- ESL has announced a competition series with Vodafone that it says will feature the first Grand Finals “played out live over a 5G network.”
- The Vodafone 5G ESL Mobile Open will feature arcade racing title Asphalt 9: Legends and multiplayer battle royale title PUBG MOBILE.
- In 2018, Vodafone signed on as a premium partner for Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) and ESL One events in Europe.
ESL 
has announced a new international competition series with Vodafone, centered on promoting the telecom’s 5G technology. One of the games featured in the Vodafone 5G ESL Mobile Open, Asphalt 9: Legends, will be featured at ESL One Birmingham, with further qualifiers to be held online and at ESL One Cologne and gamescom in Germany—leading to a Grand Finals at Milan Games Week at the end of September. The total prize pool is €45K EUR ($50.2K USD).
The other title, PUBG MOBILE, will have a €120K ($133.8K) prize pool, with online-only qualifiers leading up to a grand final at Milan Games Week. According to the announcement, the competitions will feature players from 17 countries where Vodafone is represented as telecoms and technology service provider.
“The Vodafone 5G ESL Mobile Open is the perfect opportunity to show millions of gaming fans the potential of Vodafone’s real-time 5G network with low latency and ultra-high speeds enabling players to reach new levels of gaming performance on mobile devices anywhere,” said Vodafone Group Chief Commercial Officer Ahmed Essam, in a statement. “As interest and participation in esports continues to grow exponentially, many of the key skills and aspects across gaming are useful and transferable skills in the digital workplace.”
Vodafone was announced in 2018 as a premium partner of the ESL One and IEM tournaments in Europe, and also has ongoing sponsorships with teams Vodafone Giants
in Spain and mousesports in Germany.
The promotion of 5G technology within esports has been a growing focus for telecom brands over the last year. Most recently, SK Telecom partnered with the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) to promote its “5GX” brand through logo placement and live “diverse” events such as experience/photo zones. AT&T also used the ESL Arena at last year’s E3 video game conference to showcase its coming 5G connectivity technology.
