The former Counter Logic Gaming European League of Legends squad is close to signing a new contract to be Evil Geniuses’ first League of Legends team, according to team sources.

The Counter Logic Gaming European LoL squad.

Consisting of star players Stephen “Snoopeh” Ellis, Henrik “Froggen” Hansen, Peter “Yellowpete” Wüppen, Mitch “Krepo” Voorspoels and Mike “Wickd” Petersen, the deal is said to be done soon, with Evil Geniuses outbidding Azubu in the final stages. This would mark the first time Evil Geniuses have picked up a League of Legends team. Counter Logic Gaming is one of six teams automatically qualified into Season 3 of the League of Legends Championship Series.

The five had a breakout year in 2012 under CLG. The team came no worse than 5th at any event all year, winning DreamHack Summer 2012, placing second at the Azubu Champions Summer 2012, and third at the Riot Season 2 World Championships. On December 28, it was announced that the European Squad would not be re-signing to CLG and wanted to explore free agency in 2013.

As of a month ago, it wasn’t confirmed that Evil Geniuses would be signing any League of Legends teams. EG Owner Alex Garfield spoke to PCGamesN at the fifth IGN ProLeague event in Las Vegas, and said that he was unsure if the team would venture into the game at the this time. “Obviously the numbers are impressive, and the passion of the community is impressive,” Garfield said. “I think the challenge for me is just to find the right brand representatives for EG. So I’ve been perfectly happy to wait and sit on the sidelines and let some of those guys grow up a little bit.”

Counter Logic Gaming will move into a house in Cologne, Germany, soon to prepare for the Season 3 Championship Series. The qualifiers for Season 3 kick-off on January 11 with North America up first, and then on January 25 for the European qualifiers.