The League Championship Series announced Wednesday that it is selling the open slot vacated by Echo Fox.
LCS reached an agreement Tuesday that terminates Echo Fox's participation. As part of the agreement, the LCS will sell the now vacant 10th slot in the league and "will provide the bulk of the proceeds from the sale to Echo Fox."
A 30-day application process to select a new long-term partner begins Friday.
The move comes after a potential deal with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment fell through last week.
"We'll be using an expedited process similar to the 2017 system that we used to select our initial long-term partners," LCS commissioner Chris Greeley wrote in a statement. "We will focus on evaluating each applicant's ownership profile, brand strategy, business plan, and team operational plan.
"Our goal remains to have an orderly transition as we add a new LCS team ahead of the 2020 season."
Wednesday afternoon, Echo Fox released a statement, backing Riot's decision to sell the team and reiterating the organization's commitment to other competitive gaming titles.
"The Echo Fox organization is proud to have worked so closely with Riot Games and the LCS these past few years, we made the decision to consent to the Riot process as it would allow a fair outcome for all parities involved. However, in addition to our support for our LCS team, we have long shown our commitment to growing and nurturing our teams in fighting games and battle royale games, and will continue to seek out and participate in the ever-expanding universe of esports competitions -- both domestic and international. We would like to thank Riot and Chris Greeley in helping us through this transition," Echo Fox said in a statement.
--Field Level Media