Esports Giant Team Liquid Reveals Collab With NFT Game Illuvium

By Kate Irwin

Team Liquid is working with the developers of NFT game Illuvium, which has just launched in early access, to test its turn-based, player-vs-player (PVP) creature autobattler experience. Team Liquid founder and co-CEO Victor Goossens announced the collaboration Wednesday.

“We’ll be limit-testing and advising them on the PVP aspect of their game,” Goosens said in a video. “We’ve been incredibly impressed with the quality of the game from what we’ve seen so far.”

Team Liquid members like League of Legends player “Broxah” and content creator “Midbeast” will be among those from the esports organization checking out Illuvium, according to the organization’s CEO.

“We are confident that this will be a game that rewards skill and strategy," he explained, "much like many of the games that Liquid participates in today.”

Team Liquid, which raised $35 million in funding last year at a $415 million valuation, will also be working with Illuvium to develop the game’s esports scene and tournaments in 2024 by co-hosting an esports tournament with a $100,000 prize pool.

Team Liquid-themed Illuvium skin. Image: Team Liquid.

The game will also release Team Liquid-themed Illuvium NFTs in the form of character skins and avatars as part of the collaboration. Illuvium is built on Immutable X, an Ethereum scaling network focused on gaming.

“This collaboration is more than just two names shaking hands,” the Illuvium team wrote in a blog post Wednesday. “It's about setting a precedent for Web3 gaming in mainstream esports. It's about creating a world where gaming achievements translate to the real world, where every move could be the one that lands you something epic.”

Like other esports organizations including TSM and M80, Team Liquid has been exploring crypto’s potential crossovers with competitive gaming. Earlier this year on a panel at the 3XP conference, Team Liquid’s Web3 Senior Partnerships Manager Ross Groves told Decrypt that the org is “breaking into Web3 games.”

“We want to really just be able to bring our fans into Web3 and give them a safe way to onboard and to try these great new games that we see coming around,” Groves said.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

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