Aditya ChaudhuriThe Call of Duty League lost one of their longest-serving sponsors days ahead of the biggest CDL event.
American video game company Activision Blizzard’s ongoing workplace harassment lawsuit, is costing them dearly as sponsors have started to opt out of their Call of Duty League and Overwatch League. With the US Army being the latest to end their sponsorship relationship with the CDL, the League currently has only four remaining sponsors left (Zenni Gaming, SCUF, Game Fuel, and USAA).
ASTRO Gaming, one of the oldest sponsors of Call of Duty, has been with COD esports since its initial days. ASTRO Gaming was also the official headset sponsor of the CDL and Call of Duty Challengers. Only last year, Activision had announced that ASTRO Gaming had extended their sponsorship with Call of Duty esports until 2022. In light of the recent events and accusations against the Santa Monica headquartered company, ASTRO has pulled the plug on their long time partnership.
ASTRO were also the presenting sponsors of the CDL’s MVP Award along with having broadcast rights for the CDL, which allowed fans to get into the action and hear the team comms during the matches. ASTRO’s custom designed CDL headsets, which the company had partnered with CDL to sell, has also been stopped with the collection being pulled out. Along with ASTRO, the US Army also ended their sponsorship with CDL. The US Army who had tied up with the CDL in 2020, served has the presenting sponsor of the schedule related assets on the CDL website. A couple of weeks back, T-Mobile, another prominent sponsor of the League also pulled the plug from their partnership with the company.
The Call of Duty League though isn’t the only Activision Blizzard league that is suffering from the company’s harassment lawsuit. The Overwatch League also lost five sponsors in the last two weeks, including some of their biggest sponsors such as Coca Cola, Kellogg’s, IBM and State Farm amongst others.
The state of California is currently suing Activision Blizzard for sexual harassment and diversity in-equality throughout the company. The company has already seen their President J. Allen Brack resigned and will be replaced by Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra as the current co-leaders of Activision Blizzard. s
