Settlement agreement reached between Rick Fox, Vision Esports

The agreement will see two lawsuits dropped -- one in which the three Vision Esports funds, led by former San Jose Sharks owner Stratton Sclavos, sued Fox in August, alleging that Fox committed "willful, wanton, and intentionally destructive efforts towards the Partnership." The Vision Esports funds includes investments from the likes of the New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, Kevin Durant and Evolution Media, the investment fund backed by Creative Artists Agency.

Another suit was filed by Fox in September against Sclavos and their third partner, Amit Raizada, in which Fox alleged the two committed fraud, conspiracy and breach of contract. Attorneys representing Vision, Fox and the Echo Fox general partner, Esports, LLC -- which is majority owned by Fox -- filed for dismissal of both cases on Tuesday.

Full details of the settlement were not disclosed, but it does include the termination of Fox's noncompete agreement with Vision, freeing the three-time NBA champion to work on other projects, including esports. Fox will start a new company with former Echo Fox CEO and close friend Jace Hall called Twin Galaxies International, as first reported by Newsweek.

"I have chosen to leave Echo Fox, the esports company that I founded, as a method to end the turbulent fighting and instead just continue to advance my visionary interest in being involved in a number of forward-thinking opportunities in the video game space with other strong, credible partners that share my values," Fox said in a statement.

"On the [basketball] court and in the business world, teammates are everything and there must be unity and a shared sense of purpose in order to succeed. In the case of Echo Fox, the significant difference of values, ethics and commitment to integrity was very problematic and damaging. I have shared my thoughts on this in my past statements and court filings, and sincerely hope that my experience can help provide further insight for people who should of course make their own judgements and determinations. I have learned some very painful lessons, and am relieved to now be moving on towards more positive business experiences."

A separate court order that saw Fox, Sclavos and their companies agree to have the court distribute the proceeds of the sale of the Echo Fox League of Legends Championship Series slot -- a total of $30.5 million owed to Echo Fox by Riot Games -- has also been voided. That money will now be paid directly to Echo Fox and then distributed among its shareholders by its new general partner, according to the Tuesday filing. Fox was removed from the general partnership of the company on Monday.

The settlement puts an end to a six-month saga of disputes between Fox, Sclavos, Raizada and the other limited partners of Echo Fox that started after Raizada used racist language in an April email directed at Hall. That email led to Fox notifying his partners that he intended to leave Echo Fox, followed by a public back-and-forth between Fox and Raizada in interviews with news outlets and esports industry figures.

In May, Riot Games notified Echo Fox that it would have 60 days to remove Raizada from its cap table as a result of his use of racist language.

Echo Fox, after numerous extensions from Riot, came to an agreement to sell the slot to Kroenke Sports & Entertainment for $30.25 million. The Kroenke deal later fell through after Sentinels CEO Rob Moore -- whose company operated the Los Angeles Gladiators Overwatch League team on behalf of KSE from late 2017 until September -- sued KSE, alleging Josh Kroenke violated terms of a verbal joint venture agreement.

Riot Games then seized the slot in August and sold it to Evil Geniuses in September for $33 million total -- $30.5 million owed to Echo Fox and $2.5 million due to Riot Games -- sources told ESPN in September.