One of Europe's newest Challenger Series teams, Misfits, has been sold to a new organization, known as eSports Now, whose major investor is Syfy channel co-founder, Hollywood Media Company CEO and communications attorney Mitchell Rubenstein. Additionally, the team has picked up two new players, former Millenium AD carry Liv "Hans" Steven and former KT Rolster support Lee "IgNar" Dong-geun.
The addition of Hans and IgNar, which expands the lineup to seven members, rounds out its new lineup with up-and-coming talent from across the globe.
For his part, Hans was a highlight player in the Millenium lineup last split, which failed to qualify for the League Championship Series last year. Meanwhile, in Korea, IgNar made quite the name for himself during his time with KT Rolster and Incredible Miracle. He even received a tryout with North American squad Team SoloMid but was not chosen to participate with its lineup.
"It has been a huge disappointment as a competitor to not qualify for LCS last split with Millenium," Hans told ESPN.com about joining the lineup. "I'm glad to be offered another chance with Misfits and to be part of that very promising lineup. It's now up to us to face a LCS team in the relegation tournament in a few months. For that, we need to prove we deserve to be in the Riot studio every week in Berlin competing against the best players out there. I want to win. I want to go to the LCS and make my dream come true."
The team's remaining lineup consists of British top laner Barney "Alphari" Morris, Korean jungler Kim "Wisdom" Tae-wan, Polish mid laner Marcin "Selfie" Wolski, French AD carry Soler "Yuuki60" Florent and Korean support Han "Dreams" Min-kook. With the addition of Hans and IgNar, Yuuki60 and Dreams will move to substitute roles for the time being. Managing the team will be long-standing manager Ali "Alicus" Saba.
As for Rubenstein, this is his first endeavor into esports. He's invested into eSports Now, which is a new esports venture by digital media and mobile consultant Ben Spoont. Prior to this endeavor, Spoont was the CEO and co-founder of a company called dresserIQ, which created web and mobile apps to help shoppers have a better online experience. Now, he'll look to apply his talents to the esports world.
"I am incredibly excited to embark on this new chapter with such a powerful group of players," he says. "It is an honor to work with quite possibly one of the most dynamic and talented rosters the Challenger Series has seen. We look forward to competing against the other teams and achieving our goal of entering the LCS."
The players were recently forced to assume ownership due to its former parent organization, Renegades, and its executives and owners Chris Badawi and Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles being banned from the league. Over the past few weeks, Badawi has helped the team transition to find a new buyer, with eSports Now being the final candidate.
"The last weeks have been super challenging as we had to make the best out of an unfortunate situation," Alicus tells ESPN about the ban. "Thankfully we were lucky to have some great buyers on the table, but Ben stood out with his commitment to attending to our immediate needs. Our team environment is in a really great place at the moment, and as we begin our journey through the Challenger Series, I'm really pumped to see just how far we can make it."
In the coming weeks, when the Challenger Series begins, the team will face off against the likes of the Copenhagen Wolves (who are currently up for sale), Team Huma, Epsilon eSports (formerly Inspire eSports), Millenium, and Team Forge. If it places top three after playoffs towards the end of the summer, it will have a chance to compete for a spot in the League Championship Series.