Riot Games Announces Exclusive Partnership with Honda

Honda has announced a significant new partnership with Riot Games’ League of Legends Championship Series (LCS).

The partnership will make Honda the exclusive automotive sponsor of the LCS beginning with the Summer Split Playoffs in Los Angeles August 10, continuing with Finals in Detroit August 24-25. This will include Honda’s sponsorship of the Scouting Grounds and LCS MVP award.

Honda is also currently sponsoring first place team Team Liquid. It’s unprecedented to have an automotive manufacturer partner with both a team and league in the same esport league simultaneously.

Honda’s further dive into the esports industry is one of the appealing qualities to Riot. Matthew Archambault, Head of Esports Partnerships and Business Development in North America at Riot Games, shared some words with Esports Observer on Honda’s commitment.

“Honda [has] a true cause toward driving the amateur system,” said Archambault. “They’ve been doing it since some of their music activations with Honda Stage. They are fully committing not only just at a professional level but at that path-to-pro ecosystem, too.”

Honda is far from the only automotive brand capitalizing on the ever-expanding esports industry. Kia Motors previously sponsored rival League of Legends tournament series, League of Legends European Championship (LEC). And Toyota is currently one of the biggest partners of the Overwatch League. 

The announcement coincided with LCS starting its Summer Playoffs. Summer Playoffs is the most important set of games for all teams as winning the whole tournament not only makes a team summer champions — the winning team represents their league at the World Championships.

Credit: Rudolf Baldovino