Energy drink giant Red Bull has entered into a partnership with Finnish organization ENCE Esports.
“Red Bull helps our roster with giving energy when the going gets tough, and wings when the tough gets going,” Mika Kuusisto, CEO of ENCE, said in a press release. “We couldn’t be more proud to start working together with our new partner.”
Red Bull is a company that’s highly invested in esports, supporting and sponsoring individual esports personalities, along with brands such as Cloud9, Team North, Team OG, Tempo Storm, 100 Thieves, and now ENCE.
The ENCE organization represents Finnish teams and players for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Rainbow Six, Hearthstone, and StarCraft 2.
The partnership with Red Bull, according to ENCE, will give the organization the opportunity to create more content that “the fans will love to watch moving forward.” ENCE said in a press release that, “Red Bull is proven to be a forerunner in sports marketing and content creation,” and that the collaboration between the two organizations will combine the “interesting characters at ENCE” with “the creativity from Red Bull.”
The Aleksi “allu” Jalli Red Bull meme is now more relevant than ever. The meme came into fruition when the Finnish player—who now plays for the CS:GO division of ENCE—was part of the Ninjas in Pyjamas lineup competing at the ESL One: Katowice major championship in 2015. The presenters of the event had access to Ninja in Pyjamas’ voice comms, and to the amusement of Allu’s teammates, live on stream, he said hesitantly, “Are those Red Bull’s only for the commercials, or can you actually drink them?” and from that point onwards, the meme was born.
Allu and his teammates will be put to the test at the CS:GO European Minor Championship in Katowice, which starts tomorrow, Jan. 16.
