Vietnamese esports org Saigon Buffalo acquired by JUEGO

Vietnamese esports organization Saigon Buffalo, known for their successful League of Legends team, has been acquired by JUEGO, a South Korean company, the two parties announced on November 30.

The announcement comes less than a month after Saigon Buffalo announced that they were looking for investors or a new owner for the organization, which has been a stable of Vietnamese esports since 2016.

JUEGO, which describes itself as a “football think tank and esports agency”, will retire Saigon Buffalo’s brand and bring the League of Legends team under the umbrella of their own esports organization, called CNJ esports. The Korean organization has a Valorant team that competed in VCT 2022 Korea Challengers in Stage 2.

“In industry, there’s Samsung. As for sports, there are Korean coaching staff for the Vietnam national teams, and in entertainment, there is a Vietnamese member of K pop music group NewJeans. We want to be the esports link between the countries,” Su Yong Park, the Executive Director of JUEGO, told Esports Insider.

Besides winning two VCS splits, Saigon Buffalo became a regular presence in international League of Legends events, attending three World Championships (2017, 2018 and 2022), and two Mid-Season Invitationals (2019 and 2022).

The team’s attendance at MSI 2022 was received with great enthusiasm as it marked the return of VCS to international League of Legends after two years in which the region could not be represented at the game’s biggest events because of visa issues.