_{^{Image credit: Riot Games}}

More bad news for the LCS as Evil Geniuses and Golden Guardians have left the franchise.

After just a day of Worlds 2023 coming to an end, Riot Games dropped more breaking news as Evil Geniuses and Golden Guardians will no longer be part of the LCS come next season. This will now leave the LCS as an eight-team league, which could pave the way for two new organisations to join the franchise, or further implicate itself down the line.

The rumour mill was in full swing just a couple of days ago when caster, content creator, and League personality VeteranEU tweeted some damning news about the state of the LCS. This involved Riot meeting with team owners where the idea of reducing the league to eight teams was brought up. However, it was the matter of when the meeting occurred as some stated it was recent whilst others claimed that the owners knew about it for some time.

According to VeteranEU, “All sources confirm at least the premise that two teams in the LCS will not be in the LCS for 2024, depending on Riot's decision come Monday.” And lo and behold, the LCS has officially announced that both EG and GG are no longer a part of the league. He would go on to say, “Not every team's GM even has been made aware of this. Currently, a LOT of players, coaches, managers, staff that are currently on agreements that they believe extend through 2024 but could not in fact not exist in any form come Monday.”

The LCS has been in a downward spiral for some time now after another turbulent season that saw plenty of drama unfold over the year. The likes of Counter-Logic Gaming was the first to leave the LCS after the org folded amidst mass lay-offs and soon after, TSM also announced that it was leaving the league as well to compete in a new region. However, their spots were soon bought over as the likes of NRG Esports was able to retain the original CLG roster on its payroll. As for TSM's spot, they were replaced by Shopify Rebellion, who will join the LCS next season.

Read more: The drama between Riot Games and the NALCSPA

And aside from various teams coming and going from the LCS, the Summer Split also had its fair share of drama after the league was forced to a sudden halt. This was due to the tension between Riot and the North American League Championship Series Players Association (NALCSPA).

After Riot announced that organisations were allowed to forego their obligations towards their Challengers squads, it forced the NALCSPA's hand to encourage plenty of the LCS' stars to stage a walkout. While it was ultimately resolved between both parties, the LCS almost missed out on making it to Worlds 2023.

What happens now for Evil Geniuses and Golden Guardians?

Since Riot released its statement regarding the eight-team LCS franchise league, both EG and GG were quick to release its own announcements as well. And unfortunately, it is bad news as both teams will no longer be competing in League of Legends moving forward. Both orgs have also gone on to say that they will be assisting its players, coaches, and staff through the transition period of finding a new home.

This will come as a blow for fans of EG and GG, especially given how well both teams have performed in the past few years. GG made it to its first-ever international event during the Mid-Season Invitational where they placed in the top eight out of 13 teams. They were also one map win away from securing a spot at Worlds 2023 but ultimately lost out to Team BDS. This was also the org's best season in terms of regional performance as they finished second and fourth in the Spring and Summer Splits respectively.

As for EG, they had a great 2022 season that saw them qualify for both MSI and Worlds that same year. EG also won its first and only LCS title during last year's Spring Split, which was marred with its own controversies regarding the handling of Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki. While it seemed that EG were going to take care of Danny in the words of the org's former CEO Nicole LaPointe Jameson, that has not been the case since.

The result of EG's mistreatment towards one of its players soon triggered an investigation from Riot back in March of this year. While Danny even went on Twitter to speak out about the accusations, the damage was already done to EG's PR image in the eyes of the fans and sponsors alike, potential or otherwise.

It remains to be seen if both EG and GG will ever return to League to compete in a different region.

Evil Geniuses and Golden Guardians have left the LCS