Echo Fox

Echo Fox was an American esports organization. It was founded on December 18, 2015 by retired basketball player Rick Fox, who created Echo Fox after he purchased the NA LCS spot of Gravity Gaming.[1] The organization had expanded into various games with teams competing in titles such as Call of Duty, CS:GO, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Injustice 2, Madden NFL 19, Mortal Kombat, Super Smash Bros., and Street Fighter V. Echo Fox had several fighting game players with championship titles and are a well known organization in the professional scene.

Echo Fox
DivisionsApex Legends
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Dragon Ball FighterZ
Fortnite Battle Royale
Injustice 2
Madden NFL 19
Mortal Kombat 11
Super Smash Bros.
Street Fighter V
FoundedDecember 18, 2015 (2015-12-18)
FoldedNovember 2019
OwnerKhalid Jones (co-owner)
PresidentJared Jeffries
General managerJustin Lee
Websiteechofox.gg

Controversies
Rick Fox, co-founder of Echo Fox.

On December 18, 2015 Rick Fox and his business partners, Amit Raizada and Khalid Jones, entered the professional esports scene with their acquisition of the NA LCS spot of Gravity Gaming, creating a new team named Echo Fox.[1] According to Raizada, he and Jones "both offered up $1 million each to get the new team off the ground" while Fox "never put in any of his own money into Echo Fox." Fox and Raizada subsequently had a falling out, in which Raizada claims Fox attempted to extort him of $5 million.[2]

In April 2019, Fox threatened to leave the esports team after accusing Raizada of making racist comments against him and Echo Fox CEO Jace Hall, as well as threatening Fox's family.[3][4] In response, Riot Games, which operates the LCS, launched an investigation. It ordered Echo Fox to remove Raizada, or it would have to sell its spot in the LCS within 60 days, saying "hate speech, threats, and bigotry have no place in the LCS." With Echo Fox unable to remove Raizada, Riot Games came up with an agreement to end Echo Fox's participation in the LCS. Kroenke Sports and Entertainment agreed to a deal for the LCS slot soon after for $30.25 million, however, the deal fell through due to legal issues with their partner, Sentinels.[5] After the deadline given to Echo Fox to sell their slot ended, Riot Games announced its plans to sell off the newly vacated LCS franchise spot to a new team, with most of the proceeds going to Echo Fox.[6]

Riot games selected Evil Geniuses as the organization that would acquire Echo Fox's League Championship Series slot.[7]

In September 2019, A lawsuit ousting general partner Rick Fox was sent to Fox by several of his business partners, stating Fox had repeatedly worked against the best interests of the company. The letter sent had several signatures including: Vision Esports head Stratton Sclavos, investor Daniel Deshe, Raizada Group manager Ravi Srivastava and Khalid Jones, who was Fox's partner in the general partnership.[8] Fox filed a lawsuit against his business partners Amit Raizada and Stratton Sclavos alleging the two partners committed fraud, conspiracy and breach of contract against him.[9]

In November 2019, with numerous rumors spreading about Echo Fox splitting apart over the lawsuits, an Echo Fox investor officially confirmed the organization was disbanded.[10][11]

League of Legends

On January 23, 2016, due to some concerns over player work-eligibility, Echo Fox was unable to submit a roster and was required to forfeit their match against NRG Esports.[12] Echo Fox finished last in the 2016 Summer NA LCS, forcing a relegation match. They defeated NRG Esports 3-0 in relegations and qualified for the 2017 NA LCS Spring Split.

In 2018, the North American League of Legends Championship Series moved to a franchised league and Echo Fox invested in a spot as a permanent partner. Echo Fox later received an equity investment from the New York Yankees and a new roster, which finished 2nd in the 2018 NA LCS Spring Split with 12 wins and 7 losses after losing a tiebreaker to 100 Thieves.[13]

On August 16, 2019, the rosters of both Echo Fox and Echo Fox Academy were released, and the organization departed the professional League of Legends scene.[14]

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

While no official reason has been given for Echo Fox allowing its players to leave, it is rumored that this was due to poor performances at both ELEAGUE Season 2 and IBUYPOWER Masters 2016.[15] At ELEAGUE, Echo Fox lost versus Virtus.pro (where they won only a single round on Nuke),[16] and versus G2 Esports (where Echo Fox lost 16–3 and 16–2 on Nuke and Dust 2 respectively).[17] At iBUYPOWER Masters 2016 Echo Fox finished a disappointing 5th–6th place.[18]

Fighting games

Echo Fox entered the fighting game community on April 29, 2016 by signing Street Fighter V player Julio Fuentes.[19] A month later, they would sign Super Smash Bros. pro Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman.[20]

