A few weeks ago, a magazine feature was mourning the loss of esports teams after the crash of crypto markets, among the biggest sponsors of the competitive gamers. Crypto funding had created an unrealistic expectation of the financial opportunities for teams and players in esports, much like it had created an unlikely expectation that various megastars and megastar athletes really knew what they were talking about when they tried to sell crypto in Super Bowl ads.
That hasn’t daunted LG from sponsoring one of the best teams in Esports—DRX. DRX is the team that recently received recognition for their historic run at the Leagues of Legends World Championship last year. LG Display is sponsoring DRX’s other squads for games Valorant, Tekken, and Warcraft 3 by providing high-performance gaming OLED panels at game tournaments.
The esports industry is beginning to feel the pain of a coming crisis. Smaller teams and smaller games—the middle class of esports—are facing instability. Without the resources and prestige of their larger counterparts, they are not as equipped to face the esports winter.
VentureBeat
Is LG late to the game? Not really. Gaming hasn’t lost its luster, just the illusion that there is an esport economy that can support everybody who makes it into the big leagues. In truth, esports is a niche activity but it is very, very influential. There are a lot of gamers, and even casual PC gamers, who are heavily influenced by the top players in esports. LG’s home market, South Korea, is different, too. The country has always been its own island of gamer insanity. The big money in esports, and the big crowds, were first found there before gaining popularity around the world, pushed by the likes of Intel and Nvidia.
What’s even more interesting is that there’s a definite lurch toward pushing those 40+ inch OLED gaming monitors. There is very little information on what the upgrade scale cycles are for gaming accessories, you can count displays in that category, but the enthusiasm levels are high, the PR exposure alone is worth a look, too, because there are so many enthusiast sites, so many venues where products are discussed, reviewed, and drooled over. LG, Samsung, Acer, Innocn, MSI, Corsair, and Asus are among the companies that have recently released new gaming monitors, but none of them are bargained or priced aggressively.
