Back in February, esports platform G-Loot underwent a significant rebranding, changing its logo, name, colour scheme and ethos as a result.
The transition from G-Loot to Stryda signifies more than just a fresh coat of paint with the company looking to branch out from esports to attract the broader gaming audience.
Originally, G-Loot dubbed itself the home of everyday esports with its pay-to-enter tournament platform. The company looked to cater towards higher skilled and competitive gamers, providing them with competitions and challenges that aim to lower the threshold for games to achieve an esports-like experience.
Within the esports sector itself, the company also hosted notable tournaments such as last year’s PUBG G-Loot – Season 5 and 6 as well as VCT OFF//SEASON’s G-Loot VALORANT Clash.
However, according to Stydra, the idea of the rebrand is to adjust its platform to tailor to all gamers as more brands want global access to casual players across multiple games.
“When looking at the word ‘esport’, that might appeal to some gamers and players that are really good at something like playing games but it might alienate other players as well,” highlighted G-Loot’s Creative Director, Juha Silventoinen. “So, competitive gaming is more like for everyone, regardless of skill set.”
To achieve this Stryda has not only changed its branding, but also adapted its structure. The company will continue to offer free-to-play challenges to gamers through ‘Stryda Missions’. Players can also compete in leaderboards and create ‘clans’ to compete with other teams.
The platform will also have its own in-game currency with ‘coins, tokens and power tokens’ all having separate features.
According to Silventoinen, the rebranding symbolises how G-Loot has also changed and adapted its practices since its launch in 2015. “Our product is not what it used to be. We’ve done so much development, our product differs from the offering that it had previously, our focus is very much now on like, all the players, regardless of how good you are at a certain game. It’s more about the experience of competitive gaming.”
Moreover, the decision was made to opt for a semi-silent relaunch that included the company announcing its new brand via social media.
“We’re going to do [marketing activations] over time,” G-Loot’s Creative Director said. “It’s still fresh out the box and as the brand will keep evolving, we want to see where this takes us. How will we grow in terms of the brand identity as well. We’re taking small steps for now, not like a huge big bang and that was a very conscious decision to do so.”
From a creative and design standpoint, Silventoinen highlighted that the company opted to emphasise its Swedish roots for its new name and branding. Styrda originates from a combination of the English word ‘strides’ and Swedish word ‘Strida’, which means ‘to battle’. The logo is a mashup of an abstract letter ‘s’ and a crosshair that is regularly seen in FPS games.
Finally, the colour scheme utilises Sweden’s notable yellow gradient, again a nod to the company’s origins. According to G-Loot’s Creative Director, the whole rebranding process started around August 2022.
G-Loot becomes one of many esports-focused entities that have shifted its strategy towards the overall gaming community. Notably, Misfits Gaming sold its League of Legends European franchise (LEC) slot in 2022 to Team Heretics and emphasised a more creator-focused approach through its new $20m (~£17.8m) fund. North American esports organisation 100Thieves has branched out into other gaming-centric industries such as peripherals and game development.
In the unpredictable environment that gaming and esports are rooted in, it is yet unclear what the ‘right’ course of action is. However, diversifying an esports brand towards a broader audience is a play most companies are looking to implement in order to further tap into lucrative demographics.
