Soft drinks conglomerate Coca-Cola and fast food chain McDonald’s have extended their partnerships with collegiate esports and gaming platform Brag House.
As a result, the companies will launch the Golden Royale Cup featuring Fortnite, a casual tournament for students from four regions across the US. Events will also run across the US in multiple states throughout November 2023.
According to a release, the extension is following the success of Fortnite events in Southern California and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with Coca-Cola and McDonald’s as lead sponsors. Both companies aim to utilise the partnership to continue reaching a Gen Z audience through casual gaming.
The Golden Royale Cup will be open to all university and college students from Southern California, Washington, Oregon, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Starting on November 4th, the tournament will feature four Qualifiers with 100 contestants each.
The top 25 players from each qualifier will advance to the Grand Finale on November 18th. Finally, the students finishing in first, second, and third place will win $5,000 (~£4,130), $3,000 (~£2,480), and $1,000 (~£825) in Scholarships, respectively.
Founded in 2020, Brag House hosts online and physical events catered to college casual gamers and alumni. On its platform, fans can climb leaderboards through accurate score predictions and redeem earned Loyalty Tokens for prizes and merchandise. Moreover, Brag House’s ‘Collegiate Leads’ organise casual community events across campuses in the US.
American multinational corporation The Coca-Cola Company has previously worked with several notable esports stakeholders, including Riot Games and the Esports Awards. Like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s has also collaborated with numerous esports companies, such as Gen.G and the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League Singapore.
Throughout this year, collegiate esports has seen significant developments worldwide. In February, Xbox, collegiate esports brand ESPORTSU, and gaming technology company Paidia Gaming launched a collegiate esports series aimed at aspiring female players.
Another collegiate esports tournament, called the MOGO National Championship, was held by Indian esports company Skyesports and collegiate esports platform MOGO in September.
Lavell Juan, CEO and Co-Founder of Brag House commented on the extended partnership with Coca-Cola and McDonald’s: “Brag House has identified an underserved casual gaming audience and filled the void with a platform that encourages community, engagement and above all, fun. For brands, this represents a fantastic opportunity to be visible, authentically engaged and active in the hard to reach Gen Z demographic.
“Having tested with us last year, it is fantastic to extend our partnership with Coca-Cola and local McDonald’s co-ops as we bring the Brag House experience to more campuses across the US.”
