Context This year, League of Legends’ DACH region esports circuit gets a fresh start, just in time for the new season, which kicked off on January 21st 2020.
The world’s leading esports brand, Riot Games, selected Biborg to redesign and revamp the brand image of their League of Legends DACH region championship from the ground up, following a pitch competition last year.
Formerly known as the "Premier Tour", this League Of Legends esports circuit is a precursor to the League of Legends European Championship. The decision to create a new national league in Germany, Austria and Switzerland was announced in July 2019, when Riot Games entered long-term partnerships with Freaks 4U Gaming and Lagardère Sports to create the league.
The online community of League of Legends, divided into 12 regions, is one of the largest in the industry, with over 100 million monthly players and 8 million daily concurrent players, outnumbering other popular games, including Fortnite (Source: Wired). League of legends 2019 World Championship drew in 200 million viewers, twice as many as the Super Bowl of that year.
Objectives One of the key objectives of this rebranding was to position ‘Prime League’ as one of the major leagues in Europe by giving the brand a premium and distinctive look and feel. New name, new logo, new tone of voice - Riot Games turned to Biborg to give their league a strong and unique identity while remaining friendly and locally relevant.
Creative response Riot Games opens its competition to all the passionate League of Legends players in the region, regardless of their ranks, giving them the opportunity to showcase their talents. ‘Humanizing’ the brand was at the core of Biborg’s approach, to help create more connections between players, fans, and viewers. The creative response was a brand platform based on three key strategic pillars: proximity, guidance, and competition.
Our strategic approach aims to make the Prime League a recognised and consistent esports brand to all of its target audiences, whether pro players, amateurs or just viewers. To achieve this, we merged classic sports branding with a more game-oriented approach.
A brand guidelines document was created for Riot Games to use with the league. Biborg also worked on templates to easily implement the brand’s visual identity into various platforms.
Biborg has been a trusted partner in the complete re-branding of this exciting tournament that’s open to everyone. Thanks to Biborg's expertise and enthusiasm, the Prime League now has a complete branding strategy, supported by creations and activations that will strengthen the cohesion and attractiveness of the league.
Creative adaptations For the design and format adaptations, Biborg created streaming tools, a video template, video teaser, launch video as well as Twitch extensions that are used during the tournament, including the Clap-O-Meter and the Quiz-O-Meter.