In 2017, Echo Fox would make one of the biggest signings in esports history by signing seven FGC players all at once, three of which previously represented Evil Geniuses. The players were Street Fighter players Justin Wong, Yusuke Momochi, Hajime "Tokido" Taniguchi, and Yuko "ChocoBlanka" Momochi, Mortal Kombat players Dominique "SonicFox" McLean and Brad "Scar" Vaughn, and Super Smash Bros. player Leonardo "MKLeo" Lopez Perez. At the same time, Echo Fox signed former Evil Geniuses manager Antonio "CoolGrayAJ" Javier as the team's new manager.[21]

Echo Fox would continue growing their team with the signing of Korean and French Tekken pros Saint, JDCR and VorttexX-Shadow, bringing their roster up to thirteen players.[22]

Call of Duty

On May 13, 2016 Echo Fox added a Call of Duty team with a roster of Jeremy "Neslo" Olsen, Jordan "Proof" Cannon, Jonathan "SinfuL" Baez, and Josh "Cyborg" Kimpson.[23] In November, all players except Neslo were dropped and replaced by Anthony "Methodz" Zinni, Teegan "TcM" McCarthy, and Tanner "Mosh" Clark.[24]

gollark: No, we both did.
gollark: I wrote solutions at 127MHz.
gollark: I wrote every solution AT THE SAME TIME.
gollark: I wrote EXACTLY one line per line.
gollark: I just picked randomly for them.

References
  1. Soshnick, Scott (December 18, 2015). "Former NBA Player Rick Fox Buys eSports Team Gravity". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on September 11, 2017. Retrieved December 18, 2015.
  2. "Exclusive: Raizada comes forward to dispute allegations by Fox". upcomer.com. Archived from the original on August 5, 2019. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  3. "Rick Fox set to leave Echo Fox amid racist abuse from organization shareholder [UPDATED]". Dexerto.com. Archived from the original on September 25, 2019. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  4. Lee, Julia (April 25, 2019). "Rick Fox reportedly quitting his esports company, alleging racist abuse". Polygon. Archived from the original on September 29, 2019. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  5. "Kroenke Sports & Entertainment deal to acquire Echo Fox falls through". ESPN.com. August 10, 2019. Archived from the original on November 10, 2019. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  6. Goslin, Austen (August 14, 2019). "Riot Games steps in to find buyer for Echo Fox's League of Legends franchise". Polygon. Archived from the original on November 13, 2019. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  7. "Evil Geniuses confirm acquisition of Echo Fox's LCS spot". ESPN.com. September 26, 2019. Archived from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  8. "Sources: Rick Fox to be ousted from Echo Fox". ESPN.com. September 27, 2019. Archived from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  9. "Rick Fox sues business partners alleging fraud, conspiracy and breach of contract". ESPN.com. October 3, 2019. Archived from the original on October 5, 2019. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  10. "Echo Fox reportedly dissolves, parts ways with players and staff". Dot Esports. November 9, 2019. Archived from the original on November 11, 2019. Retrieved November 11, 2019.
  11. Richman, Olivia. "Echo Fox investors confirm Echo Fox is 100 percent dissolved - LOL - News - WIN.gg". WIN Esports. Archived from the original on November 10, 2019. Retrieved November 11, 2019.
  12. "LoL Esports". www.lolesports.com. Archived from the original on January 25, 2016. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
  13. "NA LCS 2018 Spring Split | Teams and Standings". www.lolesports.com. LoL Esports. Archived from the original on March 26, 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
  14. Wolf, Jacob (August 17, 2019). "Ousted from LCS, Echo Fox release players". Field Level Media via ESPN. Archived from the original on September 26, 2019. Retrieved September 26, 2019.
  15. "Echo Fox allows players to exit". HLTV.org. Archived from the original on October 8, 2017. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  16. "Virtus.pro vs Echo Fox - CSGO - match result - 05-11-2016". eSportLiveScore.com. Archived from the original on July 11, 2017. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
  17. "Echo Fox. vs G2 Esports - CS:GO - ELEAGUE Season 2 | GosuGamers". www.gosugamers.net. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
  18. "Echo Fox Struggles at iBP Masters 2016". 12up.com. November 14, 2016. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
  19. Mueller, Saira; Jurek, Steven. "Echo Fox gets into fighting games, sign SFV player Julio Fuentes". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on May 3, 2016. Retrieved April 29, 2016.
  20. Steiner, Dustin. "Echo Fox Signs Mew2King". PVP Live. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved May 17, 2016.
  21. Beck, Kellen. "Echo Fox signs 7 players to build largest fighting game roster in esports". Mashable. Archived from the original on January 5, 2017. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  22. Nordmark, Sam. "Echo Fox acquires top talent in Tekken". Dot eSports. Archived from the original on February 8, 2017. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
  23. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on May 21, 2016. Retrieved May 14, 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  24. "Echo Fox Announces New Call of Duty Roster". Dot Esports. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
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