“Team Liquid, one of the most successful global esports team franchises has announced the sale of the controlling interest in their team to a diversified and accomplished ownership group led by two renowned professional sports team owners, media and technology entrepreneurs Peter Guber and Ted Leonsis. Steve Arhancet and Victor Goossens will continue in their respective roles as Co-CEOs of Team Liquid and will also serve as Directors for Team Liquid. Guber and Ted Leonsis will serve as Co-Executive Chairmen of their new esports ownership group aXiomatic and will be joined by a group of leading strategic partners in building their broad based esports enterprise. Bruce Stein, an accomplished executive from technology, content and consumer product companies will serve as CEO of aXiomatic.”
— aXiomatic eSports
As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, we have announced a groundbreaking strategic partnership with an investment group led by Peter Guber and Ted Leonsis. For myself and Steve, this has been a really long time in the making and we are excited finally to be able to share it with you. When we started looking for investment early last year, we had many different options from multiple minority investments to a majority investment. Throughout this long process I have really gotten to know Bruce and Peter as intelligent and trusting partners and they have put together a phenomenal investment group to invest alongside them—including Ted Leonsis whose background is a perfect mix of sports, technology, and innovation.
I would like to take this opportunity to speak briefly about what this means for Liquid. An important message I wanted to communicate today is that Steve and I are both on long term agreements as Co-CEO’s of the company. In a way, our involvement in leading Liquid is even more assured now than when we were sole owners. There is no place I would rather be than working to bring Liquid to greater heights together with our amazing staff and players. I’ve now put almost half of my life into Team Liquid, and I’m ready to begin a new chapter in the ongoing story of our presence in esports. Today I want to leave you with a message of reassurance that everything will be the same but better. I intend to write a long-form blog post in the coming weeks that will provide more insight into our decision and newly formed partnership. It will describe my hopes and aspirations, but it will also touch upon worries and concerns that we have had to think deeply about.
I want to give a shout out to Bruce who has been spearheading many of the conversations this past year. He’s one of the smartest, most grounded, and ethical individuals I’ve ever met and I am proud that I will be able to have him as a mentor. Most importantly thank you so much to all the fans and staff that helped to make this happen. We could not have done it without you.
- Victor "Nazgul" Goossens
I will always be a fan at heart—a gamer who fell in love with League of Legends. I decided to build a team because I've been passionate about gaming and competition since I first started playing WarCraft and StarCraft. It's the core inspiration for why I set out to build an esports team in the first place. I followed my heart and walked away from my career in Washington D.C. even though all I knew was that I loved gaming. It's been an unbelievable journey so far, and I am so proud to make a difference in this growing industry.
The recognition that esports has received over the past few years has been awe-inspiring, and the hobby that our fans and I share can now be counted among the biggest competitions in the world. This partnership will give our current and future players opportunities that I could only dream of when we started. Peter, Ted, and Bruce share the same ambitions that Victor and I have been working toward, and I am excited to learn as much as I can from them.
Team Liquid is already one of the organizations shaping the future of esports, but there are still so many opportunities that we want to explore. The goals I share with Victor have changed—they are now a lot bigger, and a lot bolder. There are very exciting times ahead, and we're all going to take this to the next level together.
Amazing to see where this journey has gone. I expect to be an old man still rooting for Liquid, OK?! And by old I mean older than I already am... like... a senior citizen.
Does this mean, Liquid can finally start paying good authors for their work? And we can get more of this good work?? Or will we still be a "fan-site" that creates its content itself for free, even though there are investors in the back? I am not quite sure what this announcement is all about and what the strings in the back are ... looking forward to the announced long form blog-post and I'll wait with my congrats until then. It seems like there should be a bit of scepsis behind that ... let's see and hope for the best.
I wonder if the acquisition is only for the Pro team, or all of Teamliquid. As far as I know TL.net is community driven, not part of the "pro" team per say.
I was talking recently to some friends about how I'm one of many people on here that's met life long friends by being on TL. How cool is it that 6 years later TL is in partnership with NBA teams...
That's one hell of an all-star investment group. I have a few concerns, but I guess for now I'll just have to take the word of Nazgul and the others that most things will remain the same and any changes will be for the better.
Just to clarify, though: 1) The brand will remain Team Liquid, right? Not aXiomatic? The intro paragraph has both listed (and aXiomatic as aXiomatic eSports) so I'm a little confused. Where does Team Liquid end and aXiomatic begin?
