Mentioned in this article Games: League of Legends

This week, another story broke in Brazilian League of Legends esports, again dealing with legal concerns. It’s been revealed that PaiN Gaming, last year’s representative in the World Championship, sued Riot Games for an unfair punishment from earlier this year. PaiN Gaming was penalized for a “poaching attempt” on support player Caio “Loop” Almeida. The management denied the allegations, asked for proof—which Riot Brazil didn’t present—and consequently filed a lawsuit.

The story

It came as a surprise to many when early in December, four months after his recruitment by INTZ, Caio “Loop” Almeida left to join the former CBLoL champion: PaiN Gaming. INTZ’ own management wasn’t even aware of the transfer, despite the only-just introduced “anti-poaching” rule, forbidding the recruitment of a player without the approval of his current organization.

As a result, INTZ’ owners went to Riot to demand an answer. It was on that day a phrase that later became notorious was coined: “We’re looking for respect and seriousness.” In response, Riot Brazil ruled PaiN Gaming guilty of poaching, applied financial sanctions, and banned Almeida from playing for PaiN for the year to come.

Repeatedly, both PaiN Gaming and Almeida denied the poaching allegations and asked Riot for proof. But without any legal need or policy requiring such proof, Riot Brazil stayed quiet and kept the ruling in place.

In the following weeks, in order to defend himself against the allegations, Almeida declared he was never approached by PaiN Gaming directly. According to Riot’s rules, teams aren’t allowed to have direct contact with players contracted by other teams, nor vice versa. Almeida stated that he only had heard of PaiN’s interest through the mother of Matheus “Mylon” Borges, PaiN Gaming’s top laner, consequently not directly from PaiN. Later, INTZ revealed that PaiN did contact them, but they denied access to Loop, which infers that PaiN did take the necessary steps to initiate a transaction.

Logic dictates that if Almeida discovered of such moves of PaiN, from an independent source, that PaiN did not act improperly.

It seemed like the story was over, until the lawsuit filed by PaiN Gaming against Riot games was leaked this week. The process, ongoing since Apr. 5, aims at lifting Almeida’s ban. PaiN requested an urgent process, so that Almeida would be available before May 2, the end of the transfer window for the second split. Yet, the demand for an urgent process was denied by the judge on Apr. 8. Two days ago, Apr, 19, PaiN Gaming announced their support for the next split, burying the possibility of Almeida playing for them.

The way Riot goes

According to PaiN Gaming officials, Riot Games Brazil has acted in an “authoritarian, arbitrary, and illegal” way. The Brazilian team’s main complaints are a lack of investigation, and the right of defense and appeal.

Unfortunately for PaiN, this is the way how Riot has been dealing with such issues for quite a while now. Back in 2014, Andy “Reginald” Dinh, owner of TSM, was fined $2,000 for publicly announcing the team’s new support player, Jang-sik “Lustboy” Ham, before the required paperwork was done. He rejected the accusations and asked for proof, but again, Riot Games refused and maintained the fine.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Riot Games Brazil has acted in an “authoritarian, arbitrary, and illegal” way.[/perfectpullquote]

However, if teams are willing to go to court over issues like these, Riot’s approach will have to change. Despite the “urgent process” being denied, the lawsuit against Riot Games Brazil is still in the works. It will take months, if not years, until it’s decided, but unless a settlement is found between the parties, a court decision could change the shape of what Riot Games can or can’t do. It would create a precedent for future cases, which teams won’t hesitate to use in their defense.

In the future, Riot will have to face its regulation loopholes with better responses than: “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you!” Legal concerns has always been a part of esports, and with more money entering the scene, parties are more inclined to turn to courts in order to maintain their rights.

Players’ contracts may be next on the line

Competitive rulings aren’t the only case for legal recourse, either. Last year, litigation between KeyD Stars and KaBuM over the recruitment of André “esA” Pavezi went to court. The teams failed to agree on the compensation for breaking the player’s contract. Initially filed in the civil court, the process had been ruled out of jurisdiction and was transferred to the labor court. After one year, KeyD and KaBuM settled the case. KeyD agreed on paying R$ 30,000, a lot less than the R$100,000 requested by KaBuM in the initial lawsuit.

The French government has also briefly addressed the topic of player contracts, but it has yet to become regulated officially. There is a rising concern about player’s contracts, and it might only be a question of time before players turn against their teams or the tournament organisers if they feel mistreated.

The need for questions

This story also highlights the importance of the media. Three weeks passed by before this story finally broke. A source shared the process number of the lawsuit with Teamplay, a Brazilian outlet specialized in esports news. Without the scrutiny of the public and the media, this lawsuit would have probably been kept secret by both Riot and PaiN Gaming.

According to the Brazilian esports news website myCNB, Almeida himself wasn’t even aware of the lawsuit. “I don’t know anything,” he said with an emotion of surprise when a journalist asked him about it.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Without the scrutiny of the public and the media, this lawsuit would have probably been kept secret by both Riot and PaiN Gaming.[/perfectpullquote]

Often, esports organisations will act without transparency. Be it Riot, or teams themselves, the world of esports is far from transparent. There is already enough proof to justify more scrutiny. But building trust with the public requires exactly that: trust. And when esports organizations continue to block this kind of information from going public, there becomes a disconnect that can be difficult to bridge moving forward.

Conclusion

While this week’s news only concerns Brazil and its CBLoL system, and isn’t directly connected to US or European courts, it provides a great example of how the regulation tide is rising, and how courts might come into the mix to figure out legal concerns. The Brazilian team owners’ willingness to take the issue to the courts simply means it will get figured out within the region sooner, rather than later. But as esports grows, expect these kinds of headlines to pop up more frequently, and with much larger issues at stake.