Overwatch League franchise N.Y. Excelsior announced that T-Mobile has "signed up as its presenting sponsor" for the '19 season in the club's "biggest partnership to date," according to Dean Takahashi of VENTURE BEAT. T-Mobile will "celebrate the start of Overwatch League Season 2 and NYXL’s first match of the year by presenting NYXL Homebound, a watch party on February 14 at the 40/40 Club in Manhattan." The OWL MVP Award will also be "presented by T-Mobile" (VENTUREBEAT.com, 2/5). FORBES' Heather Newman notes NYXL has "put a high emphasis on engaging with fans in New York even when the team competes in Blizzard Entertainment's studios" in California. Sterling Equities partner Scott Wilpon, whose family owns NYXL, noted in an effort to build brand equity in the N.Y. market, the club ran a "six-week activation" in Brooklyn, where it took over 7,000 square feet of space and "built out a LAN center with 32 gaming PCs and a retail concept." NYXL VP/Consumer Products & Merchandising Collette Gangemi said the team "wanted to disrupt what consumer products and merchandise meant for a New York sports team." Gangemi: "What we wanted to do is start off collaborating with the best streetwear brands and athletic brands in the country, especially ones that are based out of New York." She said collaborations with brands like Champion and Undefeated at their first pop-up shop in July were "extremely successful" and "very popular in New York" (FORBES.com, 2/5).
