2014
Upon further investigation, it appears 油条 changed his Weibo ID to liwei77172, and he has not posted since March 29th. These signs point to Li Yande's new position as the CEO of HuangZu as something of a quick fix to fill a void. For updates on HuangZu's ownership and LMQ's potential LCS conflicts, please check onGamers. We will provide updates as they become available.
Thanks to Felon Lee for sources on Royal Club management and Josh Lee for translations.
