This Week in eSports: CLG/Azubu Partnership, More Pros banned, LCS EU Groupings, and more

Continue reading for all the details about CLG's bigfatlp, a new CLG/Azubu partnership, another pro player banned, and the announcement of the LCS Europe groupings.

Bigfatlp now a CLG Sub

From left to right: HotShotGG, Bigfatlp, Doublelift

The first big news came out about CLG's bigfatlp being changed from starting mid position to a sub. He posted a really hard to understand/read message on Facebook for his fans. Since the message is so long I'm going to refrain from posting it here and instead leave you with a link to the posting. Bigfatlp's Facebook post. This means that LiNk will be playing as the new starter mid position for Counter Logic Gaming.

CLG/Azubu Partnership
Next on the list is a new partnership between Counter Logic Gaming and the Azubu franchise! This partnership between the two companies could mean many more projects coming out of CLG and an extension of Azubu into the North American scene. Speaking of that, Azubu has opened an office in California and has started "Azubu North America". Could this mean a North American Azubu team? Let's hope so! George "HotShotGG" Georgallidis put out this statement on the partnership:

"Azubu has shown through their history and discussions with CLG that a partnership between our two organizations is a perfect match,” said George “HotshotGG” Georgallidis, Co-Founder and President of CLG. “Before CLG and League of Legends ever existed I believed in the potential of eSports and will always make efforts to help it to reach the level of exposure and recognition I think it deserves. I am serious when I say I appreciate all the efforts Azubu is contributing to eSports, even outside CLG. I think Azubu is taking the correct steps and making the right investments into eSports and I believe CLG can help them bring us all to the next level. We are excited to begin working together and showing what we can accomplish as a team."

More Pro Players Banned for Behavoir 
Another pro player has been banned for bad behavior in the past. Envision, the jungler for mousesports, had been banned before the season 3 qualifier earlier this month and will be banned from all LCS events for the year. YoungBuck put out a statement on his Facebook shortly after the ban was put in place:

"I am sorry to inform all the fans of myself, Arthana, Kujaa, Warhunter, Envision (formerly known as ShookL2) and mouz sports that I have some very bad news.
This morning we were informed by RIOT that they prohibit Envision from playing the Season 3 offline qualifier.
With only 4 days left to train this is the worst thing that could happen to us, not only is Envision punished severely but the dreams and hopes of 4 other individuals are destroyed by this extremely late decision.
It is no secret that Envision used to be a summoner with bad behavior however when he found his first pro team in October 2012 he changed his attitude severely when realising that being a professional comes with certain responsibilities.
To leave his bad past behind him he decided to change his name to Envision and played with us for several weeks while showing a good attitude and teamspirit throughout every match.
Riot has known since the Season 3 Online qualifier that Envision used to go by the name of Shookl2 and they allowed him to play the online qualifier without any issues.
They asked us about Envision and we told them why he namechanged, they seemed to be fine with everything.
A few days after winning the online qualifier Riot informed us that they will investigate Envision amongst 4 other players on whether
they are allowed at the Season 3 qualifier next week.
We didn't hear much from Riot and we kept training with Envision.
He changed his behavior actively since finding a team, adjusted his attitude to match the summoners code but is now stopped from
having a career in e-sports for bad behavior prior to finding a team in October. Having said that it's not the ban in itself that is the major problem but informing us of this news with only 4 days left to train is very unprofessional and punishes the other players of the team moreso than Envision himself.
We will be looking for a new jungler as soon as possible but we realise that we will be playing the tournament with a big handicap
and with extreme lack of synergy.
I'm sorry to let down all my fans, friends and family that have been looking forward to watching me and mouz qualify at the event next week."

On another note, Against All Authority's Linak has also received a ban from all LCS play for the next year. He is the jungler for the team. Linak apparently has a 20% report rate in his games, which according to bitingpig, Senior eSports Manager at Riot, is a 4X greater percentage than average players.

TSM Announces IPL6 Qualifier
Meanwhile, Team SoloMid have announced that they will be hosting a qualifier for IPL6! They put out a statement on their website about the event:

"It is our pleasure to announce that Solomid will be hosting one of the qualifying events for IPL6. 32 teams will battle it out over the course of three weekends to earn one of two spots we have available.
The first two weeks will be group stages in order to determine the top eight teams in attendance. Those eight teams will move on to the double-elimination final weekend and the chance to win a cut of our $6000 prize pool, a plethora of swag from our sponsors and most importantly, two of the coveted invitations to attend IPL6 at the end of March.
The event will run on three consecutive weekends in February: 9th-10th, 16th-17th and 23th-24th. The top two teams will both receive invites. It will be an open tournament, with each team's Ranked 5s rating deciding who gets their chance at the big-time.
There are a couple of restrictions. Firstly, all members of the team must be citizens of the United States of America or Canada and able to travel to Las Vegas for IPL6. Secondly, it would be very beneficial if your manager will be at least 21 years old before IPL6.
Get your team signed up before February 1st and we'll see you on Summoner's Rift."

TL;DR? It's ok I've got you covered. In essence, TSM will host the event for 32 teams. Beginning with group stages to cut the ranks down to only 8 teams, they will move on to a double elimination tournament to try to win the invitations for IPL6. The event will be hosted over 3 weekends: February 9th-10th, 16th-17th and 23rd-24th.

LCS EU Qualifier Groups
Lastly, the groupings for the LCS Offline Qualifier for Europe have been announced! The groups are looking as follows:

Group A 

Fnatic
GIANTS! Gaming
Team ALTERNATE
Anexis eSports 

Group B 

LoLPro
Team Acer
Millenium
DragonBorns 

Group C 

Copenhagen Wolves
Trudniej Już Nie Będzie
TCM Gaming
Against All Authority 

Group D 

Team Solo Mebdi
MeetYourMakers
mousesports
EloHell

The top 5 teams of these sixteen teams will qualify for the European Championship Series! I will have more information on this tournament in my tournament post when it begins this weekend!