This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

　　In late April of this year, shortly after their entrance into the LCS, LMQ announced their independence from former owner Guangdong Tian Ci Performing Planning CO., Ltd. (Tian Ci Ltd.) following questions about the company owner’s whereabouts and the future of sister team Royal Club Huang Zu.

　　On April 28th, LMQ General Manager Xiaowei “Sharon” Li tweeted about the change:

　　Hi guys! LMQ is not tied to Royal Club anymore, we are now an independent organization in the US and we have no financial problem:)

　　— Xiaowei Li (@LmqSharon) April 28, 2014

　　Less than a month later, Royal Club announced their new CEO, Li “eNo” Yande. The release also claimed Yande as the CEO of LMQ, raising questions around any conflict of LCS rule 3.1 which states:

　　3.1 Team Ownership Restriction

　　No Owner or Affiliate of Owner may own or control more than one “Professional” team, where “Professional” is defined as a team competing in the highest division or tier of the NA LCS, EU LCS, Garena Premier League, OGN Champions, or Tencent League of Legends Pro League. If an Owner or Affiliate of Owner is found to have any financial interest or benefit or any level of influence in another team, he/she will be required to immediately divest said interest in one of the two teams and may be subject to punishment by the LCS.

　　In an interview conducted and translated for onGamers on May 25th by Chinese journalist Ryan Luwei, Yande addressed the potential issue:

　　Q: Does being the CEO of LMQ and Royal Club at the same time break Riot's LCS rule?

　　I don't think so. I just manage these two teams. I don't own them. That is not against the rule of owning two teams in different regions. I don't think there is any problem that a professional manager runs two teams at the same time.

　　While the identity of the new owner was never officially announced by LMQ, Eric Liao and Kevin “Aries” Gao registered official ownership of the team upon their entrance into the LCS via their mutual company A&K Esports. Liao and Gao are co-owners of the League of Legends competitive tutorial site LolClass.com.

　　Speaking to onGamers, General Manager Li clarified that while Eric Liao (her significant other) did have a share in the ownership of the team, he was detached from the operations and business management. “Eric doesn’t touch operations because he doesn’t want his personal relationship with me to affect the team” said Li.

　　Further clarifying, Gao said that Liao "frequently took them to amusement parks and concerts nearby to reward them on their match victories. In April when we began representing Team LMQ, all of the business operations were all handled by me because he didn’t want business to affect his relationship with the players.”

　　A&K’s ownership directly conflicted with the previously cited LCS Rule 3.1 as the language specifically prohibits anyone from having any financial interest, benefit, or level of influence in another team from owning an LCS organization. LolClass.com currently sponsors the majority of teams competing in the North American League of Legends Championship Series, including Cloud 9, Counter Logic Gaming, Team Curse, Team SoloMid, and LMQ iBuyPower.

　　An agency agreement, in Chinese, was signed between A&K Esports and a manager of Tian Ci Ltd. named Yi He, who acted as an authorized signer of the company. The contract supposedly declared Tian Ci Ltd. as having true ownership of the LMQ organization, with A&K registering ownership as a means of obtaining Visas for the players of LMQ through the American based A&K Esports. The contract does not provide for any compensation to be made between Tian Ci Ltd. and A&K.

　　A&K’s Kevin Gao claims that the contract was agreed to in early April, but that Yi He never provided a “counter copy” despite agreeing to return to China and obtain the signature of Tian Ci Ltd.’s owner. Sources close to Tian Ci Ltd. report they have no knowledge of any agreement to have the company owner sign the contract and attest that the Yi He was legally entitled to make an agreement on Tian Ci Ltd.’s behalf.

　　Gao further states that due to several contractual breaches made on Tian Ci Ltd.’s end, including a failure “to pay for Team LMQ’s expenses” A&K “voided this contract in mid April.” The voiding of the contract lead to Xiaowei “Sharon” Li’s Twitter announcement of the ownership change mentioned earlier.

　　Sources close to Tian Ci Ltd. allege that all payments were made in the correct amounts monthly to representatives of A&K. They also claim to be unaware of any contractual breaches and say that Tian Ci Ltd. did not receive any notice of the contract being voided from A&K.

　　Riot Games was not made aware that A&K Esports owned LolClass.com when the LCS ownership agreement was signed. Following their entrance into the LCS, Riot Games discovered the conflict. Upon learning about it, Riot presented two options to A&K Esports: either transfer ownership of LMQ to a different party or discontinue their sponsorship of other LCS teams.

