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Riot Games Wins $10 Million Lawsuit Against Bot-Scripting Website
LeagueSharp is a website dedicated to "helping" League of Legends players by charging them anywhere from $15 to $50 a month for access to numerous bot scripts allowing them to perform maneuvers that would otherwise be difficult to pull off on reaction faster than humans normally could. Last year, League of Legends developer Riot Games sued the website, which it alleged provided these scripts to people who were leveling up accounts and selling them for a profit. Last month, they won. This week, LeagueSharp is no more.
As Kotaku reported last year, Riot Games had first attempted to settle the dispute out of court, but was met with a number of malicious counter-moves. The lawsuit claims LeagueSharp or people working with them "disseminated personal and non-public information about a Riot employee, threatened that employee, and posted offensive comments on the employee’s social media." Once they new they'd be going to court over, LeagueSharp then began "quickly and carefully destroying or concealing evidence such as their most incriminating online posts and purporting to hide behind a Peruvian shell corporation created solely for the purpose of evading liability."
LeagueSharp promptly lost the lawsuit back in January, and had to cease operations by the end of last month. The website issued a now-deleted statement mentioning their closure, warning players of using third-party mods for League of Legends, and apologizing "for any pain we've caused to players of League of Legends." As part of the lawsuit, Riot has received a $10 million settlement, as well as control of all LeagueSharp websites.
[Source: PC Gamer, Dot Esports, Kotaku]
Our Take
Good riddance to cheaters, scammers, and their enablers.
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