Today in Talking CS, we’ll be talking about title sponsors and how they affect your brand as an eSports organization. Whether that organization may be a team, tournament organizer, or business entity, it’s all one and the same. When writing this publication news broke that NA`VI and Virtus.Pro both introduced G2A as title sponsors so we’ll use them as examples.

You look at the initial announcements and everyone was like ‘sellout!!” *raises pitchfork* but there’s more to it, but some won’t bother to look into the deals as their opinions on G2A will remain dynamically bad. Lets analyze the deals and breakdown why two veteran organizations would choose such an infamous company to not only sponsor them, but to have them as title sponsors.

Before that, I’ll break down why people don’t like G2A in the first place, then I’ll explain what a title sponsor is if you haven’t already guessed! G2A is a global marketplace that creates a platform for services such as buying/selling goods. In recent news they have been accused of negligence, defrauding users and publishers who had their keys stolen and sold via G2A.

Stolen? How? Publishers sell games, users buy them. Some users use illegitimate payment forms such as stolen credit cards. They buy them in bulk either chargebacking or since the cards are stolen, they just use and move on. Then they sell them on the G2A platform for cheap. G2A sells the keys regardless if they’re verified as clean or stolen and they profit millions off illegalities. Some say it’s not G2A’s fault, others disagree. Here’s a video that goes in depth on the topic.

So G2A isn’t really liked by professionals in the gaming industry. Publishers fear G2A incentivizes illegal activity and doesn’t do enough to regulate their stolen-key marketplace. It’s a gray area and you can see why people would be upset to see G2A muster up and close deals with organizations such as NA`VI and Virtus.Pro.

Title sponsors are almost equivalent to name rights for stadiums and so forth. Companies sponsor and purchase a name right including other incentives, whether financial or equipment support. It’s expensive, but solidifies a tenured business relationship.

Now lets look at the sponsorship deals themselves. At first glance the NA`VI press release contains a small narrative about NA`VI’s historic ties with G2A then it takes a turn to focus on G2A and their goldmine program. Essentially an affiliation to buy/sell keys for profit. Very straightforward sponsorship. It seems like G2A will provide more financial support to the team for promotion in return. In addition, since it’s a title sponsorship they’ll also receive a large payment.

Now lets look at the Virtus.Pro deal. At first glance you will start to notice new things. Such as the fact that a company called RuHub manages media assets for V.P instead of in-house staff. Cybersport.ru, an entity owned by the V.P organization. Similar to other eSports organizations that started from information portals like Team Liquid, etc. The narrative mentions a bunch of brands that will be given financial support to expand and focus on new projects. Projects such as documentaries, expansive production growth internally and externally.

This deal has a larger impact on V.P as they use that extra cash flow to develop their associated companies. You’ll start seeing more media within the next couple of months, if not weeks. It’s very traditional in eSports to see tenured relationships grow beyond the scope of small equipment sponsorships. Now to the topic at hand.

Title Sponsors & Ramifications

Title sponsors are huge! You get bags of money, they get branding and promotions in return. Yay, everyone wins! Not really. As I mentioned in my previous articles eSports is going through a tough time with undisclosed partnerships, the uprising of illegal sites, and personalities promoting sites that have a history of malicious activities.

Let’s look at League of Legends for example. G2A sold accounts that have been “boosted” which means someone played and ranked an account into high ELO then sells it. Riot Games, the publisher of League of Legends runs the League Championship Series, and the Challenger Series. Since they operate the leagues they also oversee regulations and procedures.

When it was found out that G2A wasn’t going to stop breaking LoL’s ToS they went ahead and outright banned the G2A logo and title from appearing on-stream and in merchandise. It was a huge sponsorship ban. One of a handful that were implemented throughout the history of eSports.

It also poses a moral/ethical question. Should you support a company that could be receiving dirty money? Should you support a company that could hasn’t done much to regulate their marketplace? Should you support a company that has used the gray-area in laws to operate without ramifications? Social media isn’t happy, that’s for sure.

Reading through some of these comments gives you raw insight on how people feel. Sums things up.

For starters, you know you won’t be accepted in the LCS with the G2A brand in your merch (jerseys) and title. As eSports progress and more regulations are passed down through lawmakers you could see G2A regulated to the point where they might pull back sponsorships as they wouldn’t have all that extra cash-flow. Then you have fans in an industry that are extremely vocal who will boycott the organization. Only time will tell how these deals are received, as of now, it’s been mainly received with negativity.

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Hi. I’m a consultancy owner. I deal with eSports, numbers, management and more. I occasionally write and bake awesome pies. This is an opinion piece that reflects on my ideology alone. Like my shitty writing or want to get in contact with me? Twitter @MellowWalt or email homeoffice@esportsrda.net