KitKat returns to the League of Legends competitive scene as the main sponsor of the 2020 League of Legends European Championship (LEC) Summer Split. The candy bar company heads the list of other big sponsors, including Mastercard, Alienware, and Secretlab.
As with the 2020 Spring Split, KitKat will continue to be featured during breaks and pauses throughout the season. Their logo will also be featured on in-game Summoner’s Rift banners, alongside Mastercard and Alienware, which were featured in the spring. Like with the Spring Split, these banners will only be visible to the championship’s audience to preserve the game’s competitive integrity.
KitKat entered the esports scene last year when it signed a partnership deal with Overwatch League’s Los Angeles Valiant, where it acted as the team’s official candy sponsor. However, the company seemed more hesitant to appear in LEC, as the agreement between LEC and the world famous chocolate bar brand was originally only for the Spring Split.
After the Spring Split, KitKat started sponsoring AGO Rogue. AGO Rogue is an academy branch that exists as part of a partnership between North American organization Rogue, and Polish organization X-Kom AGO. The academy branch was created to assist team selection and career development while establishing a greater competitive League presence in Warsaw, Poland.
Otherwise, KitKat is sponsoring the inaugural BLAST Bounty Hunt event for Dota 2, which began earlier this week.
It appears that KitKat has become more interested in esports as the industry’s popularity starts to rival that of traditional sports. What once began as a niche market, stigmatized for the atypical lifestyles of those who hosted and participated in them, esports has boomed into a lucrative business opportunity in recent years.
In fact, Newzoo’s 2019 Esports Market Report found that 458.8 million people watch esports worldwide. While that number pales in comparison to the estimated 4 billion people who follow professional soccer, the growing interest in esports would place it among the top 10 most popular sports in the world.
In many ways, it’s humbling to see that something once considered “underground” now has global popularity. However, the business opportunities and money involved could lead to more controversy within the esports community, as we’ve already seen with the accusations against the CS:GO team, Winstrike, and many others.
For now, though, KitKat and other large brands’ interest in esports means the games, teams, and organizations fans love have a bright future ahead of them.
Source: LEC
