With the 2021 BLAST Premier Spring Finals approaching, iconic Swedish esports organisation Ninjas in Pyjamas has teamed up with cryptocurrency infrastructure company Mercuryo. 

Mercuryo bridges the worlds of fiat and crypto, providing global access to fast, secure, and affordable money transfers, and offers a range of payment solutions for businesses. 

The collaboration will include various activations, along with a three-episode content series focusing on “how Mercuryo can boost your performance,” and exploring the relationship between gaming and crypto. 

Ryan Tinslay, Senior Manager Strategic Partnerships at Ninjas in Pyjamas, explained: “We’re so excited to start working with Mercuryo during our BLAST Premier Spring Finals campaign. It’s no secret that cryptocurrencies have continued to rise as both a payment and investment model, with increased availability to use crypto across more and more vendors globally. It’s still an area that can seem daunting for many to get into and really understand. That’s why we’re partnering with Mercuryo – to offer our fans the opportunity for a more secure, low-cost and easier way to transfer any of their fiat currency into crypto.”

Petr Kozyakov, CEO at Mercuryo, added: “This partnership with Ninjas in Pyjamas is crucial for us as a company and the entire fintech industry. Esports and fintech have a lot in common; passion, problem-solving, and the ability to think several steps ahead. In gaming, this set of skills can secure victory. In the financial industry, they help drive innovation.”

British competitive gaming culture brand EXCEL ESPORTS has announced a partnership with gaming chair company AndaSeat. 

The deal makes AndaSeat the Official Gaming Chair Supplier for EXCEL ESPORTS League of Legends (LEC) team and BTL, its Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC) roster. AndaSeat will also be supplying gaming chairs and desks for EXCEL training facilities at Twickenham, LEC Berling gaming horse, and another, soon-to-be-revealed London HQ. 

EXCEL will also be collaborating with AndaSeat to develop both a co-branded gaming chair and co-branded desk. 

Patrick Collins, Head of Partnerships at EXCEL ESPORTS, commented: “We are thrilled to announce our partnership with AndaSeat At EXCEL ESPORTS we are always looking to work with forward-thinking partners that are innovating tech within the competitive gaming space.

“The AndaSeat team have dedicated over a decade of research and development into designing the perfect gaming chair, using their impressive AD+ Design technology to ensure gamers health and performance is the top priority. This level of passion and commitment is something that we at EXCEL really resonate with, as we are constantly striving for the ‘Power of Better.’”

Fabian Broich, Head of Performance at EXCEL, added: “EXCEL recently released a whitepaper called “Gaming for Better” which identifies that one of the five common injuries that gamers experience is lower back pain. Sitting in a chair and gaming for long periods of time can result in this pain and can have a severe impact on a professional gamers wellbeing and physical health, which is vital to performance in gaming.

“The partnership with AndaSeat allows us to utilise their AD+ Design seat designs, to improve our player’s postures as well as taking the burden off their back, while still delivering quality performances during long and hard gaming sessions. The use of this technology within our players chairs and desks will be extremely beneficial during our training regime leading up to the LEC Spring Split.”

Zhou Lin, CEO and Founder of AndaSeat, said: “We are very proud to be announcing our partnership with EXCEL ESPORTS. At AndaSeat, we believe that our products should be created and developed ‘by the best for the best’, which is why we have decided to exclusively collaborate with EXCEL for their League of Legends team with our chairs and desks.

“Using our AD+ Design technology we can help EXCEL ensure their player’s health and comfort through their long training sessions and tournaments, and help them have the ultimate user experience.”

Staying with EXCEL ESPORTS, in April the organisation named Sony as its Official Smartphone Supplier for Fortnite.

North American esports organisation Soniqs has teamed up with San Francisco-based sports marketing specialist PIVOT Agency. 

The partnership will see PIVOT facilitate future sponsorship deals, help align partner goals with the organisation’s brand, and provide strategic, branding, and messaging advice to Soniqs. 

Darren Moore, General Manager at Soniqs, commented: “Working with PIVOT will allow us to reach new growth with the Soniqs. I’m excited to work closely with PIVOT’s esports and gaming team to bring successful partnerships to our organisation and achieve our vision within the esports space.”

