In this article
The LCK, South Korea's League of Legends league, has a new name on its list of partners. Esports Insider reported on March 6, 2026 that the league has signed a partnership with Gillette, the personal care brand, ahead of the LCK's 2026 season, which the outlet says begins in April.
Neither the scope of the agreement nor its financial terms were disclosed. For Gillette, the deal is a return: Esports Insider notes that the brand had stayed away from League of Legends for seven years, after a period between 2017 and 2019 in which it backed events, a team and a professional player in the game.
Esports Insider, March 6, 2026, for the Gillette deal, the broadcasting term and the First Stand teams.
What was announced
The announcement is short on detail. Esports Insider gives no figure, no length for the agreement and no list of the rights Gillette receives. It does not say whether the brand will appear on the broadcast, at the venue, in fan events or in all three.
What the report does fix is the timing. Gillette joins in early March, between the end of the LCK Cup, the league's opening competition of the year, and the start of the main season the following month.
The deal is with the league itself, not with one of its teams. Gillette's earlier activity in the game, described below, covered both routes: it sponsored events and also signed directly with a team.
The LCK's other commercial partners
Gillette joins a list that was already long. Esports Insider names Logitech, Red Bull, Woori Bank and INSPIRE among the LCK's existing partners, and says the list is not complete. Among the league's more recent commercial additions, the same report names the broadcasting agreement described in the next section.
Related readRRQ sign ZOWIE as monitor and jersey partner for VCT Pacific 2026The report does not say what any of these partners receives, and it gives no financial terms for them. Nothing in it indicates whether Gillette's agreement resembles any earlier one, so the scope of the new deal remains what the report states: a partnership, with no detail attached.
| Partner | What it covers | Term |
|---|---|---|
| Naver and SOOP | Exclusive broadcasting of the league | Five years |
| SOOP and Riot Games Korea | Memorandum on content distribution and platform projects | 2026 to 2030 |
| Gillette | Partnership, scope not disclosed | From the 2026 season |
Esports Insider, January 13, 2026 and March 6, 2026. No financial terms were published for any of the three.
Broadcasting under a five-year deal
The most important of the league's recent agreements concerns how matches reach viewers. Esports Insider counts among the LCK's latest additions a five-year exclusive broadcasting deal with Naver and SOOP, two South Korean platforms.
SOOP set out its own side of the arrangement in January. Esports Insider reported on January 13, 2026 that the platform had signed a memorandum of understanding with Riot Games Korea, the publisher's Korean arm, covering League of Legends esports content distribution and platform projects from 2026 through 2030. The outlet said the agreement focuses on long-term cooperation across major competitions, with an emphasis on live viewing and features for fans. A memorandum of understanding records what two parties intend to do together; it is not itself the broadcasting contract.
The same report gave the international angle. SOOP said international viewers could watch the LCK in English on its platform, on a channel named LCK_EN, from January 14, the day the league's competition began. Creators were set to run co-streams, broadcasts in which a streamer shows the official feed on their own channel with their own commentary and chat. SOOP also said other Riot leagues, the LEC, the LCS, the LCP and the CBLOL, may appear on the platform, depending on the licensing agreements of each season and territory.
Related readSaudia flies an Esports World Cup aircraft between Riyadh and ParisThe platform's links to the clubs go further. According to the same report, SOOP has streaming partnerships with seven of the ten LCK teams: DN SOOPers, T1, Gen.G Esports, kt Rolster, DRX, BNK FearX and Dplus Kia.
Gillette's first run in League of Legends
Gillette's earlier spell in the game began in early 2017. On January 31, 2017, Esports Insider reported that the brand had named xPeke as its first esports ambassador, an announcement made on the player's own Twitch channel. xPeke had started his career with Fnatic and was then the substitute mid laner of Origen, the organization he founded. He was also a Red Bull athlete, which the outlet described as a first for a League of Legends player. The same report placed him beside Gillette's ambassadors from traditional sport, among them Thierry Henry and Tiger Woods.
