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- AT&T and ESL North America have expanded their partnership to include new event activations at Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Chicago, and ESL One New York.
- The telecom has also signed a new partnership with DreamHack, and will activate onsite at DreamHack Atlanta.
- Additionally, the ESL Mobile Open will expand to include all of North America for the remaining seasons in 2019.
AT&T announced today that it has expanded its partnership with tournament organizer ESL 
North America to include new event activations. In addition, the telecom has signed a new partnership with gaming and digital festival company DreamHack .
With the expanded ESL deal, AT&T will have new types of activations at this weekend’s Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Chicago and September’s ESL One New York Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournaments. Additionally, AT&T will have an onsite presence at DreamHack Atlanta in November—a first for the telecom company.
“What’s really exciting for us out of DreamHack is really about the fact that it’s about esports, but it’s also about gaming overall,” Shiz Suzuki, AT&T’s assistant vice president of experiential marketing & sponsorship, told The Esports Observer. “It’s not just the opportunity for us to be onsite and the experiences we can bring there, but it’s also to connect with the audience that is there for gameplay.”
AT&T will first debut new activations at IEM Chicago, including a “Best Seats in the House” promotion that gives attendees a chance to win a premium floor seating upgrade by competing in a game at the company’s booth. At IEM Chicago 2018, AT&T’s booth featured numerous console and mobile game stations that attendees could play in the arena concourse. Other planned activations include AT&T-branded player signing sessions and “early access” for select customers to enter the arena before the general public.
“With the expansion of the partnership, we’ve really focused on a couple of areas,” said Suzuki. “One being: How can we one-up that experience onsite? That’s been an area that is really important to us. It’s always about: How do we bring benefits to the gamers and the gaming fans?”
Related Article: ESL and AT&T Unveil Mobile Open Competition for PUBG Mobile, More
In March, AT&T and ESL launched the ESL Mobile Open tournament, which features competitions for the games PUBG Mobile , Clash of Clans, and Asphalt 9: Legends . The North American series spans three seasons in 2019, with the first season concluding at DreamHack Dallas in June.
As part of the expanded partnership, the companies announced today that the ESL Mobile Open will expand beyond the continental United States to include all of North America for the seasons ahead. The second season finals will take place at ESL One New York, with the season three championship slated for DreamHack Atlanta.
ESL and AT&T first partnered in June 2018, marking the telecom’s first esports industry deal. AT&T has since also sponsored the NBA 2K League and esports organization Cloud9. ESL and DreamHack share a parent company in Modern Times Group (MTG), a Swedish media firm that invested $11M USD in capital commitments for start-ups and growth companies in H1 2019.
