Korean insurance company Hanwha Life has acquired ROX Gaming's LCK team, ROX Tigers, the organization announced earlier today.
Prior to this acquisition, Hanwha Life was "the official sponsor of ROX Tigers" since the beginning of the 2018 LCK Spring Split, the organization explained in a Facebook post. During its time as ROX Tigers' marquee sponsor, Hanwha Life had shown enough interest in the League of Legends team for ROX Gaming to start discussing an acquisition.
ROX Gaming's decision to hand the team over to Hanwha Life came in part to its inability to "give more support because of the limitation of being a small club team," the organization revealed on Facebook.
With this acquisition, ROX Tigers will compete in the upcoming LCK Summer Split under the Hanwha Life Esports moniker. ROX Tigers are the third LCK team to rebrand in 2018, following KSV Esports' acquisition of Samsung Galaxy, and Kingzone's acquisition of Longzhu Gaming just prior to the LCK Spring Split.
Although ROX Gaming has parted ways with its LCK team, the organization will remain in esports, focusing on its Vainglory and Tekken teams.
Founded at the end of 2014, ROX Tigers were originally known as the Huya Tigers. Since qualifying for the LCK's inaugural split in 2015, the organization has changed names multiple times as it found different sponsorships. In the past four years, the organization's name has gone from Huya Tigers to GE Tigers, then Koo Tigers, and finally ROX Tigers.
ROX Tigers recently ended the LCK Spring Split in sixth place, one win away from securing a spot in the playoffs.
