Asian esports organisation Talon Esports has partnered with live streaming platform AfreecaTV to produce VALORANT content for the 2023 season.
Talon Esports will produce exclusive content on the platform for the VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) season, which includes watch parties and community events.
The partnership will commence with the VCT LOCK//IN event in São Paulo, Brazil, which started February 13th.
Talon Esports is a leading esports team in Southeast Asia, and is the only organisation representing Thailand as a Riot Games VCT partner team. 10 teams were selected for each of the VCT’s three regions — EMEA, Pacific (Talon’s region) and Americas.
AfreecaTV is a livestreaming platform based in Seoul, South Korea. In November last year, the company partnered with ONE Esports to host the AfreecaTV SEA Invitational, a VALORANT tournament.
In Asia Pacific, Facebook and YouTube are the most popular platforms for game streaming, according to Statista — including in Thailand. For AfreecaTV, this partnership will aim to bring more Thai esports fans to the platform, and increase the platform’s popularity in the Asia Pacific region more generally.
“We are really excited to partner with AfreecaTV and help bring a household brand to Thailand,” said Sean Zhang, CEO of Talon Esports. “At the core of Talon, we consistent[ly] aim to deliver value and entertainment for our passionate fanbase. With AfreecaTV’s extensive knowledge in content creation, this partnership will provide our fans with new, exciting ways to support our team no matter where they are in the world.”
Talon appears to be taking advantage of its status as a partner in Riot Games’ VCT. Many organisations applied for VCT partnership; its low cost of entry and healthy revenue-sharing model, paired with the popularity of VALORANT, make it one of the most promising competitions in esports. Riot Games recently announced that revenue from its LOCK//IN skins capsule will be split 50/50 with participating teams.
