New LCS Contract Forbids Streaming Dota 2, Blizzard Games

Vivi22

New member
Aug 22, 2010
2,300
0
0
Trishbot said:
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.
What? Blizzard isn't going along with anything. This story is about Riot, and only Riot, preventing players in their championship series from admitting competitive games aside from League of Legends exist publicly. Blizzard hasn't done anything here and the article isn't even about them.
 

Mahorfeus

New member
Feb 21, 2011
996
0
0
cursedseishi said:
Mahorfeus said:
Not terribly surprising. You don't usually go out of your way to support advertisement for your competition.
Yes because a trading card game, and online multiplayer games about tanks and airplanes are TOTALLY a competition for a Dota game. Yes, definitely.
Well... yeah.

It's not even a matter of genre. Any moderately to highly successful online multiplayer game poses valid competition to League of Legends, even those that are not MOBAs. All that matters is that, despite being more or less free to play, people are willing to spend money on these games. For the most part, they spend money on them because they are actually good. World of Tanks is a huge one in that regard.
 

shintakie10

New member
Sep 3, 2008
1,342
0
0
Adam Jensen said:
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.

Dick move all around. It wouldn't be so bad if they allowed them to stream on their own free time, but accordin to the contract (and the source updated with clarification as well) they literally are not allowed to stream anythin on that list at any time while the tournament is runnin. Usin my limited legal-fu that would also include anyone knocked out of the tournament meanin they would only be able to stream LoL stuff until the tournament concludes.

I mean, it is Riot just bein Riot and all so its less a dick move and more just a normal Riot move, but that doesn't make it any less messed up.
 

munx13

Some guy on the internet
Dec 17, 2008
431
0
0
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

Hella noided
Dec 11, 2009
2,999
0
0
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

New member
Dec 6, 2007
1,019
0
0
loa said:
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.

Tenmar said:
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

New member
Oct 5, 2010
8,162
0
0
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

New member
Apr 19, 2012
244
0
0
munx13 said:
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

"Emotions are very important!"
Sep 23, 2010
5,458
0
0
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

I never asked for this
Sep 8, 2011
6,651
0
0
shintakie10 said:
Adam Jensen said:
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

New member
Jul 6, 2010
57
0
0
Akichi Daikashima said:
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

New member
Mar 12, 2012
1,436
0
0
Adam Jensen said:
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

New member
Sep 3, 2008
1,342
0
0
Jennacide said:
loa said:
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

Gone Gonzo
Apr 29, 2008
3,245
0
0
Trishbot said:
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

Made of ticky tacky
Jan 19, 2010
8,365
3
43
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

New member
Jul 25, 2011
843
0
0
Adam Jensen said:
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

New member
Sep 25, 2010
139
0
0
Trishbot said:
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.