The German YouTuber Maximillian “HandOfBlood” Knabe (29) has founded a team with Eintracht Spandau that aims to compete in League of Legends in 2022. The team is now entering into a partnership with Sparkasse: HandOfBlood will be the high-Elo advisor. The stated goal: to coach and motivate LoL players stuck in ELO hell to help them get out.
This is the announcement: Sparkasse is discovering esports for itself. It is said that they have hired HandOfBlood as “Germany’s first esports advisor”.
Sparkasse has already shown enthusiasm for esports, having been a sponsor at the playoffs of the European professional league LEC in 2021, and they want to continue this in 2022. Furthermore, they are now also an official partner of “Eintracht Spandau”, the German LoL team founded by HandOfBlood.
In 2022, Sparkasse aims to launch an esports campaign: The idea is for HandOfBlood to showcase his “core competency in esports consultancy”. Viewers will get a taste of what that looks like in a commercial from April 2021.
“My colleagues are all Platinum – and I can keep up with them!”
The ad shows: In the ad, two clients sit in front of the office of the “high-Elo advisor”, HandOfBlood, and share their experiences in ELO hell. Of course, both are actually much stronger than the league they unfairly have to play in: The teammates are constantly “inting” and then simply leave the matches. Who doesn’t know that feeling?
In the background, HandOfBlood is loudly tearing apart a player, already hinting that if the player continues to perform poorly at “Iron level”, he might end up like the “Silver goofballs” with whom he has a meeting shortly. The two flinch.
The ad plays on the typical complaints of LoL players in ranked matches, who generally feel undervalued and only perform poorly because they always receive terrible teammates. They talk about the “ELO hell” they are stuck in and from which they cannot escape.
For those who want to see what a “high-Elo” consultation looks like: A 21-minute video features HandOfBlood in action in ELO hell (via YouTube).
Why is this happening right now? Sparkasse apparently wants to reach a younger target audience.
HandOfBlood is seemingly looking for sponsors for his esports team “Eintracht Spandau”, with the aim of winning the EU Masters League within two years, which requires a budget. This is also stated on Twitter: “An esports team costs a lot of money.” (via twitter).
The idea behind Eintracht Spandau is to build a “regional esports organization” with the help of a major YouTuber and his agency, which keeps LoL professionals on board for longer than six months, allowing fans to identify with the brand.
After REWE, Sparkasse is already the second “traditional German institution” seeking to connect with the German esports scene. A few days ago, we reported on REWE on MeinMMO:
LoL: Troubled German team now relies on the best nutrition through … REWE ?!
