miHoYo’s Honkai: Star Rail Sponsors Chinese Dota 2 Teams LGD Gaming and AR for The International

Key insights

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New partnership

Honkai: Star Rail has sponsored two Chinese Dota 2 teams for The International 2023.

miHoYo's game, Honkai: Star Rail, secured sponsorship deals with LGD Gaming and AzureRay. Both teams will display the game's logo on their jerseys.

Strategic timing

The sponsorship follows the Chinese Dota 2 National Team's gold medal win at the 19th Hangzhou Asian Games.

The national team's victory included players from LGD Gaming and AzureRay.

Timely move. The move follows the Chinese Dota 2 National Team’s gold medal victory at the 19th Hangzhou Asian Games on October 2, 2023, which featured several players from the sponsored organizations.

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Summary

In October 2023, the game developer miHoYo announced a sponsorship deal between its role-playing title, Honkai: Star Rail, and two prominent Chinese Dota 2 teams, LGD Gaming and AzureRay. The partnership featured the Honkai: Star Rail logo on the jerseys of both teams during The International 2023, held in Seattle. While the financial terms of the agreement remain undisclosed, this collaboration marks a notable industry milestone as one of the first instances of a game developer sponsoring an esports team competing in a title developed by a different company.

The motivation behind this sponsorship stems from the recent success of the Chinese Dota 2 National Team, which secured a gold medal at the 19th Hangzhou Asian Games in October 2023. The roster for that national team included several players from LGD Gaming and AzureRay, creating a strategic link between the national victory and the professional teams competing at The International.

Although miHoYo has achieved significant commercial success with titles like Genshin Impact, which has generated over $4 billion in revenue since its 2020 launch, the company has historically maintained limited involvement in the competitive esports sector. The sponsorship of these Dota 2 teams, alongside a recent partnership with National Student Esports in the UK, suggests a potential shift in the developer's marketing strategy. Despite this, miHoYo continues to focus primarily on non-competitive gaming experiences, and the company has not signaled a broader transition into hosting or sponsoring large-scale competitive esports circuits.