The Superior Court of California County of Los Angeles will handle distribution of $30.5 million that is owed to Echo Fox by Riot Games for the sale of the team's League of Legends Championship Series Slot, according to a document filed with the court on Oct. 4.
That decision settles one disagreement between three-time NBA Champion and Echo Fox co-founder Rick Fox and one of his partners Stratton Sclavos over how the slot proceeds should be divided up between Echo Fox's stakeholders. The agreement to default to the court's judgement is signed by attorneys representing Vision Esports, Esports, LLC and Rick Fox.
Riot will pay the funds to the court, who will only distribute them if Echo Fox's general partner and over 80% of their limited partners agree or if the court makes a separate order of its own.
The new filing is a part of a lawsuit filed by the three Vision Esports funds -- which are led by Sclavos and contain backing from the likes of the New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, Kevin Durant and more -- against Echo Fox majority owners Esports, LLC and Fox. Esports, LLC is comprised of a number of shareholders, the largest among them being an entity majority owned by Fox and Axin Digital Sports Group, another entity split between Fox and his partner Khalid Jones's SourceRock Ventures.
Fox and Esports, LLC are set to be removed as Echo Fox's general partner on Oct. 21, after over 80% of their limited partners agreed to oust him and notified him and Jones on Aug. 21. Jones himself was among the signatories of that removal letter that would begin the process of ousting Fox.
On Sept. 26, Riot Games agreed to sell the Echo Fox slot to Evil Geniuses for a total of $33 million -- $30.5 million due to Echo Fox and $2.5 million due directly to Riot.
That ended a saga that put the slot in jeopardy after Riot notified Echo Fox in May that it would have 60 days to remove co-founder and shareholder Amit Raizada from its cap table because of racist language he used towards former Echo Fox CEO Jace Hall.
Riot later gave the Echo Fox group an seven-day extension in July, which led to a deal with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment for $30.25 million. However, that deal fell through after the Kroenke group were sued by Sentinels CEO Rob Moore for the alleged violation of a verbal joint venture agreement that Moore claimed entitled him to take part in the Kroenke's esports businesses. Moore and the Sentinels operated Overwatch League team the Los Angeles Gladiators for the Kroenke group from late 2017 to September 2019.
After the Echo Fox deal with the Kroenkes collapsed, the shareholders evaluated between two deals -- one from Mosaic Media Investment Partners, led by Hollywood executive Allen Shapiro, and another directly from Evil Geniuses. Fox and the other partners could not agree on a sale, which led to them forfeiting the slot to Riot Games on Aug. 15.