2) The investment group has controlling interest, but how will this be exercised? Will the regular running of the professional teams under the Liquid banner be left to Nazgul and Steve? Who handles things like, say, player contracts and salary, etc.?
3) This one's not really a concern, just curiosity. I'm sure this deal represents a greatly increased budget than before. Any big projects in the works?
So congratulations (from a business point of view) are very much in order. And concerned questions too - I bet not so long from now nothing will be similar to what we see today.
Looking forward to the blog post too, but whoa this seems pretty awesome, and as long as Nazgul is sticking around hopefully Liquid should be awesome :D
I have a lot of hope for this. I think this could be one of the big moments in E-Sports becoming big-time. On the other hand NBA front offices have a terrible reputation in sports, but I am optimistic about this deal.
It's very easy to miss that the subtitle is actually a link to the more detailed explanation. This TL article left me quite confused as there is nothing in it about Wizards Warriors and Magic Johnson
This is the link that has way more info on who the new owners are
Anyway, congrats Victor on the achievement. These really are some big fish investor (owning multiple real sports teams and more) so I wonder what they see in the future for TL.
On September 28 2016 03:50 Roybs wrote: plz just tell me that the name of the teams are still going to be liquid or else i demand my TL shirts to be refunded to whatevers new is gonna come
Wow, Congrats to TL. This is a big step in legitimizing eSports, having high profile investors from other major sects of the entertainment industry, even more important to have people from sports investing in this.
Somehow it doesn't surprise me that NBA players and personnel, seem to be the most open to eSports. I like to think that due to the fact that basket ball isn't a sport overly about strength, rather much more about skill sets allows them to value the virtual skills of pro gamers.
Edit: Glad to hear that, the team will continue to be Team Liquid. Seems like the purchase would be counterproductive from a marketing standpoint if they were to change the name. The Liquid brand is already established, the hope is more investment will be able to put their players in a better position to dominate their respective games.
Neat, but mixed feelings... as someone who put a TON of time and effort into this site and community well before it got to the heights it's reaching now, I don't know if I should feel proud of the legacy or mourn its passing. I dunno. It's neat though.
That said.. There's no one I trust more than Victor to make the right choices in these matters.
Damn it's been a long time though. I don't recognize most of the staff now lol
Is there one Teamliquid corporation that owns both the tl.net website and esports teams? The announcement sounds like there's a separate entity for the esports teams.
On September 28 2016 00:22 Baradrist wrote: Does this mean, Liquid can finally start paying good authors for their work? And we can get more of this good work?? Or will we still be a "fan-site" that creates its content itself for free, even though there are investors in the back? I am not quite sure what this announcement is all about and what the strings in the back are ... looking forward to the announced long form blog-post and I'll wait with my congrats until then. It seems like there should be a bit of scepsis behind that ... let's see and hope for the best.
On September 28 2016 07:56 FakeSteve[TPR] wrote: Neat, but mixed feelings... as someone who put a TON of time and effort into this site and community well before it got to the heights it's reaching now, I don't know if I should feel proud of the legacy or mourn its passing. I dunno. It's neat though.
That said.. There's no one I trust more than Victor to make the right choices in these matters.
Damn it's been a long time though. I don't recognize most of the staff now lol
congrats to all the ppl that made this possible for u
Perhaps clarify the relationship between the website and the pro team in your longform piece Nazgul. If in the unlikely event this endeavour somehow all turns to shit what will happen to this website? I wouldn't like some profit-crazed media company to end up buying it from receivers.
I just hope StarCraft 2 doesn't get overlooked and remains the main focus of this website. I read an article on ESPN.com and it mentioned all these games TL is in involed with, but not a single word about SC2.
On September 28 2016 08:31 TheEmulator wrote: This has nothing to do with the websites guys so don't worry.
I think thats kind of the issue, is that the website/liquipedia is part of the deal, and I think the value of this "deal" was for the pro teams, and not the website/wiki primarily. That's a double edged sword though, like we could be "under the radar" and really significant to the Liquid enterprises new owners, but at the same time I don't want there to be budget cuts 5, 10 years from now, and they look at the website/wiki as something that could be shut down to "trim the fat" because it might not be the focus or the most profitable part of the business. I don't hear about VC firms trying to acquire forums and the like
So yeah, I hope the corporate fat cats see the teamliquid community as something that's something completely unique and great for them, the TL community is something completely different that ONLY TL has. EG, Dignitas, TSM, CLG, Cloud9, however big those orgs are, they dont actually have a community associated with them.
On September 28 2016 10:30 Zato-1 wrote: Can't blame Nazgul and Arhancet for cashing out at this point; they've put in the work, and they earned this.
