Riot Games has filed a complaint against a Vietnamese studio which allegedly reused, without agreement, a large part of the champions and descriptions from League of Legends. The examples given are indeed… really very similar.
The story is not unique in the world of video games: for a very popular official game, there are dozens of more or less successful copies. Some, however, try to differentiate themselves more subtly than others. The creators of the game I Am Hero: AFK Tactical Teamfight, for example, will have to redouble their inventiveness to prove that they have not copied Teamfight Tactics from Riot Games, derived from the famous franchise League of Legends (LoL).
On January 20, 2022, the publisher officially filed a complaint against its Vietnamese opponent, as noted by Reuters or Polygon. “ Seen that League of Legends and its champions are so popular, low-budget mobile game developers have sought to capitalize on this popularity by launching pale imitations of the champions of LoL in their own games “, can we read in the complaint.
Same concept, same champions, same texts
There is indeed not only the name of Tactical Teamfightt that looks a lot like Teamfight Tactics : the mobile game from the Imba Network studio would, according to Riot Games, have reused almost all the characters from its universe, barely hiding the copy.
” Specifically, many (if not all) of the “heroes” featured in the counterfeit game are characters that bear significant similarities to LoL champions, including in their character design, names, abilities, and backstories. (i.e. the “lore”) “, can we read in the complaint.
“ In many cases, Imba verbatim extracted entire paragraphs of LoL textual material, such as the “story” of “Qqtrox”, which was copied directly from the LoL character “Aatrox”, as pictured. Added to this demonstration is a screenshot that shows that the text is indeed similar in all respects, on Teamfight Tactics and on Vietnamese imitation.
Riot Games reportedly sent a letter to the Imba studio in December, but the latter allegedly refused to admit the infringement. The American publisher also notes that the competing company is a sponsor… of tournaments League of Legends.
Teamfight Tactics (TFT) is a game released in 2019, which is based on the characters of the franchise LoL but not on its gameplay. TFT, as it is nicknamed, is called a ” autochess », a kind of chess game where characters are placed on a board, which will then confront each other automatically without any action from the player.