A number of major announcements were made in the esports space last week, as BLAST expanded into new territories and two major firms inked new partnerships.
In the latest ESI Digest – made in cooperation with GRID Esports – Esports Insider Sub-Editor, Tom Daniels, gave his usual breakdown of the biggest esports stories of the week.
One of the biggest esports stories of last week was the announcement that BLAST would expand into Apex Legends, enhancing its range of competitions as well as its general presence across the sector.
The tournament organiser will host its first event involving the free-to-play battle royale title, BLAST Titans, which will feature 40 European teams competing for €40,000 in prize money.
“The really interesting thing about this is that BLAST really expand its amount of titles, obviously it is mainly known for CS:GO with the BLAST Premier and have dabbled with other titles as well,” Daniels remarked.
He added: “It shows how this brand wants to branch out into a lot of other titles and become more all-encompassing and not just known for CS:GO.”
Meanwhile, Europe’s G2 Esports organisation has boosted its marketing and branding efforts by partnering with luxury fashion designer Ralph Lauren, launching a series of activations on TikTok and Twitch.
Additionally, the new partners will cooperate on various international branding initiatives. For example, G2 League of Legends player Reckless will feature on fashion designer’s Wimbledon campaign.
“Overall I think this is a very interesting partnership as it continues this kind of bridge which is starting to be built between esports and fashion,” Daniels commented.
“We’ve seen it with esports fashion week, debuting We are Nations, the latest member of that group, and now we’re seeing luxury fashion brands partnering with esports teams and esports players and having them on the front cover of these campaigns.
“It shows the growth of the esports industry and it also shows the mainstream perception of esports, and how that is starting to change as well.”
Source – Esports Insider YouTube Channel
