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Recently, the trials for each major competition area of "League of Legends" are coming to an end. The LPL division will be represented by RNG, iG and EDG in the S8 Global Finals.
As the competition approaches, the "League of Legends" event official also announced the list of partners for the "2018 League of Legends Global Finals" on September 17.
"KFC, Mercedes-Benz, Yili Guliduo" , these three heavyweight brands have become the official partners of this year's global finals in China.
In recent years, there has been no shortage of international brands in the sponsor lineup of "League of Legends" events and related activities, and sponsorship fees have also increased with the increase in popularity of the game.
This seems to be a natural treatment for this game that is currently at the national level. However, all this was a different story a few years ago.
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"League of Legends" was designated as an official competition event by e-sports leagues in many countries around the world during the 2011 S1 season. The sponsor of the global finals in the same year was the well-known Dell sub-brand Alienware.
However, there were no Chinese teams participating in the first season. It was not until the emergence of WE and iG in the second season that this gap was filled.
iG was funded and established by Principal Wang. Naturally, it is backed by a big tree to enjoy the shade. As a veteran team, WE has won the favor of sponsors due to its excellent results and reputation in its original e-sports projects.
"League of Legends" began to gradually change in 2013. In the third season, there was finally a professional league held in China.
Not only does it have 3C brands such as BenQ, SteelSeries , and MSI related to game peripherals, but the addition of traditional sports manufacturer Adidas has injected different blood into the e-sports competition of "League of Legends" in China.
At the second anniversary carnival in the same year, the official also announced a strategic cooperation with China Merchants Bank, opened the application for "League of Legends" themed credit cards, and launched a specially customized "League of Legends" world's first real gold card. 3C product manufacturers are still indispensable in the
S5 summer competition. "League of Legends" also ushered in its first cooperation with the automotive field at the Demacia Cup in the same year.
At the same time, KFC, the partner of this year’s finals in China, also joined hands with “League of Legends” for the first time this year.
At that time, KFC first released "League of Legends"-themed meal packages online, and then transformed four KFC stores across the country into "League of Legends"-themed restaurants.
In 2016, Coca-Cola’s Sprite brand sponsored the LPL Spring Festival with RMB 15 million and released a billion-bottle themed hero can.
One year later, JEEP became the chief sponsor of the League of Legends LPL Summer Championship, and Energy Drink Warhorse became the official partner.
After the home and away system was implemented in 2018, the number of LPL sponsors quickly tripled compared to 2017. Moreover, since the S8 game was held in neighboring South Korea, it also joined hands with a travel website to launch a game viewing travel package.
compiled from the Internet, incomplete statistics
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As can be seen from the above summary, "League of Legends" partners in China have gradually expanded from a single 3C manufacturer at the beginning to food, banking, automobiles and other fields.
Sponsors from different fields have also brought a variety of cooperation methods to "League of Legends", and the overall development tends to be diversified.
In the list of "Top 100 Sports Events with the Most Sponsorship Value in 2018", the "League of Legends" professional league entered the top 10, ranking 9th.
In recent years, the influence of traditional sports events on young people has been declining year by year. "League of Legends" is currently one of the most popular e-sports projects in China, and its huge base of young players is naturally its biggest advantage.
Spring playoffs data report
In addition, this year's "League of Legends" was selected for the Asian Games , which is the icing on the cake, giving itself the label of national certification.
In four years, e-sports will become an official event of the Asian Games. At that time, even if "League of Legends" is no longer the favorite of players, moving to a higher traditional competitive stage will mean that future Chinese e-sports projects will be able to attract more sponsors.
Another partner of this year’s S8 finals in China, Mercedes-Benz has sponsored the S series for two consecutive years. During this period, it also became one of the sponsors of the LPL and RNG teams.
Some people may be confused by Mercedes-Benz's sponsorship of the LPL. After all, a large part of the players of "League of Legends" are still students or have just entered society.
