TSM professionals cover FTX logo on their jerseys after its shocking bankruptcy declaration in FNCS Tournament


TSM professionals cover FTX logo on their jerseys after its shocking bankruptcy declaration in FNCS Tournament

FNCS Invitational

Sponsorship collaborations in Fortnite are a regular contest. However, TSM seems to have made up its mind to severe all ties with FTX after the company filed for bankruptcy protection under the US Bankruptcy Protection Scheme on 11th November 2022. This has left the collaboration between TSM and FTX in a tricky situation since FTX still has the naming rights of the popular outfit until the assets can be liquidated. With a lack of finances, it appears that TSM is at the verge of dissolving this partnership with FTX.

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TSM’s professional Fortnite duo Shane “EpikWhale” Cotton and Nathan “Reet” Amundson both appeared on the official broadcast of the 2022 Fortnite Champion Series (FNCS) Invitational. However, the FTX logo in their TSM jerseys was noticeably taped over, perhaps signifying the end of this naming rights collaboration. FNCS Invitational is a 50-team two-day event set to feature 12 separate games with a $1 million prize pool, and yet the tournament has been drawing attention for all the wrong reasons.

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When announcing the partnership with FTX in June 2021, TSM said that it would invest resources “into esports and gaming over the next five years”. One of the organization’s targets was to “accelerate existing global reach” by opening several offices across the planet, including in Asia, Europe, and South America, the plans of which appear to have come to a standstill. It appears highly likely therefore that TSM will seek to break off this corporate merger of naming partnership to pursue a different sponsorship deal with a different brand next year.

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TSM FTX bankruptcy: How does it affect other partnered organizations?

TSM FTX
TSM FTX logo

Along with TSM, FTX also had partnerships with other brands such as the Heat (arena naming rights), MLB (including umpire patches), and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas racing team in F1, all of which left without sponsorship revenue, especially since the filing of bankruptcy protection by FTX. FTX’s chances of surviving its bankruptcy situation took a turn for the worse as Binance, the world’s largest crypto-exchange company that had initially signed a non-binding deal to acquire FTX, eventually pulled out.

TSM had initially planned to use the funds acquired from the FTX sponsorship to attract star players with better salaries to move up their playing rosters in various tournaments, add teams in more esports leagues such as CS: GO, Overwatch, and Rainbow Six Siege and open offices in areas like China, Europe, and South America. The original deal signed last year saw FTX US partner with TSM in relation to the U.S. market while FTX.com partnered with the team internationally, however, might seek to dissolve the deal.

This phenomenon, however, is not new in esports, as Crypto.com had signed a deal to be the global crypto partner of the Twitch Rivals esports league. However, Crypto.com leadership decided earlier this year to end the pact. Both companies have since then agreed to dissolve the deal by the end of 2022. It will be interesting to find out if TSM and FTX decided to take a similar approach.

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