The U.S. Army and Astro Gaming reportedly ended their sponsorships with Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty League on Friday, amid the controversy caused by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing's (DFEH) gender discrimination lawsuit against the company. The U.S. Army signed a multi-year deal with CDL in mid-2020, while Astro was one of the initial brand sponsors for the league back in January of 2020.
While neither company has released a statement regarding the harassment allegations against CDL, the logos of both companies have been removed from the CDL website. T-Mobile also dropped their sponsorship with the Call of Duty League earlier this month, leaving now only ZENNI Gaming, SCUF, Game Fuel, and USAA insurance as the partners for the upcoming Call of Duty Champs event.
On the Overwatch League side, T-Mobile ended its sponsorship with the League alongside State Farm, Kellog's, and IBM. The Overwatch League currently only has Xfinity, Coca-Cola, and Teamspeak still listed on their website, though Coca-Cola paused all of their sponsorships for last week's matches and told Washington Post in a statement that they are "reevaluating" that partnership with OWL going forward.
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Harassment lawsuit costs Blizzard and OWL yet another sponsor
On top of the flight of sponsors from Activision Blizzard's esports leagues, the company has also seen the departure of numerous staff this week in relation to the lawsuit. Several lead developers including the director of Diablo 4 were reportedly fired this week over their connection to the ongoing legal situation. J. Allen Brack, former CEO of Blizzard, also was forced out earlier this month for his role in protecting and maintaining a sexist work environment at Blizzard.
Click here to read a full timeline of the fallout from the DFEH lawsuit against Activision Blizzard.
We reached out to both Astro Gaming and the U.S. Army for comment on the situation, as of writing this article we have not heard back.
