On Saturday, one of the biggest esports leagues – the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) North America – will dive into the spring season of 2018.

As the league has undergone many changes over the past months, in particular the introduction of a franchise system, followed by the creation of several teams supported by renowned sports clubs such as the Golden State Warriors, the Houston Rockets or the Cleveland Cavaliers, many esports enthusiasts and League of Legends fans are curious to see how the league will develop under the new conditions.

Assuming that these changes will increase the league’s reach and brands can rely on stable and long-term partnerships due to the franchise system, this is the perfect time to enter into new strategic partnerships – Just like FlyQuest, one of the 10 franchises of the LCS North America (LCS NA), which announced Snickers as a foundational partner and 5-hour energy as a foundational sponsor some days ago.

We take the league’s kick-off as an opportunity to take a look at the brands who are currently partnered with the LCS NA franchises. It comes as no surprise that the majority of sponsors and partners are endemic brands. But: Non-endemic brands are catching up:

Note: The sponsorships and partnerships listed in this article only take into account those listed on the teams’ official websites.

In terms of the number of sponsorships HyperX and Twitch lead the list. Both brands have four sponsorships in total. However, it can be assumed that other teams also cooperate with twitch, but it looks like they don’t announce this on their website.

Also strongly represented is HTC, which has taken the step towards esports in 2015. The telecommunications giant sponsors Team Liquid, Cloud9 and Team SoloMid. The list is completed by renowned endemic brands like Razer, Corsair, Logitech, ASUS and Intel as well as non-endemic brands such as Turtle Wax, GEICO and Brisk.

Esports Sponsorships: Partners & Sponsors of the LCS NA Franchises

4x – HyperX (Team Liquid, Cloud9, Team SoloMid, Echo Fox) 1x – Discord (Team Liquid) 4x – twitch (Team Liquid, Cloud9, Team SoloMid, CLG) 1x – GEICO (Team SoloMid) 3x – HTC (Team Liquid, Cloud9, Team SoloMid) 1x – Gilette (Team SoloMid) 2x – 5-hour Energy (Counter Logic Gaming, FlyQuest) 1x – iBUYPOWER (Cloud9) 2x – Crunchyrol l (Team Liquid, Cloud9) 1x – Intel (CLG) 2x – DXRacer (OpTiC Gaming, CLG) 1x – Logitech (Team SoloMid) 2x – J!nx (Echo Fox, Team Liquid) 1x – LoLwiz (Cloud9) 2x – NeedForSeat (Team Liquid, Cloud9) 1x – Monster Energy (Team Liquid) 1x – Ai Reload (Echo Fox) 1x – MSI (Cloud9) 1x – Alienware (Team Liquid) 1x – Brisk (OpTiC Gaming) 1x – AOC (Team Liquid) 1x – Qanba (Echo Fox) 1x – ASUS Republic of Gamers (Echo Fox) 1x – Razer (Team Liquid) 1x – Ballistix (Team Liquid) 1x – ScufGaming (OpTiC Gaming) 1x – Overwolf (CLG) 1x – Snickers (FlyQuest) 1x – CYBERPOWERPC (Team SoloMid) 1x – Turtle Beach (OpTiC Gaming) 1x – Corsair (Counter Logic Gaming) 1x – Turtle Wax (OpTiC Gaming)

However, it all depends on what the brands make of their sponsorship and how the reach of the teams and players is used for their own purposes. Ultimately, it is all about addressing the right target group with relevant advertising messages.

What do you think?

Join the conversation on reddit, facebook or twitter and let us know how you feel about the rising involvement of non-endemic brands like Gilette, 5-hours Energy or Snickers.

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