　　A different source familiar with the situation claims, "In beginning of June, A&K were approached by Riot about LoLClass.com's sponsorships of other LCS teams. Because the P-1 Visas were being processed, Riot told them that they were okay with it as long as A&K transferred the ownership to another company after the P-1 Visas are issued."

　　The situation never got to that point.

　　The two factions of LMQ’s management came into conflict in late June when Yi He, representing Tian CI Ltd., arrived in the US with a new Chinese investor who planned to obtain ownership of the team.

　　Xiaowei “Sharon” Li claims the new investor is Jincheng Yao who was formerly the owner of StarHorn Royal Club, “We have already inquired Chinese LPL and get a confirmed answer that Jincheng Yao was the owner of SHRC when the team submitted paperwork to LPL. (Although he claimed that he transferred the ownership to his family members in June when the dispute happens).”

　　Representatives from LPL did not respond to inquiries from onGamers for requests on the ownership of StarHorn Royal Club.

　　A&K’s Gao recounted the meeting between him and Yao:

　　On June 30th there was a meeting between Yao and I at the Downtown LA Ritz-Carlton Hotel where Yao stayed, and the purpose was to talk about transferring the ownership of Team LMQ to him. During the meeting I presented him Team LMQ’s financial report, which summed up the players’ salaries owed ($55,000), manager’s salary owed ($30,000), A&K’s expenses on Team LMQ in the past several months ($30,000) and tax to a total of $120,000. He was outraged by the proposal because he said he has already paid 2.6 million RMB (~$420,000 USD) to Yi He and he is not going to allow us to hustle his money. Right afterwards he stood up and left.

　　A spokesman for Luyu Esports LLC provided onGamers with a response to Gao’s statement:

　　The statement by A&K is wildly inaccurate. First, the $420,000 purchase price is a completely fabricated number and there is no real basis to their claim. More importantly, the $120,000 requested has no mention of salaries for players. In their proposed offer, they stated $19,500 for A&K investments, $20,000 for Sharon's salary, and $5,000 for A&K rent lending. The rest of the $120,000 are all paid as "return of investment" for A&K. This was all stated clearly on the "financial report" A&K provided to us when they proposed this offer. Also, we want to clarify Tian Ci has informed us that all expenses for the team have been paid for and provided bank transfer records as proof. Therefore, the A&K investment costs and A&K rent lending costs seem completely unjustified. Even if the expenses somehow went over the amount provided (which was always based on the number A&K and Sharon requested), the final amount they asked for is still simply ridiculous. Especially since they were never the real owners of the team and A&K was simply an agency to help deal with Visa issues.

　　Refusing to pay the amount, sources report that LMQ player manager Alex Gu (representing Tian Ci) approached Riot Games in early July, revealing the existence of the Chinese contract and claiming to represent the actual owners of LMQ. Riot is said to have initially refused to recognize the Chinese faction’s claims of ownership over the team and that Yao’s new American company, Luyu Esports LLC, hired legal representation to continue negotiations.

　　It is said that Riot Games decided in favor of Tian Ci Ltd. this past week and will no longer recognize A&K’s claims to the team. Paperwork officially recognizing Luyu Esports LLC as the official owner of LMQ is supposedly in the “final stages.”

　　Supporters of A&K tell onGamers that “nothing is official yet” and that they are “fighting it still because this whole new transfer is VERY dangerous and could result in a big mess.”

　　Luyu Esports LLC, which now employs Gu, announced A&K and Xiaowei “Sharon” Li would no longer be involved in the team’s management via a public statement made on the LMQ Facebook page later that day.

　　On Sunday evening Li wrote an account, via her Facebook page, of her time with the team and details around the ownership dispute. In regards to her termination she wrote, “I had no idea why the owner is ‘Luyu Esports LLC’ and that I have been fired,” stating “I was very confused of the matter because there weren’t any formal or informal notices that I have been fired.”

　　When questioned regarding Li’s termination, Gu said, “Our attorney formally notified A&K and Sharon Li of their termination in early July (July 1) 2014.”

　　Gu has additionally informed onGamers that Luyu Esports LLC plans to release an official statement with regards to the situation in the coming days.

　　onGamers has reached out to representatives from Luyu Esports LLC, A&K, and Riot Games for further details on the matter.