UPDATE 4/6/24 6:10pm BST: Lionscreed’s Founder, Abdiqani Ahmed, has contacted Esports Insider to provide more information on the situation. The article has been updated to reflect this.
British esports organisation Lionscreed has been removed from League of Legends’ NLC Division 1 for failing to meet financial obligations to players and staff.
The decision was announced on NLC’s social media channel and follows similar allegations made by former League of Legends coach Eunko.
Following the publication of the article, Lionscreed’s Founder and CEO, Abdiqani Ahmed, has since revealed that the payment disputes are regarding the organisation’s former players, Kang ‘Tempt’ Myung-gu and Kim ‘Yohan’ Yo-han. Ahmad has also stated that all other players from the roster have been paid in full.
The NLC, which is League of Legends’ European Regional League for the Nordics, UK and Ireland, has announced that following Lionscreed’s removal, NLC Division 2 winner BlueWhites will join the competition.
Founded in 2019, Lionscreed found recent success in the NLC, winning the most recent split (Spring Split 2024) and competing at EMEA Masters, League of Legends’ major tier-two EMEA event.
The NLC noted in a statement that Lionscreed was given until June 2nd to resolve its payment issues from the Spring Split, however, this did not happen. Moreover, the NLC highlighted that Lionscreed also failed to complete a roster for the upcoming Summer Split.
An excerpt of NLC’s statement reads: “The other NLC Div 1 teams were informed about the situation on May 24th, and since then, the NLC and Riot Games have worked on a plan of action in case Lionscreed didn’t manage to solve their issues in time.”
May 24th was the date which Eunko took to social media claiming that Lionscreed hadn’t paid its League of Legends team in Spring. This was followed up by a series of tweets including Eunko posting private messages between himself and Lionscreed’s team manager Robinho. One message alleges that the organisation’s Founder and CEO, Abdiqani Ahmed, requested Robinho to ask Eunko to post that he lied about the Lionscreed situation.
A variety of notable esports personalities have also commented on the matter on social media, including Michael ‘Veteran’ Archer and Resolve COO Jeff Simpkins.
According to a report from Esports News UK, individuals who have done video editing and creative work for Lionscreed in the past have also not been paid. This includes UK esports personality Foxdrop and video editor Brahim Touhami.
The news of Lionscreed’s failure to pay players follows on from UK organisation MNM Gaming failing to pay its Rainbow Six Siege players in 2023. Earlier this year MNM Gaming went into administration.
