North American League of Legends squad Team Liquid has reached out to Immortals to potentially acquire their jungler Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin and support Adrian "Adrian" Ma, sources close to both organizations and players tell ESPN.com. No deal or decision has been made, with sources close to the players saying that they will likely opt to stay together regardless of their team destination during the winter offseason.
Both Reignover and Adrian's contracts last until Oct. 31, following the conclusion of the League of Legends World Championship finals. Reignover, formerly of European squad Fnatic, and Adrian, formerly of North American squad Team Impulse, competed with one another throughout all of 2016 on Immortals, which they joined last winter. The approach from Liquid comes after co-CEO Steve Arhancet said in a Discord AMA last week that the team will overhaul their roster.
"We've given all our players permission to speak to other teams," Immortals CEO Noah Whinston tells ESPN.com. "Such inquiries do not need to be directed through us."
"We will 100 percent be doing a roster overhaul for the League of Legends team," Arhancet said in the AMA. "It's extremely disappointing results for the end of this season. Actually, it's the worst results that we've ever had ever since I started everything in League. So I'm really disappointed, and I think that there's a number of reasons for that, but the outcome of it is that we have to take a look at players committed to the roster."
Following the AMA, Arhancet penned a blog on the Team Liquid website stating that, "If Liquid can do great things with limited cash flow, imagine what we'll do in 2017 when we'll be able to do so much more with less limitations."
Arhancet's funding comment refers to an increase in available budget that comes as a result of venture fund aXiomatic, led by Golden State Warriors co-owner Peter Guber and Washington Capitals and Wizards co-owner Ted Leonsis, purchasing a controlling stake in the team.
While players are unable to sign with teams officially prior to Nov. 21, as limited by Riot Games, Liquid has already started making internal position changes for the 2017 season. Today, the team announced that it has replaced head coach Choi "Locodoco" Yoon-sub with its Challenger head coach David "DLim" Lim.
Adrian, Reignover and Team Liquid declined to comment.