The Houston Rockets have been accepted as a 2018 NA LCS permanent partner, according to sources close to the league and team.

The Rockets esports division has been looking for opportunities in the esports industry since December 2016, and have committed to the NA LCS. The Rockets passed on Overwatch League, a source told theScore esports.

The Houston Rockets declined to comment on this story.

The Rockets' esports division has quietly expanded its staff over the past seven months, hiring scouts and analysts during that time. The organization's own sports analytics team has worked with the esports division to create comprehensive scouting reports for League of Legends.

Sources say that the team was notified that their application was accepted on Friday of last week. As a new participant, The Houston Rockets will have to pay $5 million up front and $5 million over a period of time, with an additional $3 million transition fee as a new participant in the NA LCS.

That $3 million will be part of a funding pool that will delve out parachute payments to teams in the 2017 NA LCS and NA CS that were not accepted into the franchised league based on their time in those leagues.

After the Rockets' application was submitted, questions about the organization's ownership arose, which were ultimately resolved with the sale of the team to new owner Tilman Fertitta on Sept. 4 for $2.2 billion. The resolution of the ownership situation was crucial to ensuring that the NA LCS application could properly move forward, a source close to the team said.

The organization intends to focus its attention on the LCS for the immediate future, and does not intend to pursue teams in other titles for the time being, a source said.

Cleveland Cavaliers and LCS

The Cleveland Cavaliers have reportedly been accepted into the franchised 2018 NA LCS and have brought on legendary CoD pro Matthew "NaDeSHoT" Haag to manage their operations, according to a report from ESPN Esports' Jacob Wolf.

While no 2018 teams have been officially announced, the past week has seen a number of reports including that endemic League of Legends organizations Team SoloMid, Cloud9, Counter Logic Gaming, Team Liquid and Echo Fox have been accepted while Phoenix1, Team EnVyUs and Immortals were reportedly rejected.

Wolf has also previously reported that Golden State Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob and his son, the team's assistant general manager Kirk Lacob, have also secured a spot.

The long-time captain of OpTic Gaming between 2009 and 2015, NaDeSHoT won a number of events including Call of Duty XP 2011, UMG Orlando 2015 and the MLG Pro League AW Season 1 Playoffs.

Source: The Score