Riot Games and the Problem of IP Misuse to destabilize US Markets.
A Closer Look at Lee Sin and Kenshi Takahashi
It’s time for a serious discussion about Riot Games and its growing pattern of drawing heavily from pre-existing U.S. intellectual property, particularly in character design. While creativity often builds on inspiration, there is a line between homage and appropriation, and Riot seems increasingly comfortable walking that line without acknowledgment.
One of the many (Endless) examples of this is the character Lee Sin, the Blind Monk from League of Legends. On the surface, Lee Sin is portrayed as a spiritually enlightened martial artist who channels the essence of the dragon to fight for balance. But for many longtime players and industry observers, his design and concept are strikingly similar to Kenshi Takahashi, a character from Mortal Kombat, a franchise developed by the U.S. based Midway Games and NetherRealm Studios.
Kenshi was introduced in 2002 as a blind swordsman who relies on telekinetic senses and heightened awareness to fight. He is calm, disciplined, and guided by a sense of justice and honour. Lee Sin, who arrived in 2011, is also blind, deeply spiritual, and similarly devoted to protecting his homeland. Both characters are visually marked by their red blindfolds, their martial discipline, and their reliance on inner power rather than sight. Even their character arcs emphasize personal redemption and sacrifice. Even the colour palettes of both characters are the same.
It would be easier to dismiss this as coincidence if it weren’t part of a larger pattern. Riot Games has repeatedly introduced characters, skins, and themes, and even games that closely mirror those found in other US properties. Overwatch, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Marvel, my writing and even classic anime have all served as visual and thematic wells for Riot’s growing roster of characters. In many cases, the resemblances go beyond general archetypes and verge into nearly one-to-one aesthetic or narrative borrowing.
This kind of borrowing is not new to the industry, but what makes it troubling in Riot’s case is the lack of credit or transparency. The company benefits from the creative foundations laid by other studios, many of them U.S.-based, without any formal recognition. In doing so, it erodes the uniqueness of the original works and obscures the creative labour that built them while redirecting the industries back to their parent company Tencent who is closely allied to the military agendas of an adversary government, actively engaged in a warm war against the US and UK creative, gaming and technological markets.
This isn’t safe, stable nor sane business practices. When a studio like NetherRealm invests time, creativity, and identity into a character like Kenshi, only to see a similar figure appear in another global franchise with no acknowledgment, it raises questions of integrity, crime, IP abuse, economic warfare, and respect for competitors IP, some of which they have directly sabotaged. Originality is not only about creating something new but about honouring the source when inspiration becomes imitation.
If Riot Games intends to continue evolving its characters by drawing from powerful archetypes, they will soon find themselves in deeper water. The US and UK have rules, laws and regulations which Riot and it’s puppet masters have repeatedly violated, sometimes so evidently that it shows that they don’t care because they have endless black budgets of warfare to spit at lawsuits which is a tactic to further destabilize, sabotage and steal whole markets and industries.
Riot’s US based leadership needs to take responsibility when those archetypes have clearly recognizable roots in existing franchises. The industry and its players deserve transparency and respect for creative boundaries. Not sabotage and warfare.
Lee Sin may be one of League of Legends' most iconic champions, but to many, he will always stand in the shadow of a Mortal Kombat warrior who came before him.
M.W. Wolf Ltd.