Cashing out is quite the opposite of what is happening here.
So selling out is a better term? Money goes to Naz and control of the brand goes to the group buying. Or is something drastically wrong about the basic understanding of whats happening
On September 28 2016 08:31 TheEmulator wrote: This has nothing to do with the websites guys so don't worry.
I think thats kind of the issue, is that the website/liquipedia is part of the deal, and I think the value of this "deal" was for the pro teams, and not the website/wiki primarily. That's a double edged sword though, like we could be "under the radar" and really significant to the Liquid enterprises new owners, but at the same time I don't want there to be budget cuts 5, 10 years from now, and they look at the website/wiki as something that could be shut down to "trim the fat" because it might not be the focus or the most profitable part of the business. I don't hear about VC firms trying to acquire forums and the like
So yeah, I hope the corporate fat cats see the teamliquid community as something that's something completely unique and great for them, the TL community is something completely different that ONLY TL has. EG, Dignitas, TSM, CLG, Cloud9, however big those orgs are, they dont actually have a community associated with them.
the website and liquipedia were not part of the deal, as far as I'm aware. The team was sold. Also, even if Liquipedia were sold and they decided to shut it down later, the CC-BY-SA license and the backups of it make that kind of pointless, as it would pop up somewhere else with a different name, and then a large portion of their dedicated users go *poof*
oops, wrong
Liquipedia will live on regardless though, because of the Share Alike license. Users would likely follow as well.
On September 28 2016 08:31 TheEmulator wrote: This has nothing to do with the websites guys so don't worry.
I think thats kind of the issue, is that the website/liquipedia is part of the deal, and I think the value of this "deal" was for the pro teams, and not the website/wiki primarily. That's a double edged sword though, like we could be "under the radar" and really significant to the Liquid enterprises new owners, but at the same time I don't want there to be budget cuts 5, 10 years from now, and they look at the website/wiki as something that could be shut down to "trim the fat" because it might not be the focus or the most profitable part of the business. I don't hear about VC firms trying to acquire forums and the like
So yeah, I hope the corporate fat cats see the teamliquid community as something that's something completely unique and great for them, the TL community is something completely different that ONLY TL has. EG, Dignitas, TSM, CLG, Cloud9, however big those orgs are, they dont actually have a community associated with them.
the website and liquipedia were not part of the deal, as far as I'm aware. The team was sold. Also, even if Liquipedia were sold and they decided to shut it down later, the CC-BY-SA license and the backups of it make that kind of pointless, as it would pop up somewhere else with a different name, and then a large portion of their dedicated users go *poof*
FO has eased my concerns about Liquipedia being potentially shut down, however, some staff says the deal was for "Liquid enterprises" which owns the website, Liquipedia, the pro team etc.
Congratulations to Nazgul, I'm sure this is a good move for him (and the teams under the Liquid banner) financially.
However; I assume an investing group expects a profit. When you invest in something you generally want something back. Things not profitable might need to change, or be removed completely. Things might not change tomorrow, but who knows where things stand a year from now. I assume Nazgul will touch upon this in his blog post that he mentions. But I also assume than when you're the CEO of a company owned by someone else, you need to keep them happy.
Supergrats I've been mostly lurking since a very long time and am very happy for you guys, I always loved your sites this is where I get my global news and spend a lot of time reading random forum posts
On September 28 2016 10:30 Zato-1 wrote: Can't blame Nazgul and Arhancet for cashing out at this point; they've put in the work, and they earned this.
Cashing out is quite the opposite of what is happening here.
So selling out is a better term? Money goes to Naz and control of the brand goes to the group buying. Or is something drastically wrong about the basic understanding of whats happening
Well, you gotta admit that "strategic partnership" sounds a lot better.
There's definitely no changes being made to how the websites are managed, but this deal does include websites/Liquipedia they are all part of the same company. Internally each of these have always had their own divisions, staff, and management and that will remain the same.
On September 28 2016 02:35 SFDuality wrote: That's one hell of an all-star investment group. I have a few concerns, but I guess for now I'll just have to take the word of Nazgul and the others that most things will remain the same and any changes will be for the better.
Just to clarify, though: 1) The brand will remain Team Liquid, right? Not aXiomatic? The intro paragraph has both listed (and aXiomatic as aXiomatic eSports) so I'm a little confused. Where does Team Liquid end and aXiomatic begin?
2) The investment group has controlling interest, but how will this be exercised? Will the regular running of the professional teams under the Liquid banner be left to Nazgul and Steve? Who handles things like, say, player contracts and salary, etc.?
