New LCS Contract Forbids Streaming Dota 2, Blizzard Games

[munx13]

Warhammer Online? Fat princess? Really? Are they THAT insecure?





Also it's kind of funny how Riot banned games that they themselves cloned to make LoL.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

I thought Blizzard were the dickheads when they broadcast WCS during The International 3.

But no, apparently Riot also have ambitions of becoming the new Blizzard if they start doing shit like this repeatedly.

[small] MOBAs are a dirty business [/small]

 

[Jennacide]

How is what their players do in their free time any of riot games business?

Yeah I'm sure they'd love to gag them up like that but shit like this won't fly in court, will it?

Because Riot is paying them a salary. This is far from unheard of in the business world. You don't advertise for competitors unless you want to lose your job.

Also, it looks to me people are misconstruing the text. "The following companies and/or products are not to be advertised during or adjacent to League of Legends content during the term." This would not explicitly strike all playing of those games, it's barring advertisement. IE: You cannot have a Hearthstone game while you're sitting in queue. If you want to put up a stream of you just playing that game and not LoL, you are not breeching your contract, unless you finish the game and immediately go to LoL.

Finally, I want to point out to those that don't know why this is likely to have come about. When Hearthstone beta started, keys were being primarily sent to notable streamers before anyone else, in particular LoL streamers. This got them playing the game on stream to act as a huge viral campaign where people were inadvertedly watching the game being played when they had no access to it.

I mean hell they even ran and coined the term of "toxic"

No they didn't, not even by a longshot. The idea of 'toxic' behavior has been around for over a decade.

 

[Smooth Operator]

I did wonder how long e-sports will stay all nice and friendly and who will be the first to bring a real world sports ringer into this, I guess that is now answered.
And just so people understand, any sport where the biggest bucks roll has you sign your life over to whoever is paying for your ass, this Riot thing is only the tip of an iceberg if they are going the same route... you wished e-sports went prime time and this is how it will do it.

 

[Shuguard]

Warhammer Online? Fat princess? Really? Are they THAT insecure?





Also it's kind of funny how Riot banned games that they themselves cloned to make LoL.

was just about to point those two out as well lol. Funny enough they didn't even mention planetside 2.

 

[The Wykydtron]

No streaming porn? Damn, that one guy a few months back is gonna be pissed.

The phrasing in the contract is a bit weird, almost begging to be misconstrued, though that's nothing new. This is the nasty world of contract law after all. One word wrong and there goes a year long legal case.

By "adjacent to" I suppose that would mean they can't just remove all League banners and titles and title it "Dyrus plays Something Completely Different"

Suppose all the streamers could start a new channel just for none League stuff if worst comes to worst.

We'll see exactly how much of a dick move it turns out to be but at the end of the day, it might suck that Phantoml0rd can't do another WoW Great Gnome Race but at the end of the day, if I tune into a League stream I don't want to see some fucking Hearthstone.

Just saiyan.

[sub][sub]Everyone knows M:TG is best anyway.[/sub][/sub]

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

If those players had any functional brain cells left they would refuse to sign that contract.

Unless I'm mistaken they'd have to give up their spot on the tournament if they don't agree to the contract. Speakin from Starcraft experiences tournament level players exclusively get their money from tournament wins and sponsorship deals. Not signin the contract means they forfeit the ability to compete in the LoL tournament and since they wouldn't be competin there'd be no one to sponsor them.

They'd basically give up their livelihood not signin that contract.

Yes. But sometimes you need to take a stand for what's right. If they all boycott the tournament these assholes wouldn't have a choice.

 

[CaptainMidlands]

I thought Blizzard were the dickheads when they broadcast WCS during The International 3.

But no, apparently Riot also have ambitions of becoming the new Blizzard if they start doing shit like this repeatedly.

[small] MOBAs are a dirty business [/small]

For the last two years Riot has held off announcing the pot for its World Championships till after Valve announce there's for the Dota2 International, so they can then announce a larger pot than the International.

Shame that this years International was one of the best ESports momnets since the Daigo Parry for me, on the other hand League World Championships were a 3-0 push over which served to do nothing other than prove what the world knew (Asia is simply above the RoW when it comes to League of Legends)

 

[SecondPrize]

Yes. But sometimes you need to take a stand for what's right. If they all boycott the tournament these assholes wouldn't have a choice

I don't think there'd be much trouble finding replacements.
This is pretty odd but I'd bet any pro baseball player has something in their contract that they don't walk around in public sporting gear from a rival team and you may be able to draw a parallel there.

 

[shintakie10]

Also, it looks to me people are misconstruing the text. "The following companies and/or products are not to be advertised during or adjacent to League of Legends content during the term." This would not explicitly strike all playing of those games, it's barring advertisement. IE: You cannot have a Hearthstone game while you're sitting in queue. If you want to put up a stream of you just playing that game and not LoL, you are not breeching your contract, unless you finish the game and immediately go to LoL.

