Game publisher Riot Games has announced that non-alcoholic beer brand Heineken 0.0 will sponsor the upcoming VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) Americas.
As VCT America’s official beer partner, Heineken 0.0 has become the presenting sponsor of VALORANT map Icebox during the competition’s streams.
The deal will specifically see Heineken 0.0 gain a branding presence during the map select phases, as well as in gameplay and throughout the VCT Americas broadcast. According to a release, the partnership is an expansion of Heineken 0.0’s current deal with Brazilian League of Legends competition CBLOL.
The non-alcoholic beer brand is VCT America’s second partnership announcement this month, with the competition securing a monitor collaboration with ZOWIE earlier this week. Some of VCT’s other partners include the likes of Red Bull, Aim Lab, Secretlab and Verizon.
Part of VALORANT’s newly revamped 2023 esports ecosystem, VCT Americas kicks off its inaugural season on April 1st.
The league features ten prominent esports organisations across LATAM, Brazil and North America that applied to be a part of the VCT partner programme. The VALORANT Champions Tour’s two other international leagues are VCT Pacific and VCT EMEA.
Riot Games highlighted in the release that fans can also expect similar Heineken 0.0 activations that occurred throughout the CBLOL 2022 season. Most notably, Heineken 0.0 and CBLOL presented a League of Legends-focused halftime show at the competition’s final.
This isn’t the first time that Riot Games has secured a major partnership with a beer brand. In 2020, the LCS, Riot Games’ North American League of Legends competition, secured a deal with Bud Light.