John Younger, Vice President, Esports & Gaming at PIVOT, added: “We are very excited to have the opportunity to work with the Soniqs. From my experience working with some of the world’s largest esports organisations, the Soniqs have the vision and leadership to become one of the most respected names in the industry. We are honoured to play a small role in bringing their vision to market.”

PIVOT Agency was founded in 2013 as a full-service sports marketing agency. In recent years it has expanded to esports and gaming, working with organisations including Chicago Huntsmen, FACEIT, NRG, San Francisco Shock, and SoaR Gaming.

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based Soniqs fields rosters in Rainbow Six: Siege, Rocket League, and PUBG, and recently brought an Australian VALORANT team to North America. 

Last week, it seemed the Spanish esports scene had a new organisation, in the form of Screen Wolves – founded by 72-year-old politician Celia Villalobos, of all people. 

However, Screen Wolves doesn’t really exist, and the entire stunt was a viral marketing campaign by eyewear brand Multiópticas, designed to raise awareness of what it coined ‘screen pollution’ – the harmful effects too much screen time can have on the eyes. 

The brand explains that ‘screen intoxication’ can affect people of all ages, and commentators are presuming Villalobos was chosen due to the 2015 viral video of her playing Candy Crush while sitting in an official session of congress. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Is it just us, or did anyone else take it like Multiópticas was insinuating that too much screen time will make you look like Celia? Hmm… hats off to her though, she’s obviously a good sport. 

Porque el gaming no lo marcan los años, lo marcan las horas de pantalla. Por fin podemos decirlo #eresgamerynolosabes 🎮 #screenpollution #screenwolves @ScreenWolves Descubre más en https://t.co/1fQJmdmgWv 📲 pic.twitter.com/qkPnFWO7dB

— Multiópticas (@mo_multiopticas) May 26, 2021

Russia-based esports organisation Virtus.pro, and Animoca Brands subsidiary, Lympo, are launching collectible cards as NFTs. 

The cards will feature images of players from the club’s first Dota 2 and CS:GO rosters, and will be distributed on the Lympo minting platform. 

Sergey Glamazda, Virtus.pro CEO, said: “The tradition of collecting player cards goes back a hundred years. The idea behind it was simple: to release a card with an image of a baseball player on it. Years later it became popular and spread across a lot of different sports: people started collecting, trading, and bequeathing the cards of their idols, which led to a fully grown ecosystem. Today the price for some of the hundred-year-old cards could reach several million dollars.

“With the help of blockchain technologies, this ecosystem has now been incorporated into the digital world. It’s great to have this kind of tradition in esports as well and we are happy to be a part of it courtesy of our partners from Lympo.”

Staying with esports and non-fungible tokens, last week, CS:GO league Flashpoint announced a partnership with open digital currency platform Rally.io, that will see the launch of collectible NFT cards. 

eNASCAR and ASUS have renewed their partnership for the remainder of the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series 2021 season.

The deal will see ASUS continue as the Official PC and Monitor of the series, with its Republic of Gamers (ROG) hardware featured during in-race broadcasts and on eNASCAR’s social media channels, while ASUS branding will also be included on the cars.

Nick Rend, Managing Director of Gaming and Esports at NASCAR, commented: “ASUS is a major supporter of the sim racing community and an expert in delivering top-tier products to PC gamers and sim racers around the globe. The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series features the most elite sim racers in the world and this partnership can deliver the equipment they need to compete at the highest level.”

Kelvin Jeon, Brand Marketing Manager at ASUS North America, added: “Following the success of the 11th season of the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, we’re excited to continue our partnership with eNASCAR and bring sim racing to even greater heights at both in-person and virtual competitions. As the ongoing Official PC and Monitor of the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, ASUS is dedicated to providing both spectators and sim racers with world-class experiences on the track and beyond!”

ASUS, NASCAR, Coca-Cola, and iRacing, also collaborated to build four unique simulators for the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Cup Series race, which took place yesterday as part of the NASCAR Salutes initiative. The simulators are now being donated to United Service Organiszations Inc. (USO), and will be delivered to two bases for use by the military community and their families. 

The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series will be back in action at 9:00PM ET on 22 June at virtual Pocono Raceway on eNASCAR.com/live.