G2 Esports bot laner Luca “Perkz” Perković seems to have a new home for the 2021 season.
Perkz will likely be joining Cloud9 for the 2021 LCS season as the team's new mid laner. Cloud9 has come to terms on a deal with both G2 and Perkz that would bring in the Croatian superstar, according to ESPN’s Jacob Wolf. Even though the deal can’t be finalized until November 16 when League of Legends free agency begins, all parties were reportedly able to come to terms on Thursday, November 13.
Perkz has been the hottest topics in LoL esports this offseason, with several teams in both the LEC and LCS interested in picking him up. Perkz has been playing as a bot laner for G2 recently, but wants to move back to mid lane where he originally made his breakthrough.
Teams such as Vitality and Team SoloMid were rumored to have been in talks with Perkz, but the buyout set by G2 was too high for most teams to keep up with. According to several rumors, the original buyout price for Perkz was $5 million. That doesn’t include Perkz’s own salary, making it a potentially record-breaking deal.
Terms of the deal have not been made publicly and likely won't ever be, but odds are that a significant amount of money changed hands with this deal.
Perkz dominated LEC for years, will be a big boon for Cloud9
Perkz has proven himself as one of Europe's greatest players of all time, with an MSI trophy, eight LEC titles, and a second-place finish at Worlds to his name. Perkz started out as a mid laner for G2 when the organization entered the EU LCS in 2016 but was swapped to the bot lane when Danish mid laner Rasmus “Caps” Winther joined the team.
Since then, G2 has sat atop European League of Legends by winning four consecutive LEC trophies. G2 reached the 2020 World Championship semifinals but was knocked out by DAMWON Gaming, which went on to win the Summoner’s Cup. This likely will go down as the last tournament for Perkz in G2 colors
If the report by ESPN is true, a deal should be finalized on November 16 or shortly after.
