Vodafone has teamed up with leading esports media company LetsPlay.Live to create the first streaming team formed by a brand in New Zealand, and showcase the optimum gaming and esports experience to video game fans.

The Vodafone Streaming Squad is made up of four high-profile Kiwi gamers from different areas of success, and aims to deliver an awesome connectivity experience via SuperWifi and the 5G network.

The squad’s line-up includes Rocketwerkz community manager Lorien “LoriiPops” Gugich, comedian and social media star Jimi Jackson, pop culture aficionado Jordan “Xenojay” Tini, and musician Kings.

Each squad member joins with their own individual communities of gaming fans, who regularly tune in to watch them live-stream games. Armed with Vodafone’s SuperWifi bundles, and Endless Data mobile plans, each streamer will be regularly broadcasting individually and together throughout the year.

The Vodafone Streaming Squad officially launched with a one-hour livestream show at LPL Studios in the iconic Sky Tower on Friday 30 April. The show was broadcast live to each individual squad member’s Twitch or Facebook pages, as well as Vodafone’s Facebook page and LetsPlay.Live’s Twitch page.

“Vodafone are the market leaders in the New Zealand telecommunications space,” says managing director Duane Mutu of LetsPlay.Live - partners of Vodafone New Zealand since 2019. “It is fantastic to be able to work with Vodafone in executing an authentic, long-term gaming strategy the right way.”

Commenting on the partnership, Delina Shields, Head of Brand and Marketing at Vodafone, highlights the importance of gamers in the digital ecosystem. “We love the interactive nature of gaming and how esports has taken Aotearoa by storm. LetsPlay.Live creates awesome, engaging content and we hope to inspire a new generation of gamers via the Streaming Squad.

“With Vodafone SuperWifi providing wall to wall wifi for kiwis, and the largest 5G network in New Zealand, gaming is a natural fit as players need access to fast download speeds and low latency to succeed.”

The Vodafone Streaming Squad created in partnership with LetsPlay.Live and Mango Communications.

Gaming fans can find more info on the Vodafone Streaming Squad and their respective members on Instagram. Future streams will be featured on Vodafone NZ’s Facebook channel.

The Vodafone Streaming Squad includes:

• Kings – Kings is an independent New Zealand Artist and an avid gamer. In his downtime Kings can be found jamming on his PlayStation 5 or creating hilarious TikTok skits.

• Jimi Jackson – Jimi found fame creating comedy skits about a mixture of different topics while adding a dash of his Kiwi humour to keep things interesting. Jimi is a massive gamer and is excited to be part of the Vodafone Streaming Squad.

• Lorien “LoriiPops” Gugich – Lori has been a partnered Twitch streamer for over five years and has been involved in the New Zealand gaming industry for even longer! As an authority on the gaming industry in New Zealand Lori recently took on the role of Community Manager at RocketWerkz, a New Zealand based game development studio and also created/owns her own start-up independent studio called Chromatic Pie.

• Xenojay – Xenojay (Jordan) is a pop-culture, gaming and technology fanatic! When Jordan isn’t gaming with the Vodafone Streaming Squad you’ll find him blogging about the most recent trends in the industry.