Riot Allows G2 Esports And Cloud9 Sneaky Contract Clause But Insists No-one Else Can

As the League of Legends off-season kicks off, the behemoths of the west are all looking to catch up on their dominant Eastern rivals with a range of transfers, following the LEC and LCS' worst collective results at a World Championship for over half a decade.

With just MAD Lions and Cloud9 making it to the Worlds 2021 playoffs stage before being eliminated in the Quarterfinals, the large majority of Western sides are looking to make transfers, with some of the most reputable players even trying their arm across the pond. Recently, it surfaced that Gabriel "Bwipo" Rau looks set to be jetting off to the United States with Team Liquid, whilst the duo of Luca "Perkz" Perkovic and Barney "Alphari" Morris are also expected to be returning to the LEC after a year in the LCS, signing with Team Vitality.

With the news that Perkz wanted to return to Europe to be around his family, it looks set that Vitality will be the lucky party to snap up his signature, although a recent report has detailed that one team was never allowed to enter the race: Fnatic.

Having been at G2 Esports since 2015, Perkz's transfer to Cloud9 was one that nobody saw coming. However, the organisation reportedly added a clause in his contract that meant that Perkz couldn't sign for G2's rivals, Fnatic, within three years, according to a report from Dot Esports.

Now, Riot Games has released a statement, in which they condemn the usage of such clauses, although they will allow it to happen in this one instance without either party being disciplined.

Following an official complaint from Fnatic regarding the contract clause, Riot Games' Director of Operations, Tom Martell, said: "Our current rules governing player transfers do not explicitly prohibit restrictions on future transfers by the receiving team, so we will not penalize G2 and C9 for including such a clause in their agreement."

Whilst the developers have insisted that they will not enforce the clause, should Fnatic look to strike a deal, they will be rearranging their rules to prevent any clauses to be added. Martell continued: "Going forward, we will update our rules to prohibit future restrictions in transfer agreements, as they are not in line with the values and interests of our sport." 

The news comes after G2 Esports's CEO Carlos "Ocelote" Rodriguez recently vocalised how much he would try to stop Fnatic from signing his former player, albeit that Perkz was free to "go wherever the f*** he wants."

Ocelote also took to Twitter following the statement to say: "It makes sense. C9 could have bought the player to then sell him to Fnatic on the same day. We made sure this cannot be done. This is standard and within the rules, as proven by the trade being approved globally."

Despite the clause being in effect until the end of the 2022 season, Riot has admitted that they will allow Perkz to move to Fnatic should he want to, although the transfer to Team Vitality looks to be set in stone.