To showcase its capabilities as one of the UK’s most reliable broadband brands, Sky Broadband played host to a Street Fighter tournament with a sweaty twist in partnership with global esports business, Guild Esports.

The tournament, named ‘Sky Broadband Sweat Room’, was created with the help of McCann London. The campaign saw Street Fighter gaming enthusiasts and content creators compete to win a spot on a Street Fighter 6 (SF6) esports team co-owned by David Beckham. However, this unique tournament took place in a custom-built cubic chamber that acted as a sauna, with temperatures rising to 150ºF depending on how ‘hot’ audience engagement was online.

In a clever nod to gaming culture, that defines a ‘sweaty gamer’ as someone who tries too hard, as well as acting as a depiction of how bad connection can create stress for gamers, the Sweat Room was designed to reclaim the ‘sweaty gamer’ and add an extra layer of excitement to the tournament. Instead of being a negative, the Sweat Box would get hotter as engagement online picked up and demonstrated the speed of Sky’s Full Fibre.

The hotter the chat, the hotter the game and the more the competitor’s performance levels, talent and endurance were tested. The activation was presented by Veracity and Iain Chambers and included popular esport content creators, Damascus, Tyrant and F-Word. The activation saw gamer and Grime MC ‘P Money’ take on fellow MC ‘Big Narstie’, to demonstrate to competitors and those at home what it takes to compete in the heat.

Suleymon, a life-long gamer from Glasgow who started playing Street Fighter 6 in 2016, defeated TKR to take home the title of Britain’s Sweatiest Gamer, the Guild pro contract, and will now compete on the international stage as a Guild esport athlete. The tournament was live-streamed on YouTube and Twitter while 400k people tuned in from around the world.

“Gamers are an important audience for us at Sky, so we had to show up in an authentic and entertaining way.” explained Sunny Bhurji, Marketing Director at Sky Broadband “We knew that such a unique and engaging esports tournament using one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time - Street Fighter, had the power to actively connect with this thriving community. As well as being an adrenaline-fuelled livestream that showcased Sky Broadband’s speed and reliability, it proved that to be the best, you really have to break a sweat! We’re extremely proud of our first project with McCann London and look forward to Sweat Room 2.0. Watch this space.”

Content from the activation has since been cut up to be used across social and digital platforms to showcase the power of Sky Broadband. The engaging tournament enabled Sky Broadband to demonstrate its capabilities while putting on an entertaining show for esports fans around the world.