3) This one's not really a concern, just curiosity. I'm sure this deal represents a greatly increased budget than before. Any big projects in the works?
Absolutely the brand will remain the same - aXiomatic is the company investing into Team Liquid, it doesn't replace it. They're different entities. Things like players, player contracts etc will just remain with myself and Steve as it has been the past two years.
On September 30 2016 03:13 WolfintheSheep wrote: Wait, so is aXiomatic an investor or the majority stakeholder now?
Both? They sold controlling interest to a group of investors.
Well, I guess normally you wouldn't call the new owners of a company people "investing into" it. Technically, I guess it is an investment (maybe, I don't know how these terms apply in a business sense)?
Just don't see why everyone keeps using this weird roundabout wording (aka. strategic partnership, investing into).
On September 30 2016 00:02 Liquid`Nazgul wrote: There's definitely no changes being made to how the websites are managed, but this deal does include websites/Liquipedia they are all part of the same company. Internally each of these have always had their own divisions, staff, and management and that will remain the same.
On September 28 2016 02:35 SFDuality wrote: That's one hell of an all-star investment group. I have a few concerns, but I guess for now I'll just have to take the word of Nazgul and the others that most things will remain the same and any changes will be for the better.
Just to clarify, though: 1) The brand will remain Team Liquid, right? Not aXiomatic? The intro paragraph has both listed (and aXiomatic as aXiomatic eSports) so I'm a little confused. Where does Team Liquid end and aXiomatic begin?
2) The investment group has controlling interest, but how will this be exercised? Will the regular running of the professional teams under the Liquid banner be left to Nazgul and Steve? Who handles things like, say, player contracts and salary, etc.?
3) This one's not really a concern, just curiosity. I'm sure this deal represents a greatly increased budget than before. Any big projects in the works?
Absolutely the brand will remain the same - aXiomatic is the company investing into Team Liquid, it doesn't replace it. They're different entities. Things like players, player contracts etc will just remain with myself and Steve as it has been the past two years.
Thanks for posting Nazgul: that is a very complete answer. I have always appreciated the transparency and interactivity of Teamliquid staff. And I guess that is due to a good role model at the top.
Investing is not only the technically correct word to use, it is the most correct word to use in this instance. Investing is putting your own money into a company, aXiomatic have invested to such a high degree that they also have a majority of the shares (units of ownership), which gives them a controlling interest. The phrase "strategic partnership" is a bit misleading, but it reflects that Nazgul and `112 now have long term contracts to remain as the managers of the Liquid division of aXiomatic esports.
I don't know much about sports. I don't know what sports the Wizards and Warriors play for instance (the consensus seems to be basketball?). And I don't know much more than that about any esports other than starcraft. We tend to fear what we don't know, but I know Nazgul, so I will trust him to look after the website (which is my favourite community on the internet by the way).
On September 30 2016 03:13 WolfintheSheep wrote: Wait, so is aXiomatic an investor or the majority stakeholder now?
Both? They sold controlling interest to a group of investors.
Well, I guess normally you wouldn't call the new owners of a company people "investing into" it. Technically, I guess it is an investment (maybe, I don't know how these terms apply in a business sense)?
Just don't see why everyone keeps using this weird roundabout wording (aka. strategic partnership, investing into).
I assume they're using the word investing because they know (or expect) that beyond putting money down for the controlling shares, the buyers will also put in new money. Which makes sense: under usual circumstances you don't buy a business just to let it keep going as usual, you buy it to leverage some advantage you have but the previous owners does not (or presumably cannot acquire as easily as you).
I hope this works out for the best. Honestly, as long as the forums and the streams section stay the same, I will be coming back.
But I really hope Nazgul knows what he is doing, even long term contracts can be terminated. Now TL is not his anymore, I don't see how this can be good.
Taking on investors is not selling out. This is a really good sign in my opinion. The partners are legit, exceptional even. If they can successfully grow and scale the business then they will be in a great position to be one of the premiere teams and grow along with the popularity of esports. I'll be waiting for the eventual IPO - good luck.
I'vent been closely following TL since the fall of professional BW. Maybe I'm a bad fan and certainly I'm being egoistic when I say this, but I liked TL much more when it was much smaller than it is today. It was, somehow, more "intimate", if you understand what I mean.
Nevertheless, I wish success to both TL and the staff!
Edit: when I first saw the title I thought it was a TL + Wizards of the Coast partnership... That would have been mindblowing!!
EPT
