“Team Liquid” by EsportsAS is licensed under CC BY 3.0
The elite esports organization Team Liquid is set to unveil a new range of apparel featuring the popular anime and manga series Naruto Shippuden. Team Liquid fans will be able to purchase clothing featuring the likes of Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke.
More than a dozen apparel pieces are expected at launch, including a Jonin-inspired parka, a selection of short-sleeved t-shirts, and hoodies. Mike Milanov, the Chief Business Development Officer at Team Liquid said of the deal, “Like our fans, we love anime, and Naruto is one of the most successful anime franchises of all time. We couldn’t be more excited to announce this strategic partnership to our fans.”
This latest partnership shows how strong the draw of esports is. The video game industry is worth almost $160 billion with esports making up $1.1 billion of that impressive sum. Even the best online sports betting sites are getting in on the action, offering markets for games such as CS:GO, Overwatch, League of Legends, and the ever-popular Dota 2.
Team Liquid has partnered with other major brands in the past in order to increase its selection of apparel. Japanese-inspired lifestyle brand tokidoki came on board in 2020, as did Marvel, with the latter renewing its deal recently. Esports fans are dedicated to their teams, much like supporters of football teams, and they want to wear the latest gear. This latest collaboration is sure to be a major hit.
What is Naruto?
Masashi Kishimoto wrote and illustrated Naruto, a popular Japanese manga series. Naruto tells the story of the young ninja Naruto Uzumaki who dreams of becoming the leader of his village. It originally ran in magazine form from 1999 to 2014 and was later released in tankobon, or book, form across an impressive 72 volumes.
Naruto: Shippuden is the sequel to the original Naruto series and it too proved extremely popular with more than 500 episodes aired before the anime television series ended in 2017. Throw 11 anime feature films into the mix and it’s easy to see why Naruto is the fourth best-selling manga series in history.
“Joy Hoogeveen” by TwitchInsider is licensed under CC BY 3.0
Who Are Team Liquid?
Team Liquid is one of the biggest and most successful esports teams in the world. Dutch duo Victor “Nazgul” Goossens and Joy “Meat” Hoogeveen launched the team’s original website in May 2001 so they could update fans with the latest StarCraft news before branching out into other games.
Goossens started the now-famous Liquid gaming clan with only four members near the end of 2000. The team grew to eight members over the course of the following year, Goossens hand-picking each new member.
Fast-forward to July 2010 and the launch of StarCraft II. Team Liquid gained sponsorship by The Little App Factory, which qualified them as a Pro-Gaming Team. The sponsorship allowed Team Liquid to pay its players a salary and send them around the world competing in the biggest esports events.
Everything has snowballed since then and Team Liquid now boasts of a roster of almost 100 members. They fight it out across PC titles such as Apex Legends, Fortnite, Hearthstone, Rocket League, and Rainbow Six; they are a truly global entity.
The team now boasts of several massive partners who help fund Team Liquid’s exploits. Honda, Hyper X, and Monster Energy are on board, while Alienware provides all Team Liquid’s PC equipment. There’s even an Alienware Training Facility in Los Angeles, which Team Liquid constructed in 2017 as a purpose-built facility to train its CS:GO and League of Legends teams!
