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The casting line-up for Worlds 2016 has been announced and many fans have noticed that Erik "DoA" Lonnquist and Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles were not on the line-up.
According to an interview by ESPN esports, DoA was invited by Riot Games to cast at Worlds, but he turned it down due to other obligations. MonteCristo was notified by Riot that they would not be extending an offer to him for casting.
Both DoA and MonteCristo have been invited by OGN to cast Korea’s competitive Overwatch, which they both accepted.
MonteCristo, along with DoA and Chris “PapaSmithy” Smith, did not attend the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational due to a contract dispute about wages with Riot. MonteCristo has also been banned from owning LCS teams after the incident with his former team, the Renegades.
Riot did state that his ban would not stop him from casting for OGN, since the network work separately from Riot Games. However, this could have played a part in why he wasn’t contacted for Worlds.
I was not invited to this year’s Worlds.
— MonteCristo (@MonteCristo) September 16, 2016
This occurred prior to my vlog about @MarcMerrill’s Reddit post.
MonteCristo also noted on Twitter that his backlash against Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill had nothing to do with his lack-of-invitation, since he was notified about it before the vlog had released.
Whether or not this means MonteCristo and DoA are leaving the competitive League of Legends scene for Overwatch remains to be unknown.