Mumbai: Adding a new genre to their creative playbook, Dice Media launched India’s first esports-based web series presented by Legion from Lenovo and LOCO. ‘Clutch’ taps into the growing love for gaming in India, by showcasing an underdog team of esports enthusiasts who compete for a massive esports tournament. Legion from Lenovo and LOCO organically augmented the storyline by integrating with their latest Legion products and esports broadcasting features respectively, making them the preferred collaborators for ‘Clutch’.
The esports drama revolves around a professional gamer Arun (Vishal Vashishtha), who quits professional gaming only to find his way back to it. He brings together a team of misfits played by Ahsaas Channa, Saurabh Ghadge, Pratiek Pachauri, and Tirth Joisher, that compete for the esports tournament as ‘Team Clutch’. While working together does not come easy to them, their dedication to win the tournament stands the test of time. What makes the series more exciting is the cameo of popular, real-life Indian streamers like Thug, Scout, Mamba, and Ghatak in special appearances. Gaming fans identify with these streamers as esports athletes and would be thrilled to see their performance in an esports-based web series.
The show’s lead characters Arun and Raunak are seen using Lenovo Legion 5 Pro and Legion 7 laptops along with several Lenovo accessories, marking the brand’s debut into the content industry. Legion 7 powered by AMD Ryzen processor was newly launched through Clutch in India, while Legion 5 Pro was recently released. The laptops live up to their ‘Stylish Outside, Savage Inside’ nature, making them the ideal dual-purpose professional and gaming laptops. Brands, today are leveraging innovative content media formats like these to weave their messaging into the narrative in a meaningful manner.
LOCO on the other hand seamlessly complements the show’s core premise by being the broadcast partner of the esports tournament ‘Team Clutch’ competes for. The platform’s ‘Stream Karo, Earn Karo’ catch-phrase has also been integrated to advocate the live streaming and monetization opportunities that lie in esports and game streaming, giving rest to common apprehensions gaming athletes and creators face in taking it up as a professional career. Being India’s leading live game streaming and esports platform, LOCO plays an instrumental role in kick-starting the esports broadcast and gaming creator economy in India.
Amit Doshi, Chief Marketing Officer, Lenovo India commented, “Lenovo has truly revolutionized the gaming industry with its Legion range of gaming devices and has rapidly risen to become the #1 PC gaming brand in India. Not just this, we have also worked hard to establish e-sports in India, with our gaming tournaments such as Legion of Champions and Rise of Legion. The Clutch collaboration is another innovative effort from our side to give a voice to gamers and esports aspirants in India.”
Joanesca Machado, Director, Brand Marketing & Communications, Loco, commented “Having larger and more engaged audiences globally; eSports has outperformed many traditional sports and media industries. India is an emerging powerhouse of eSport athletes, and our goal at LOCO is to help grow this ecosystem. ‘Clutch’, India’s first esports web series, complements and strengthens our positioning as a live game streaming and esports broadcasting platform. Since LOCO aims to help the gamer economy with premium eSports content, Dice Media’s wide reach will help newer, relevant audiences discover the platform. We are pumped to present ‘Clutch’ and start a new chapter in Indian Gaming.”
Commenting on the launch of the series, Vishwanath Shetty, Vice President of Sales and Brand Solutions, Pocket Aces said, “Our one goal has always been to entertain audiences through innovative content formats, and it makes us proud to yet again bring something new to the table. With India’s first esports-based web series we will be capitalizing on the growing esports culture in India, initiating an early mover’s advantage to expand Dice Media’s content library. With every brand association, we ensure the integration with the scripts is seamless, retaining the entertainment quotient for our viewers without making the content gimmicky. Keeping that in mind, Legion from Lenovo and LOCO fit like a glove with the storyline of ‘Clutch’, making them our first choice to partner with and we couldn’t be more pleased with the association.”
