The Koreans from Nongshim Redforce decided to conquer and shock the media space before the 2026 season and rolled out an announcement about a partnership with the streaming giant Naver CHZZK. The semantic logo on the jersey is also waiting for a lot of exclusive content and grandiose collaborations in all the main disciplines of the club.
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Expansion of the CHZZK platform and Naver Media Rights
The CHZZK platform is now officially in business — the agreement will affect League of Legends, VALORANT, and even FC Online lineups, by the way. Curiously, Naver’s parent company is now behaving like an aggressive predator — they have already snatched up the rights to broadcast LCK right up to 2030 and will become the official home for the upcoming 2025 World Cup in Korea.
For Nongshim, Redforce is a great move to expand the fan base. In addition, the MILLET brand has joined the ranks of sponsors — they will probably be responsible for the players’ clothes next year. The organization’s list of partners is already impressive — Logitech G and ZOWIE are there, and even SteelSeries used to glow, so the guys are in perfect order with the peripherals, really.
New Nongshim RedForce League of Legends Line-up
Nongshim Redforce looks like a whole new beast ahead of 2026 — especially in League of Legends. After an insulting seventh place in LCK 2025 and a sweep past Worlds, the club’s bosses decided, along the way, not to be petty and completely shook up the roster in November. A real “heavy artillery” has been added to Sponge forester and Taeyoon ADC in the person of Lee ‘Scout‘ Ye-chan — he will take over the Foreign Ministry.
By the way, Hwang ‘Kingen‘ Seong-hoon and Son ‘Lehends‘ Si-woo have finalized the line—up – it’s powerful, isn’t it? This is no longer the same team that was content with third place at the Asia Invitational 2025 — now the ambitions are clearly higher. It should be taken into account without explanation: with such a roster, fans will only wait for a ticket to the next international tournament — otherwise why would they start all this, in principle.
Nongshim RedForce’s success in the VCT Pacific League
In the Riot Games shooter, Nongshim Redforce has a slightly more stable situation, although there were some shocks. After parting with Yang ‘Persia‘ Zi-on and Kim ‘margaret‘ Ji-woo, Goo ‘Rb‘ Sang-min returned to the team — now he will steer the game as captain, which is logical. The fact that it worked is that the band jumped to the second place in the VCT Ascension Pacific.
As a result, the team has booked a place in the VCT Pacific Major League for the 2026 season. Unexpectedly, but the fact is that Nongshim Redforce is turning from the middle classes into a real threat to the top of the region. In fact, it is a pleasure to watch their transformation now, because the club invests not only in players, but also in powerful media support through Naver.
Development forecast: Will CHZZK become the global standard for esports?
Korean esports seems to have gained a new monopolist, as CHZZK has already established itself as a key player and aims to become the global benchmark for League of Legends. In fact, global dominance and a direct fight with YouTube are still a long way off. However, judging by the scale of the deal with Riot Games and the financial injections of the giant Naver, the platform has every chance of becoming the main hub of the industry by 2030 — cool, really.
Technical specifications and the ecosystem of CHZZK streaming
CHZZK appeared as a response to Twitch’s departure from South Korea, immediately offering fans top quality: Full HD, 60 FPS and an incredible bitrate for VOD content. In the very first year, the service, imagine, broke the bar of 2.5 million MAU — the figures are impressive. Actually, Naver did not just create a website, but built an entire ecosystem where streaming is associated with cards, payments, and even offline arenas.
Exclusive broadcasts of the LCK League until 2030
The five—year agreement with Riot Games for the period 2026-2030 is a real turning point for the market. The domestic Korean broadcasts of the LCK league will now be exclusive to CHZZK and SOOP — there simply won’t be any alternatives for fans. This contract, in fact, is comparable to the rights to a top traditional sport — esports is finally moving to the television rails of the economy.
Branding of CHZZK LoL Park as an esports center
The official LoL Park location will now be called CHZZK LoL Park — powerful branding, isn’t it. For the average fan in Korea, the path from buying a ticket in the app to watching the highlight on the stream is now confined to one brand. Apparently, Naver decided to take over the entire user experience by integrating the platform into all its online services – this is a real market capture.
Competition between CHZZK and YouTube for the LCK audience
Inside Korea, the playground is turning into a default entry point for any League of Legends fan. Of course, YouTube will still keep archives and behind-the-scenes videos so as not to scare off the global audience. But all monetization and the “live” experience are now, frankly, flowing into the Naver ecosystem — it’s a subtle traffic retention game.
The chances of Korean streaming in the global market
The global esports market could grow to tens of billions of dollars by 2035, which is a lot of money. It is clear that the image quality alone is not enough to defeat Twitch or YouTube. In order for CHZZK to become a global standard, it will have to overcome the rigid inertia of viewing habits in the West, which is not an easy task.
Development of esports broadcasting in Asia
Interestingly, the “Korean hub” model is already beginning to scale through English-language broadcasts and analytical shows. Cooperation with Nongshim RedForce—level clubs in the 2026 season shows that teams are ready to donate their media assets to the platform. It seems that the format of our own tournaments like the Chzzk Cup will soon become an export product for other regions, which would be fair.
Problems of global promotion of the Naver platform
The main problem now is the language barrier and low brand awareness outside the peninsula. Western viewers, in principle, are used to their venues, and it is almost impossible to move them without exclusive global rights. So far, Naver’s main focus is on the local audience, while the world remains on YouTube, although this may change.
Trends in the esports streaming industry 2030
Rising prices for media rights are turning leagues into a classic sports business. Long-term partnerships and the ability to milk the fan base through interactive communication are now crucial. At the same time, the demand for multicam streams and deep integration with betting is growing — CHZZK is, admittedly, at the forefront here.
OTT technologies and interactive features of CHZZK
Today, CHZZK is a real laboratory where fast replays and TTS voices of popular streamers are tested. This is no longer just a match broadcast, but a full-fledged OTT experience with elements of VTubing and a music show. In general, Koreans are creating a media environment of the future where the boundaries between game and content are completely blurred.
The future of the Korean broadcast standard in esports
By 2030, we will see the consolidation of CHZZK as a standard of production quality. For the Asian region, the platform can become a central hub, stimulating the migration of top talents to its network. It looks like this will become the gold standard for content around LCK while the rest of the world catches up on YouTube.
Benefits of partnering with Nongshim RedForce on CHZZK
Now is the time for teams in Korea to consolidate their activity around CHZZK — all traffic and support are there. Brands, in turn, gain direct access to Korean youth through offline activities at CHZZK LoL Park. In short, if you want to be at the center of esports in 2026, you simply cannot ignore this platform.
