- Team Vitality is proud to count on the support of its four loyal national and international partners JBL Quantum, GG.BET, ALDI and Crédit Agricole for another year.
- A sign of the club's attractiveness, these renewals are added to the recent arrivals of Magnum, Ben & Jerry's and Tradeit.gg.
- Frozen All Stars, Match of LeGGends, V.Hive App… The club and its fourteen partners have been able to create memorable tailor-made experiences for esports fans throughout 2023.
- As esports continues to attract audiences year after year, Team Vitality continues to engage its partners over the long term with a young, engaged and connected audience.
Paris, January 17, 2024 – Team Vitality is delighted to be able to count on its fourteen partners to continue to support it in its influence in France and internationally. Thus, 100% of the partnerships at the end of their contract are renewed: JBL Quantum, GG.BET (international partner), ALDI and Crédit Agricole continue their adventures within the Ruche, alongside Tezos, hummel, KIA, Cherry XTRFY, EVNIA, Kingston FURY, Secret Lab and the Stade de France, whose contracts end at a later date.
On the occasion of the club's 10th anniversary, Team Vitality had the pleasure of welcoming new partners including the skin trading site Tradeit.gg . As well as other brands that are starting their history with esports such as KIA , Magnum and Ben & Jerry's . Strongly anchored internationally, these companies demonstrate the influence and impact of Team Vitality on the esports scene.
While the economic context of esports is experiencing a long period of adversity, Team Vitality is reversing the trend. This strong commitment is unique in this sector and these renewals are an important marker for Team Vitality which keeps partners at the heart of its strategy. Thus, the club is surrounded by leading partners in their respective sectors, sharing the same values of performance, innovation, authenticity and passion.
A COMMUNITY THAT CONTINUES TO GROW AND UNITE, DESPITE THE CRISIS
Featuring six iconic games, Team Vitality has continued to grow its community of over 10 million fans worldwide. This unbridled growth has been driven by the major titles won by Team Vitality in 2023. Among them, the grandiose Counter Strike Major in Paris last May, where 50,000 spectators cheered on the French club's players in an incandescent atmosphere for four days. The final stages even recorded a peak audience of 1.52 million viewers worldwide. Another historic fact was the club's victory in the Rocket League World Championship in August, reaching a record audience on the game of over 468,000 simultaneous viewers.
In 2023, the club saw a 70% increase in fan engagement on its social media, and surpassed one million followers on the TikTok social network . It is the combination of these international esports performances and its extremely engaged fans that make the club particularly attractive to brands. A boon for them who manage to gain the attention of an audience that is difficult to capture, due to its content consumption habits.
“We are very grateful to our partners for placing this trust in us. Particularly in a sector that is still young, looking for its profitability model, but which has demonstrated its strong impact on several occasions. Their loyalty shows that we know how to aim right, create activations that resemble their values and commitments, while continuing to stay in tune with the times with our fans. We are starting 2024 with great ambition, and as much passion as ever!” says Nicolas Maurer, CEO and co-founder of Team Vitality.
SIX PARTNER EXPERIENCES THAT MARKED 2023
Fully embodying the missions and vocations of Team Vitality, the partner companies and the club have together built the best experiences to take esports fans on immersive adventures.
For the 2023 League of Legends season, Team Vitality announced the creation of its first women's team, the French Bees, in collaboration with ALDI. Thanks to this partnership, the roster was able to benefit from premium resources, the same infrastructure as the club's other teams and tailor-made management, a strong signal to promote women's esports in local competitions.
This collaboration takes on a new dimension this year, more international and even more competitive. The French Bees become the Rising Bees , with ALDI as a major partner for the second consecutive year, supported for 2024 by Le Crédit Agricole as the official partner of the roster. The brands will work to develop a more inclusive and competitive sector for female players.
The V.Hive mobile app allows Team Vitality’s most engaged fans to access exclusive experiences with the club through a unique reward system. In November 2023, Team Vitality and Tezos celebrated the first anniversary of their app.
In one year, the V.Hive application has recorded 83K downloads, the creation of more than 25K avatars and some 64K wearables. To reward the most dedicated fans around the world, this equates to more than 1,000 rewards with the club (jerseys signed by players, creative posters, merchandising, etc.) and 4 visual experiences organized between fans and players during the biggest esports moments of the year (LEC competition in Berlin, CS Paris Major, Rocket League Worlds, Frozen All Star).
In 2024, V.Hive launches its fifth season with even more new in-app features and unique experiences for its fans.
- Crédit Agricole is touring France to make esports accessible to everyone thanks to the Vitality School Summer Tour
Initiated by Team Vitality, and supported by Crédit Agricole since 2022, the VSchool Summer Tour offers young esports enthusiasts the opportunity to participate free of charge in days to familiarize themselves with esports and to be made aware of good practices, while being accompanied / supervised / coached by professionals. This year, Crédit Agricole invited the VSchools throughout the country thanks to the participating Regional Banks. By extending the operation to several cities in France, Crédit Agricole has continued to be a vector of links and to strengthen cohesion and social inclusion through esports.
- International partner GG.BET and Team Vitality brought together CS:GO legends for an epic show match
During the CS:GO summer 2023 break, Team Vitality and its international partner GG.BET (services not accessible in France) managed to bring together the two legends of the game and their teams around an explosive series of matches. The two GOATs of Counter-Strike, s1mple (NAVI) and ZywOo (Team Vitality), even teamed up during the Berlin-based event. Called “Match of LeGGends”, the showmatch brought together more than 80K viewers who are Counter-Strike fans thanks to the mobilization of exceptional players and casters from the CS community.
- KIA and JBL QUANTUM transported esports players to another dimension at the LEC Finals in Montpellier
During the 2023 LEC season finale held in Montpellier, Team Vitality and its partners Kia and JBL Quantum have set up a program of unique experiences with their team around the game League of Legends.
Fans were able to meet the players through autograph sessions while experiencing JBL Quantum products in an esports environment. Team Vitality created the “Blind Box” experience, an immersive box where participants had to guess which sounds belonged to which League of Legends champions through a quiz.
At the same time, Team Vitality also set up the “The lane of movement” experience with KIA. Immersive KIA cars, customized in black and yellow , transported fans from downtown Montpellier to the arena. On board the cars, fans were able to play League of Legends throughout the journey.
To kick off this partnership at the end of the year, Team Vitality and the two Unilever brands offered fans a Rocket League showmatch: The Frozen All Stars, paying tribute to the passion of fans before the resumption of official competitions. The Frozen All Stars featured the world champion team of Team Vitality, against international legends of the game in a series of entertaining and exciting matches. The device was broadcast on the Twitch channel and the TikTok account of Team Vitality, cast by Boyan and LifeIsCool of the Rocket Baguette channel in France. And in English on the Twitch channel of the famous caster JohnnyBoi_i.
Inspired by the NBA All-Star Game format, the showmatch took place in the comfort of a mountain chalet thanks to a V.Hive (Team Vitality premises) transformed for the occasion. Throughout the evening, fans were able to enjoy a relaxed atmosphere while watching the game. They were also able to taste Magnum and Ben & Jerry's ice creams through different taste experiences (blind tests, ranking).