Ibai Llanos Garatea is the biggest European streamer on Twitch, where he mainly shows Minecraft and League of Legends. In LoL he also has his own team in the European league. However, there is currently a crisis there, which means a lot of work for the 28-year-old.
What kind of team is this? KOI is a Spanish esports organization founded in December 2021 by Ibai Llanos, the largest European Twitch streamer, and footballer Gerard Piqué. In October 2022, KOI teamed up with Rogue and took over their teams and their place in the European LoL league, the LEC.
However, financial difficulties became apparent at the end of August 2023. Spanish-language blog Esportmaniacos reported that Ibai paid €3 million out of his own pocket to cover player salaries and the team’s gaming house.
Despite the Twitch streamer’s efforts, players now seem to be looking for other teams.
There are several LoL teams in Europe that were founded by content creators. In Germany it is the YouTuber HandOfBlood who wants to lead his Eintracht Spandau into the LEC:
Everything you need to know about the LoL team Eintracht Spandau – in 4 minutes
More videos
Ibai: “It’s not healthy and I don’t recommend it to anyone”
What is the situation currently? According to our colleagues at 3DJuegos, Ibai received the news while he was on air commentating on Worlds in LoL.
4 of the 5 active players on his LoL team posted almost identical messages on to explore for 2024.”
The Twitch streamer apparently knew nothing about this announcement in advance. However, Ibai emphasized that no one needs to stay at KOI if they are not happy there. He doesn’t want that, says the Twitch streamer. “If a player wants to wait for our offer, […] then that’s great. If they don’t want to because they want to sign for another team, of course they have every right to do so.”
Although it is not unusual for esports players to make their availability public, the KOI players’ action is surprising in two ways. Not only was Ibai, as co-founder, not informed about the project in advance, but the timing is also striking. Finally, KOI is currently in the process of restructuring itself. But the players obviously don’t want to wait that long.
However, the Twitch streamer doesn’t seem to be thinking about giving up his organization. He says he’s working “literally 17 hours a day” to turn the organization around next year. “It’s not healthy and I don’t recommend it to anyone, but I want to make the best possible project for 2024,” said Ibai.
However, he strongly advises against doing the same: “Just don’t use me as a role model for anything, because I know for myself that what I do [so viele Stunden zu arbeiten]is not right.”
Other Twitch streamers are also having a hard time with their e-sports teams: Twitch streamer founds his own team, $1 million later criticizes e-sports: “Everyone loses a lot of money”
Ibai criticizes the lack of professionalism in e-sports
Where does the Twitch streamer see the problem? For Ibai, a lack of professionalism in e-sports is the reason for the sudden announcement of his players. Players are surrounded by agents and representatives who are neither professional nor qualified for their job.
According to the Twitch streamer, these agents would urge the players, some of whom are still young, to sign with the first team that comes along as quickly and for as much money as possible in order to collect their commission. “Unfortunately, that’s the problem we have in esports, that we’re in an ecosystem surrounded by very few professionals.”
It remains to be seen what will happen next for KOI and whether they will have to set up a completely new squad for 2024.
Parallel to the restructuring of his organization, Ibai is also changing his work as a content creator: Twitch: The second largest streamer in Europe no longer wants to be a streamer – number 1 is also wobbling