Mentioned in this article Games: League of Legends

For the first three weeks of the Spring Split, Mercedes-Benz had been the League of Legends Pro League’s main broadcasting sponsor. However, the German car manufacturer recently created a controversy in China, by posting an Instagram image featuring a quote by the Dalai Lama. Now, the Chinese LOL championship appears to have silently removed Mercedes-Benz’ logo from its website and from the league’s broadcast.

A few days ago, if someone visited the LPL’s official website, the image they would come across, would be this:



Mercedes-Benz appeared as the tournament’s main sponsor, above the logos of companies like Intel, L’Oreal Paris, Doritos, War Horse, and HP. That was, up until Monday, when Mercedes-Benz uploaded a motivational Instagram picture, featuring a Dalai Lama quote.



This quickly caused controversy in China. Ever since 1959, when he fled from China-controlled Tibet to India, the Dalai Lama is considered a fugitive by Chinese authorities. As a spiritual and political leader for Tibetans, he preaches for the independence of the region, incorporated in China since 1950. Although the Tibetan independence movement draws a lot of support from artists and celebrities, no country in the world officially recognizes Tibet as a sovereign state.

Chinese internet users noticed Mercedes-Benz’s post and immediately started pledging to boycott the brand. Daimler, Mercedes-Benz’ parent company, immediately deleted the picture and issued an apology. “We will promptly take steps to deepen our understanding of Chinese culture and values, our international staff included, to help standardize our actions to ensure this sort of issue doesn’t happen again,” read the statement.

Either way, it looks like LPL took immediate action and removed Mercedes-Benz’ logo both from its website’s front-page and from the Shanghai Electric Industrial Park studio in Shanghai, were the Spring Split takes place. Now, the first image someone sees when visiting the official LPL website is this:



It is not the first time when a Western brand gets in trouble in China by not being careful. Just last month, Delta Airlines and Zara had to issue similar apologies after being reprimanded by authorities for listing Taiwan and Tibet, on both of which China claims sovereignty, as countries on their web pages. A few weeks earlier, Marriott hotels had their website taken down in China, for including Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau in the countries of operations list.

The Esports Observer reached out to Riot Games and Daimler for a comment but did not receive an answer at the time of publication.