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Shopify is entering the League of Legends<\/em> arena. On Wednesday, Shopify announced that its Rebellion esports brand will be acquiring TSM\u2019s spot in the League Championship Series (LCS), the pro circuit for US League of Legends<\/em> esports.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The move marks a major change of the guard in the LCS. TSM, one of the biggest esports organizations in the world, got its start as a scrappy League of Legends<\/em> team; the TSM acronym stands for Team SoloMid, which references a solo League of Legends<\/em> player occupying the middle lane of the game\u2019s multi-pronged map. In the mid 2010s, TSM was one of the most successful teams in the LCS, and the organization has entered other esports, signed Twitch streamers, and even bought an esports app<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But TSM has had some struggles as of late. Its LCS team hasn\u2019t been quite as successful in League <\/em>(outside of an impressive run in 2020).<\/em> TSM CEO and founder Andy Dinh was fined and placed on a two-year probation by League of Legends<\/em> developer Riot Games after an investigation<\/a> found that \u201cthere was a pattern and practice of disparaging and bullying behavior exhibited by Dinh\u201d toward TSM staff and players. The organization was forced to back out of a $210 million deal<\/a> with FTX after the crypto company collapsed. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Then, in March, Sports Business Journal<\/em> reported that TSM was considering dumping its LCS team<\/a>, and in May, TSM announced that it was looking to sell its LCS spot and compete in League of Legends<\/em> in another region. \u201cI believe moving to another region will re-ignite our hunger to do whatever it takes to win a world championship,\u201d Dinh said in a video about the change<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Shopify Rebellion will compete in the LCS starting in 2024. \u201cEntering League of Legends<\/em> \u2014 one of the largest esports titles, with a rich competitive history \u2014 felt like an obvious next step for us as we continue to grow our presence in esports,\u201d Shopify Rebellion\u2019s Dario \u201cTLO\u201d W\u00fcnsch said in a statement<\/a>. The organization also competes<\/a> in games like Dota 2<\/em>, Valorant<\/em>, and Rocket League<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n TSM hasn\u2019t said where it may end up fielding a League of Legends<\/em> team next. But the organization is already positioning itself as a global brand. \u201cTSM is a movement, binding us all together no matter who we are or where we came from,\u201d TSM wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter)<\/a>. \u201cFrom North America and Europe to South America and Asia, our hearts beat as one.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The switch from TSM to Shopify Rebellion isn\u2019t the only recent loss of a storied LCS brand. NRG Esports acquired Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) in April<\/a> and took over CLG\u2019s LCS slot. But there\u2019s a happy ending to that upheaval: the new NRG defeated Cloud9 in a major upset to win the 2023 LCS summer split championships<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n