When popular online porn video site YouPorn said that they wanted to sponsor an eSports team, we all had a good laugh at the possibility, made the typical jokes about gamers, basements and pornography and moved on with our lives. It turns out that YouPorn was more serious that many were willing to give it credit for.

This weekend, YouPorn unveiled their new eSports team, Team YP, as it competed in the Gamergy Dota 2 tournament.

Team YP, whose uniforms carry the colour scheme of YouPorn but not the actual company name or logo, is the former Spanish eSports team Play2Win. In addition to their Dota 2 squad, Play2Win has teams competing in League of Legends and Hearthstone.

According to YouPorn’s press release, this is a six-month sponsorship agreement. It also isn’t clear if the YouPorn sponsorship extends to all three Play2Win teams or just the Dota 2 team as the Dota team is the only one mentioned in any official release.

Interestingly, YouPorn’s sponsorship of Play2Win seems to have facilitated the creation of a new eSports squad. A post on YouPorn’s website refers to the team as being a “newly formed, Spain-based DOTA2 team.” There were a couple of high-profile teams in need of sponsorship, Secret Team and Team Tinker, who both have legitimate shots at going to The International 2015, that YouPorn reportedly wanted to sponsor. I also saw a rumour that they were looking at sponsoring a pro Smite team. One would assume that the stigma attached to being sponsored by a porn site nixed those plans before they could happen.

This story is interesting now but I think that it will be more important come may. YouPorn has made a splash now but will they stick around in six months’ time if Team YP isn’t threatening for a spot in The International. If so, will they look for another eSports team or will they abandon eSports having already made the splash they were looking to make?

Source: GosuGamers