Evil Geniuses have verbally agreed to facilitate a transfer with Cloud9 that will see jungler Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen and support Tristan "Zeyzal" Stidam move to the new League of Legends Championship Series franchise, league sources told ESPN.
The deal cannot be executed until the start of the free-agency period, which opens on Nov. 18 at 4 p.m. PT. Evil Geniuses and Cloud9 declined to comment.
Svenskeren and Zeyzal will be the foundation of an Evil Geniuses team that will have to build from scratch after the organization acquired Echo Fox's League Championship Series slot in September.
The team will now search for top lane, mid lane and AD carry roles, with significant flexibility if Svenskeren declares himself as a North American resident. Originally from Denmark, Svenskeren became eligible this offseason for that declaration after competing on Cloud9 and Team SoloMid for each of the past eight splits.
The deal will also include Cloud9 Academy top laner Colin "Kumo" Zhao and AD carry Matthew "Deftly" Chen, who will move to Evil Geniuses alongside Svenskeren and Zeyzal, sources said. Kumo and Deftly are not guaranteed to start for Evil Geniuses in the League Championship Series, as Evil Geniuses continue to evaluate various options throughout the offseason.
Evil Geniuses have fleshed out much of their front office but have yet to hire a coach. The managerial team for the organization includes former Riot Games staffer Greg Kim, former Dignitas general manager Andrew Barton and former 100 Thieves team manager Sabrina Wong.
Evil Geniuses, who competed in the LCS early in its existence, will return to the league under new ownership after agreeing to pay $33 million for Echo Fox's slot. Evil Geniuses was acquired by Chicago-based investment firm Peak6 Investments in May.
The move is the first of the 2019-20 offseason, which will see three new teams, including Evil Geniuses, in North America come under new executive leadership.
Svenskeren and Zeyzal recently competed at the 2019 League of Legends World Championship in Berlin, but Cloud9 failed to advance past the group stage.