Investing nearly 5 trillion VND to appear at LCS, but this Sponsor is banned by Riot from ‘showing up’ due to cryptocurrency business

Recently, Team SoloMid – the most traditional team in North American League of Legends, announced information about a sponsorship deal from FTX – a “digital asset” (including cryptocurrency) exchange. The sponsorship package is worth up to 210 million USD (approximately 4.8 trillion VND) and lasts for 10 years.

This huge amount of money has turned this deal into the most valuable sponsorship contract in the world of Esports. And right after the official announcement, all esports teams under Team SoloMid (including League of Legends) changed their name to TSM FTX.

However, the joy was short-lived; within a day of receiving a few hundred million USD, Team SoloMid was “whistled” by Riot Games. FTX’s purpose in investing 210 million USD was to become part of the TSM brand. However, Riot rejected this benefit and demanded that Esports teams competing in Riot’s titles under TSM revert to their old names immediately.

The reason is that according to Riot’s regulations, brands related to cryptocurrency trading are prohibited from appearing. Chris Greeley, the Director of Esports for North America and Oceania at Riot Games, and the head of the LCS tournament shared: “The sponsorship contract between TSM and FTX does not violate any regulations of the LCK tournament; however, cryptocurrency transactions are activities that Riot Games has placed on the restricted promotion list, therefore, the new name of TSM – TSM FTX and the logo of the FTX sponsor will not be allowed to appear on TSM’s uniforms or any Esports events in North America under Riot’s management.”

This means that FTX has spent 210 million USD for the “privilege” of appearing in the internal media of… Team SoloMid, and even cannot be featured on this team’s jerseys like typical sponsors.

Currently, TSM has yet to respond to this issue. In the worst-case scenario, FTX will withdraw its “4.8 trillion VND sponsorship package” and will no longer spend money on TSM, as the team has failed to secure the promised benefits for the sponsor. Indeed, having gold and letting it slip away is unfortunate.