The Activision Blizzard Esports division appears to have the greatest impact from external partners on the harassment lawsuit with sponsors pulling out of partnerships with the Call of Duty League and the Overwatch League.
The latest sponsor to end its relationship with the Call of Duty League is ASTRO Gaming (and now US Army).
The ASTRO Gaming logo has disappeared from the Call of Duty League site, along with the US Army logo. These two logos appeared to the left of the ZENNI Gaming logos.
Here’s a look at the new Sponsorship Bands section on the CDL site, with ZENNI Gaming, SCUF, Game Fuel, and USAA still partners.
Update August 13, 1 p.m. ET: After this article was published, the logo sponsorship section on the Call of Duty League site has been updated again to remove the US Army logo. The CDL has only four sponsors left as the Champs CDL approaches.
ASTRO Gaming has been a long-time sponsor of Call of Duty esports since its inception. The company was the official helmet sponsor of the Call of Duty League and the Call of Duty Challengers.
According to Activision’s initial announcement regarding CDL in 2020, ASTRO Gaming “extends its Call of Duty esports sponsorship until the 2022 season. “
Instead, the sponsorship ended right before CDL’s biggest event of the year, the Call of Duty League Championship. The championship event takes place August 19-22 at the Galen Center in LA.
The US Army began its sponsorship of the CDL with the inaugural season in 2020. The US Army was the primary sponsor of all calendar-related assets on the CDL site.
Their logo has now been completely removed from the site.
Activision Blizzard declined to comment.
ASTRO has broadcast segments for the Call of Duty League, including the main ASTRO Gaming Listen In, allowing fans to hear team communications during the intense moments of matches.
ASTRO was also the main sponsor of the Call of Duty League MVP Award, which was awarded at the end of the Champs event. Since the end of the partnership, as of this week, the MVP page of the CDL site no longer displays the ASTRO Gaming logo.
The site before August 10:
The site as it now appears, available to view here:
ASTRO and US Army are the last two Call of Duty League sponsors to drop out, after T-Mobile distanced itself a few weeks ago.
ASTRO Gaming has partnered with CDL to sell custom-designed CDL team headsets on their website. This collection has been removed from the site.
The Call of Duty League isn’t the only Activision Blizzard league to take a hit. The company’s Overwatch League has lost 5 sponsors in the past two weeks, including Coca Cola, State Farm, IBM, Kellogs, etc.
The sponsorship drops come as Activision Blizzard is sued by the state of California for sexual harassment and gender diversity across the company, with many cases coming from Blizzard’s side.
Activision Blizzard responded to the complaint with the resignation of Blizzard President J. Allen Brack and the appointment of Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra as Blizzard co-leaders.
The company still faces immense pressure from employees to change some of the practices, such as removing attribution clauses and changes to the law firm that investigates allegations within the company. So far, Activision Blizzard executives have not responded to their requests.
We will continue to keep everyone updated as more information on the lawsuit and sponsorships arise.
