SK Gaming announces a return to League of Legends , alongside a new partnership with Deutsche Telekom.

The telcom will support all SK teams throughout 2018, with discussions for a multi-year-partnership underway.

Deutsche Telekom will also support SK Gaming in setting up a practice facility next year.

Little under two years since SK Gaming pulled out of League of Legends , the Cologne-based esports organization returns to the MOBA with a new German roster. A major supporter of this new squad is Deutsche Telekom, which has signed on as SK Gaming’s telecommunications and technology partner for 2018.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Though it has a focus on League of Legends, the partnership is organization wide.[/perfectpullquote]

The deal will initially start with a 2018 campaign, but Jens Wundenberg, marketing director for SK Gaming, told The Esports Observer that the organization was already in discussions for a multi-year partnership to follow. “Deutsche Telekom were a significant driving force behind us picking up the team and the decision of moving back into League of Legends at this point in time,” he says.

“They know esports. They have a lot of people internally that really know the ins and outs of how the ecosystem and industry works. We started talking to them over six or seven months ago. We gave them our fair share of how we see the industry, how we believe that the cooperation could look like.”

Though it has a focus on League of Legends, the partnership is organization wide, with prominent jersey branding across all teams except Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Rainbow Six.

SK Gaming’s League of Legends team comprises two players who have competed in the ESL Meisterschaft, and three former Spanish SuperLiga competitors. As well as the ESL Meisterschaft, the squad will be playing in the newly announced League of Legends Premier Tour, a Riot Games-run regional competition for the DACH region, that will award its top teams a place in this split’s European Masters.

Wundenberg says that SK Gaming had been in talks with Riot Games for some time, about how the structure and regional approach for LOL should look like. “At some point they reached out to us and presented the idea of the Premier Tour and how it was going to be set up. We really liked the idea, I think it makes a lot of sense, both in terms of setting up a regional team, and also in terms of academy team, which this team is kind of a mix of.”

For its new squad, SK Gaming has not set up new infrastructure, instead the team will practice from the organization’s headquarters in Cologne. “We have two bootcamp rooms here that are fully equipped and they have everything a player could ask for,” says Wundenberg. “Some of them are still going to school, and we don’t want to pull them out of their social net, I think this is still the best way to do it, as long as you’re not making it to the LCS.”

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]SK Gaming competed in League of Legends between 2010 and 2016, representing Europe at two World Championships. [/perfectpullquote]

The organization does plan, however, to move out of its current headquarters in 2019. “We’re going to set up a fairly large practice facility, and we want to have players practice here as much as possible, as often as possible,” says Wundenberg, adding that Deutsche Telekom will be assisting with the transition. “That’s not necessarily infrastructure that we’re setting up only for the League of Legends team, but for all our other players.”

Wundenberg notes that the partnership will allow Deutsche Telekom to see how it can add gaming and esports to other events it is involved with. The Telcom’s U.S. subsidiary, T-Mobile, is a sponsor of the Overwatch League and the Houston Outlaws , and in Germany, it is a major partner of festivals such as Rock am Ring and Wacken Open Air. “They want to see how the people who go to these festivals react to a gaming area or the opportunity to meet up with the players and have a signing session or play against them.”

SK Gaming competed in League of Legends between 2010 and 2016, representing Europe at two World Championships. However, after a relegation from the EU LCS in 2015, the org eventually left the scene entirely. Next year will see a dramatic shift for the European LOL scene, as Riot Games franchises the EU LCS, inviting potential partners to apply, with an €8-10.5M buy-in fee. Wundenberg would not comment on SK Gaming’s plans regarding 2019, but said that the franchise initiative did affect the organization’s decision to return to the game.

UPDATE 15/06/2018 — According to a report by German business news magazine SPONSORs, SK Gaming is applying for a permanent partnership slot with Riot Games’ EU LCS. The partnership with Deutsche Telekom includes not only support with telecommunications infrastructure and digitalization, but also a “high six-figure amount” of money for the first year. If and in what capacity the partnership will continue depends on SK’s application outcome.