It is worth mentioning here that the GLA car series promoted in the cooperation between Mercedes-Benz and "League of Legends" is considered an entry-level product, and its price is not as high as expected.
Such cooperation, firstly, hopes that the brand can take a younger route, and secondly, it can establish a brand image for the new generation of consumers.
Perhaps in a few years, when this group of players have higher spending power or car purchase plans, Mercedes-Benz can gain more presence in the players' subconscious minds.
Since the development of "League of Legends", it is not uncommon for brands to have cooperated with it many times. Including Mercedes-Benz, international big-name sponsorship can also enhance the status of "League of Legends" in the hearts of players. From a side perspective, it is a mutually beneficial marketing strategy.
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After things develop to a certain stage, they will definitely take on more forms. In recent years, changes in the trend of popular e-sports events have also led to changes in the sponsor structure.
In addition to mainstream brands, there are also many "indecent" sponsorships. For example, due to the homophonic memes being widely spread among players, BLG eventually made "Isatis root" appear on the team uniforms.
There are many examples of this at home and abroad. The UOL team in the EU division accepted the sponsorship of "Billy Boy", and the promotional copy also conformed to the brand owner's style.
is sponsored by Germany's number one condoms brand. The most basic attribute of
e-sports is games. The player base is not only young but also grew up in a more open Internet era. In addition, popular competitive games in recent years have enhanced social and entertainment experiences.
Various factors make "irregular" cooperation produce better publicity effects for both parties. I believe that in the future, more popular competitive games will form such a combination with big brands that have the same tone.
On the other hand, the emergence of mobile e-sports products and the growth of female e-sports players will also attract more and different sponsors.
Previously, the beauty brand Sephora announced its cooperation with the GIRL GAMER Women’s E-Sports Festival in an attempt to get involved in the e-Sports industry.
In China, where mobile e-sports is relatively developed, many domestic mobile phone manufacturers have also cooperated with mobile e-sports events and launched specialized competitive models.
As China’s e-sports industry continues to upgrade, many e-sports towns and e-sports industrial parks have been built or are under construction planning. In the future, real estate developers and physical industry sponsors may join the lineup of e-sports projects.
Moreover, after e-sports is recognized by the country, there may also be national-level cooperation opportunities. For example, the "CS:GO" division of the C9 team has previously received sponsorship from the U.S. Air Force.
The emergence of more and more different partners means that e-sports has received attention from more and more different fields. This will help e-sports in more ways than just financial aspects.
Under the trend of "e-sports star-making", e-sports players have the opportunity to become spokespersons for brands. This is a huge help in providing public visibility and recognition, and can also expand the income channels for players after retirement.
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In fact, competitive games like "League of Legends" that already have high popularity IP value are feeding back into other fields.
At the seventh anniversary celebration that ended a few days ago, it can be seen that the celebrities invited to this year's event were smaller than in previous years, and most of them appeared as newcomers.
This is obviously Tencent's hope that "League of Legends" will become a "co-sponsor" for others on their way to stardom, helping to support the popularity of its other entertainment sections.
The success of "League of Legends" in China is due to the foreshadowing of many senior-level e-sports projects, but it has also helped open the door to the popularity of Chinese e-sports.
and the success of the business model has pushed e-sports to a new height in China. These significance are far higher than the success of the game itself.
"League of Legends" is in its 7th year this year. As players age, there may be avatars in the friend list that will never light up again.
But this game has left a footnote in everyone’s youth, and has also become a milestone in the history of China’s e-sports development.
"This year is the most promising year for LPL to win the championship." . Although this sentence seems to have been added with a lot of ridicule, winning the championship of this year's S8 is still the greatest achievement for every "League of Legends" player. wish.
hopes that the three Chinese teams can show their strength on the field this year and have a little more luck.
believes that the good results achieved on S8 can spread the influence of the game to more areas in the next season, thereby helping "League of Legends" go further and better.
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