ESLCopied

ESL, the esports organiser behind Intel Extreme Masters and ESL One, announced a brand refresh from Cologne on 14 February 2019. The identity was developed with the global brand agency Superunion and built around a new positioning line, where everybody can be somebody, which ESL said reflected the founding story of the company after 19 years of building leagues and tournaments.

Transform magazine's Moira King described the visual changes: a unique typeface, a highlighter yellow and green colour palette, and a slightly simplified version of the original circular icon. Transform said the company needed a logo that would offer consistency and act as a global symbol across its leagues, tournaments and products. Esports Insider's Adam Fitch reported ESL's own description of the identity as simpler and more powerful, covering a new logo, new colours and its own typeface, and noted it would be rolled out over the following months. Alongside it came new competition tiers, Open, Challenger and Masters, meant to make the competitive ladder easier to follow.

CMO Rodrigo Samwell framed the refresh as a strategic tool rather than a look and feel, saying ESL wanted the path from zero to hero to be as short as possible. The company called it a key part of its growth strategy, meant to integrate partner brands better and clarify that path across its competitions.

The yellow carries this. Esports Insider's first reaction was to point at it, and that is the right instinct: a highlighter tone is hard to mistake for anyone else. The icon edit is so slight that it barely counts as news, which is fine for a brand with years of equity in that circle. The weak part is the language. Where everybody can be somebody is a slogan any sports league or social network could print, and zero to hero describes a tier system, not a brand.