Gillette was also present at events that year. The same 2017 report said the brand was sponsoring Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2017, the event in Poland run by ESL, in partnership with the organizer. Esports Insider's March 2026 report adds that Gillette sponsored League of Legends events in several regions during that period.
The team route followed. Esports Insider's March 2026 report lists a 2017 sponsorship deal with the Chinese team EDward Gaming among the brand's moves in the game, and the 2019 CBLOL among the competitions it sponsored. That 2019 date is the last League of Legends activity the outlet records before the LCK agreement, which is where the seven-year gap comes from.
Where Gillette has been since
The brand did not leave gaming in those seven years. Esports Insider says Gillette stayed active in gaming and esports, especially around EA Sports FC and Fortnite, without giving detail on Fortnite.
Related readTeam Liquid and Sunderland AFC pair up for the ePremier LeagueThe EA Sports FC side was reported in May 2025. Esports Insider wrote on May 1, 2025 that EA Sports FC had announced a partnership with Gillette under which players in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany could redeem a free pack in Ultimate Team, the game's team-building mode. Content creators were also involved, and neither party had named them. The outlet described that promotion as an extension of a three-year agreement first signed in January, under which Gillette's logo appears on the in-game advertising board of the virtual pitch.
The two deals sit at different levels. The EA Sports FC agreement places the brand inside the game itself and in a promotion for its players. The LCK agreement is a partnership with a competition, which reaches viewers of the matches rather than players of the game.
Where the LCK season stands
The new partner arrives after a busy opening to the year. Riot Games announced on January 8, 2026 that LCK competition would start on January 14. The first event was the LCK Cup, and its final was played abroad: Esports Insider reported on March 2, 2026 that the final took place at Kai Tak Arena in Hong Kong, a move abroad the outlet called a major milestone for the event.
Gen.G won it with a 3-0 sweep of BNK FearX. Canyon was named Finals MVP. The grand final drew a peak of 695,410 viewers according to Esports Charts, as cited by Esports Insider, against a peak of 1.5 million earlier in the LCK Cup, during T1's elimination series against Dplus Kia. The same report noted that 732,781 viewers had watched the LEC grand final between G2 and Karmine Corp, the first time the European league had passed the LCK in finals viewership.
Related readTeam Vitality sign French retailer Leclerc as main partnerA rule change also shapes the season's matches. Riot said on January 8 that teams which previously earned side selection now earn what the publisher calls First Selection, rolled out in all regions at the start of the season.
- LCK CupThe year's first competition, from January 14. Gen.G won the final in Hong Kong.
- First StandGen.G and BNK FearX represent the league in São Paulo from March 16.
- LCK seasonThe main season starts in April, with Gillette among its partners.
What comes next
The LCK's next appearance is international. Gen.G and BNK FearX, the two LCK Cup finalists, represent the league at First Stand, the first international League of Legends tournament of the year, which Riot has set for March 16 to 22 at the Riot Games Arena in São Paulo, Brazil. Esports Insider says the two teams are drawn in separate groups, played in double elimination, a format in which a team is out after two series lost, with the top four advancing to the playoffs. All matches are best-of-five series, won by the first team to take three games.
The result matters beyond the event. Riot wrote in January that placement at First Stand will have a direct impact on seeding at the Mid-Season Invitational, the second international event of the year. That event is set for Daejeon, South Korea; Riot said more information on the venue and the event details would be shared later. Worlds 2026 is planned in the United States: Riot placed the Play-Ins, the Swiss Stage, the quarterfinals and the semifinals at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas, and the final in New York.
The main LCK season then begins in April, the start date Esports Insider gives for the season that Gillette joins. Neither the league nor the brand has said when or where the partnership will first be visible to viewers.
The name this event could hold, on the bracket and everywhere else.
An example of the format. It does not mean the name is registered, used or endorsed by anyone named in this article.
Discover .esports →The .esports registry publishes Esports Observer, so the whole scene can read its news for free.
