International esports tournament organizer BLAST announced Tuesday that Movember has been named the official mental health partner of its Counter-Strike 2 competitive series, BLAST Premier.
Through this partnership, BLAST will work with the global men’s health charity to develop and deploy awareness and support for “mental health challenges, create psychologically safe spaces, deliver evidence-informed mental health workshops, and undertake research to develop Mental Health Guidelines for the wider industry,” according to a release.
Ultimately, the goal of the partnership is to promote good mental health amongst BLAST Premier esports players and fans. This new initiative will officially kick off at the BLAST Premier World Final in Singapore running Oct. 30 – Nov. 2. The BLAST Premier World Final will feature five days of competition for teams looking to take the lion’s share of a total prize pool of $1M USD.
“This partnership between Movember and BLAST Premier is a significant step in highlighting the health challenges facing those in the esports community,” Movember Director of Global Innovations Dan Cooper said. “We plan to do that in part by collaboratively building guidelines that will act as a set of foundational principles to protect esports players and support the creation of psychologically safe spaces. The influence of esports is growing, our aim is to help transform how the community engages and prioritizes mental health and in doing so takes proactive steps in Levelling Up, not only in performance but also positive health outcomes.”
This is not the first time the two organizations have worked together on mental health initiatives; Movember worked with BLAST earlier this year at the BLAST Premier Fall Final in September, where members of the charity hosted a workshop to talk to fans, players, and teams about the importance of mental health.