America, Central Europe, China, and Korea dominate when it comes to esports. However, one region is rapidly growing and may soon begin turning heads—Brazil. Here’s what you need to know about recent developments in the South American country.

P1noy in Brazil

Kristoffer “P1noy” Pedersen is rumored to join a Brazilian League of Legends team, and soon. The ex-Winterfox player tweeted just yesterday that he arrived at São Paulo. We don’t know yet what team he could play for, but aside from KeyD, most CBLoL teams haven’t revealed their new roster. Pedersen’s experience, combined with his thorough knowledge of the North American competitive atmosphere, will make him a valuable addition to any organization looking to break out onto the international scene.

PaiN Gaming releases Dioud

Last Friday, the French support Hugo “Dioud” Padioleau announced on his Facebook page that PaiN Gaming, the team he joined one year ago, with which he won the Brazilian league and played at Worlds, didn’t renew his contract. The most famous French player in Brazil is now looking for a team, and would be an attractive pickup for those looking to challenge PaiN.

KeyD to bootcamp in Portugal, add staff

While revealing their new line-up, KeyD explained that they plan to bootcamp in Europe for a month before the start of the 2016 season of the CBLoL.

In the past, Brazilian teams that bootcamped in other regions had mixed results when coming back to Brazil. Last year, KeyD went abroad as well, but still ended up losing to KaBuM. Novelty of this bootcamp, the KeyD owners are planning ahead and won’t wait for the last minute to send their players away.

In another move to improve, KeyD also contracted a psychologist to follow their players (just like CNB and PaiN did for last split) and recruited a team of analysts from the United States.

CBLoL spot for sale

Everybody is still in the dark concerning the fate of KaBuM black and INTZred, sister teams of INTZ Black and KaBuM Orange that secured their spot for the next split of the CBLoL. Both teams are part of organizations that own multiple teams in CBLoL, and it’s been known for months now that Riot wouldn’t allow multiple teams from one organization into the CBLoL. TLDR: After INTZred and KaBuM Black qualified last month, owners had no other choice than sell. Weirdly enough, not a single word regarding the sale of these spots has been shared.

What’s more, Friday was supposed to be the last day for teams to present their rosters. But INTZ and KaBuM don’t seem to have sold their spots yet. KaBuM manager, Guilherme Fonte, confirmed last Friday that Riot Brazil gave them some extra time “in order to find a better proposal for the KaBuM Black team.”

INTZ’ and KaBuM’s campaigns to find a buyer have been very secret. While NA and EU teams are selling LCS spots for around 1 million each, the Brazilian market is surprisingly silent, despite that fact, as we’ve reported previously, CBLoL spots are significantly cheaper.

The possibility of finding no buyer at all, unfortunately, hasn’t been excluded. “If they can’t successfully transfer their spots, we’ll promote the 1st and 2nd places from Challenger Series’ last split (Jayob and BigGods)” said Philipe “PH Suman” Monteiro, eSports manager at Riot Games Brazil.

eSports to be recognised as a sport in Brazil?

The first step was taken by legislators in Brazil to have eSports considered as a sport. An addition to the law 9.615/1998, also known as the “Law Pelé,” which establishes general rules on sport, aims to have electronic sports entered into the category of “national sports”. The addition is now being examined by the Committee of Sports and Constitution, Justice and Citizenship, and the decision should come next year.

Challenger series

Instead of having independent tournaments giving points, Riot is implementing a challenger league to the CBLOL in 2016, just like the LCS has. The Circuito Desafiante, which begins in January, will be a league composed of six teams playing against each other in a best-of-2 format. The winner of the league will earn a direct spot in next split of the CBLOL.

Last weekend was the qualifier for this league. The surprise of the weekend was “Amigos do 4Landerson,” a team formed by three ex-KaBuM Black players: Martin “Espeon” Gonçalvez, Arlindo “element” Neto, and Guilherme “Vash” Conti. Espeon, former captain of KaBuM Black, already said they would qualify for the challenger league in case things go south with the KaBuM Black Spot. Negotiation, however, might not be for the best: “There are more orgs interested in our team in the Challenger Series than the one in CBLOL wtf,” tweeted Espeon last Monday.