The owners of the Minnesota Vikings have debuted their new eSports franchise in a nod to Norse mythology and their Vikings football brand. The logo of the new Minnesota Røkkr (pronounced “rocker”) team portrays a menacing figure clad in a horned helmet and shadowed in dark purple, blue and black, according to the St. Cloud Times.
The Røkkr team of gamers is one of a dozen teams that will play in Activision Blizzard’s new e-sports league for its popular first-person shooter game “Call of Duty” early next year. The Minnesota Røkkr will train near the Vikings’ practice facility in Eagan.
“We wanted a name that would be unique. We also wanted to find ways to create subtle ties to the Vikings,” said Brett Diamond, chief operating officer of WISE Ventures eSports, which manages the Røkkr franchise.
The Wilf family, who own the Vikings, launched the WISE Ventures investment fund last year. The Wilfs are part of a wave of Minnesota sports team owners who have recently entered the growing world of professional video games, or eSports. The Minnesota Timberwolves along with Minnesota United FC have eSports teams that play for their video game equivalents.
Franchise leaders considered some 50 names before settling on Røkkr, an old Norse word for “twilight,” which is commonly associated with Ragnarøkkr, the end of the world or “Twilight of the Gods” in Norse mythology, Diamond said.
The logo, created by the Vikings in-house design team True North Creative, depicts a figure ready to join the mythical battle of Ragnarøkkr with a glint of blue along the right side representing moonlight. The logo is reminiscent of the Vikings’ own Norseman mascot as well as reflective of the North theme that is popular in the region.
WISE Ventures is constructing a nearly 11,000-square-foot headquarters and training facility scheduled to open in January on the Viking Lakes campus. Besides being used for training, film study and other practice, the facility will also host high school and college e-sports teams and watch parties for some of the Røkkr team’s away games, Diamond said.
Over the last two months, seven players, five starters and two substitutes, have been signed including: Justin Fargo-Palmer (with the gamer name SiLLY), Adam Garcia (Assault), Adam Brown (GodRX), Alex Carpenter (Alexx), Obaid Asim (Asim), Kaden Stockdale (Exceed), and Devin Robinson (TTinyy). All of the players as well as the head coach Brian Baroska and analyst and assistant coach Jake Trobaugh will eventually live in Minnesota.
The season for the eSports league starts in January and can last eight to nine months. Starting players for teams like the Røkkr can earn well into six figures per season.