Wrong unfortunately. Check the source.

onGamers has confirmed with the team representatives that LCS players are disallowed from streaming the games listed below outright, not just when adjacent to a League of Legends stream. Under Section 3 Rule 4 of the new contract handling 'Non-League Events and Streaming', it states that "... the [LCS] Team shall ensure that, during the Term of this Agreement, its Team Members do not publicly stream gameplay of the titles set forth on Exhibit B". Exhibit B states "the specific restrictions on streaming are set forth in the Sponsorship and Streaming Restricted List, as updated by the League from time to time", which is the document listed below.

Anyone who signs that contract can not stream any game on that list at all from the moment they sign it (because the terms are already in place for anyone who agrees to it) to the moment the tournament ends.

Director of Esports at Riot GamesWhalen 'RiotMagus' Rozelle confirmed in a Reddit thread that the streaming and advertisement restrictions we reported on are, in fact, in place.

Any game on that list can not at any time be streamed by the people who sign that contract. At all. At any point from now until the tournament ends.

 

[Eric the Orange]

I guess what I was saying is Blizzard is the top dog of the market in their field, and they're willing to go along with it. They're not the CAUSE, but they're clearly not interested in standing up for their gamers.

Though, well, shame on Riot games for coming up with the restrictions in the first place.

Sense when does blizzard have a say in the contracts that other companies make. How would they even know about this, and what could they do? You seem to be taking a long walk to make it look like blizzard is at fault here.

 

[DustyDrB]

I mean, I get why they want to do this. And for that reason, it seems smart.

But then there's the flip-side. EVERYONE gets why they do this, so they really just come across as overbearing and paranoid. So far that reason, it seems dumb. Really, really dumb.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

If those players had any functional brain cells left they would refuse to sign that contract.

A professional LoL player in the LCS can easily earn 500k-1M bucks a year with only streaming/play LoL(+tournaments).

If you're in the LCS you're employed by Riot, so you've to play by their rules. Seems fair to me. Sure, it's a harsh restriction but it's definitly not worth that amount of fuss.

 

[DeaDRabbiT]

I guess what I was saying is Blizzard is the top dog of the market in their field, and they're willing to go along with it. They're not the CAUSE, but they're clearly not interested in standing up for their gamers.

Though, well, shame on Riot games for coming up with the restrictions in the first place.

Do you even know what you are talking about?

What is Blizzard going to say?

RIOT games is saying "Hey nerds, we know you want to continue to play games for chicken feed (unless you win) while making us tons of money, so it's unlikely you'll show any backbone whatsoever. So to our neverending benefit, we are now going to prevent you from making money anywhere else either, unless it's concurrently making us money"

And I don't see how this has any legal standing in court either. All signatories of this contract do so under no duress, so they are responsible for their own actions. If they don't want to abide by Riot's rules, they don't sign the contract, that's pretty much it.

 

[Compatriot Block]

If those players had any functional brain cells left they would refuse to sign that contract.

A professional LoL player in the LCS can easily earn 500k-1M bucks a year with only streaming/play LoL(+tournaments).

If you're in the LCS you're employed by Riot, so you've to play by their rules. Seems fair to me. Sure, it's a harsh restriction but it's definitly not worth that amount of fuss.

Are you sure about those figures? Because either those are a bit high or I'm going into the wrong line of work.

 

[antipunt]

Wow at least 80% of those LCS players play Heartstone during their queue times. I can't see this ending well.

LOL, this. First thing I thought of.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

So, I don't mean to be rude, but... all this is saying, from what I gleaned, is that they aren't allowed to STREAM these games. They're perfectly capable of still playing the games, but they can't stream anything, basically, but LoL.

While, I guess, if they wanted streaming freedoms, that's greatly curtailed now, but overall it's not as bad as people seem to say. They're still being paid generously, and the only condition is that they simply stream the games they want and they turn off the stream if they want to play World of Tanks or something. Nothing says that the gamer can't organize small get-togethers on their FB, Twitter, or personal webpage or something like that.

 

[AlwaysPractical]

Hm, it's certainly their right to prevent their championship players from promoting other games, but naming specifically the competition makes this seem like a pretty anti-competitive move. I'll definitely wait with my judgement till I hear more about it.

 

[scotth266]

Snip

You might want to take the following into account:

https://twitter.com/CrsStvicious/status/408346165785001984 (SaintVicious is one of the pro players)

Currently a lot of people are saying things every which way: the writers of the article have doubled down saying that they have confirmation that players are banned from playing the other games on stream, while other people have claimed otherwise, saying that the contract only bans you from playing other games when you're supposed to be streaming LoL content: http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1s3dgp/a_proper_reading_of_the_lol_contract_says_that/

In conclusion, nobody knows whether the contract is real or whether it says what the article-writers have claimed until we get an official comment.

 

[TilMorrow]

So from reading the article I gather that players who are involved in the LoL Championship series won't be allowed to play or display certain games whilst playing in the championship games or LoL games related to the championship. So aside from being bored as they wait between championship games whilst streaming them, how is this bad?