Immortals are in the process of finalizing deals with top laner Paul "soaz" Boyer, AD carry Johnny "Altec" Ru and support Nickolas "Hakuho" Surgent to add to their revamped lineup ahead of the 2020 League of Legends Championship Series season, league sources told ESPN.
When completed, soaz, Altec and Hakuho will join the organization that made a big splash on Monday by winning a bidding war for jungler Jake "Xmithie" Puchero, as reported by ESPN. Xmithie was North America's most valuable free agent heading into the free agency period that opened Monday, with nearly half the league inquiring on him and Immortals and Team SoloMid becoming final bidders, according to sources.
Soaz, one of Europe's most legendary top laners, joins Immortals following a difficult year on Misfits, where he was ultimately benched and then released alongside several of his teammates amid disappointing performances. In September, Hakuho was released by Echo Fox, when the team's LCS slot was terminated by Riot Games. Altec competed on Echo Fox in early 2018 has been without a job since the team cut him due to budgetary concerns that summer.
The additions will see Immortals -- who acquired OpTic Gaming parent company Infinite Esports & Entertainment in May for $35 to $45 million in cash and equity -- completely revamp their roster. With the acquisition of OpTic and their League of Legends team, Immortals retained contracts for jungler Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett, mid laner Lee "Crown" Min-ho and Noh "Arrow" Dong-hyeon. The team agreed to move Crown in a transfer on Wednesday to Counter Logic Gaming, where he will replace outgoing mid laner Tristan "PowerOfEvil" Schrage.
Despite the shakeup, Immortals retained OpTic's League of Legends management and coaching staff, including team manager Keaton Cryer and coaches Thomas "Zaboutine" Si-Hassen and Kublai "Kubz" Barlas.
2020 will mark the first time Immortals have competed in the League of Legends Championship Series since losing their slot in November 2017, when Riot Games moved to a franchise model. Immortals and other organizations were replaced with new franchises then owned by the likes of the Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Infinite and 100 Thieves, who are backed by venture capital firms funded by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert.
Under new upper management led by former Arizona Coyotes executive Ari Segal, Immortals orchestrated the acquisition of Infinite whose majority owners -- Texas Rangers owners Ray Davis and Neil Leibman and Houston Astros minority owner John Havens -- did not want to invest more of their own capital into the operation, sources said. As a part of the acquisition, Davis, Leibman and Havens' ownership group, Texas Esports, became a shareholder in Immortals and gained a board seat alongside the likes of Anschutz Entertainment Group, former HP CEO Meg Whitman and others.
In addition to acquiring the League of Legends team and the brand, Immortals acquired the Houston Outlaws -- which it has since re-sold -- and later agreed to buy a Call of Duty League slot in Los Angeles. The Call of Duty slot will remain branded as OpTic, while the League slot will be rebranded as Immortals.
During their time in the LCS in 2016 through 2017, Immortals became a fan favorite and had success that culminated in a 2017 League of Legends World Championship bid, just one month before losing their slot during franchising.