Riot Games’s Wider History of IP Abuse.
Riot Games is a cheap knock-off IP abusing, data harvesting warmongering network of espionage and a weapon of economic warfare against US creative markets.
To see this article with side-by-side image comparisons see the PDF Doc Riot Games’s Wider History of IP Abuse at: https://www.mwwolf-fiction.co.uk/docs
Or at:
I. Introduction
This statement outlines a consistent pattern of misconduct by Riot Games and its affiliates, extending beyond the direct infringement of Bloodborg: The Harvest and encompassing a broader strategy of intellectual property theft, rebranding, market sabotage, and transnational control. The pattern reflects a calculated commercial model designed to absorb U.S.-created content and code, displace competitors, and repatriate creative capital toward Tencent, a Chinese tech conglomerate with obligations to state intelligence operations, and this operation has now expanded to include NetEase.
This alleged RECO activity has been at the core of Riot’s business strategy since their unlawful inception in 2006 and has never changed. Indeed, these behaviors and crimes are proliferating and branching into all of the US and UK data-rich creative and tech industries, often in closed unhealthy and unregulated online groups and communities where extremism, misogyny, terrorism, anti-establishment, anti-west propaganda and online violence is promoted, spread and left unchallenged.
Additionally, in these communities, communist dictatorship propaganda is promoted, voices are censored, Chinese style social credit systems are used, content creators are being groomed, and the Plaintiff believes that soft warfare and data harvesting are the real reasons that billions of dollars (perhaps from Chinese Black Budgets) were tossed at a start-up from two college students with swiped code, swiped player bases and swiped trade secrets, from a US rival and with poached game developers, such as Steve 'Pendragon' Mescon the creator of DotA-Allstars.com, a community website for DotA players. Mescon, directly upon jumping ship to Riot Games, sabotaged the publicly owned website which they stole the code from, then sold it back to the same players and modders.
These deviant tactics of Riot Games have never changed.
II. Patterned Conduct
A. Systematic Swiping of U.S. IP and Creative Assets
· Riot’s flagship products mirror preexisting U.S. creations:
· League of Legends is a commercial clone of DotA, itself a mod from Blizzard’s Warcraft III.
· Teamfight Tactics is derived from Auto Chess, developed within the Dota 2 ecosystem.
· Valorant lifts core mechanics from CS:GO and Overwatch, blending familiar assets under new branding.
· Legends of Runeterra replicates the interface and gameplay logic of Hearthstone.
· Arcane is alleged to have been stolen from Bloodborg.
Riot’s “narrative units” routinely adopt character archetypes, lore structures, and trauma themes pioneered by independent or U.S.-based creators. Riot Forge was promoted as an open submission pipeline, Plaintiff’s Bloodborg being one such submission, but then those ideas were absorbed and rebranded into Arcane, denying credit and legal attribution.
B. Sabotage of Competing IP
· Numerous U.S. projects in overlapping genres have suffered suspiciously coordinated setbacks:
· Indie games releasing near Riot’s launches experience unexplained takedowns, social media suppression, or code leaks.
· Plaintiff alleges sabotage of personal projects, including psychological harassment and digital intrusion, after submission to Riot Forge and Curtis Brown Group.
· Coordinated bot traffic, harassment, and threats have targeted multiple whistleblowers and developers connected to these cases.
· Greg Street reportedly hacked, and sabotaged a US indie game developer’s computer, stealing code and content which is now being used in Riot’s MMO which is still in development, and Street’s own MMO at a NetEase studio called Fantastic Pixel Castle.
C. Repackaging Stolen IP and Selling It Back to the Public
Stolen IP is not only absorbed, but sanitized, re-skinned, and resold:
Characters, storylines, and worlds are altered just enough to evade basic scrutiny.
The Arcane series closely mirrors the plot beats and emotional structure of Bloodborg, yet markets itself as “original,” garnering awards and profit in excess of $1 billion.
Riot’s ecosystem benefits from the illusion of innovation, while suppressing the creative voices it copies.
III. Targeting the Vulnerable
Plaintiff, a disabled and under-resourced author, was targeted during a period of acute trauma. This was known to Riot and its legal affiliates. Riot Forge’s public-facing submission portal promised opportunity but instead became a pipeline for uncredited idea mining. Others targeted include independent developers, female-led writing teams, and creators from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, those least able to mount legal defense.
Additionally, they have a history of targeting women, minors working for them and anyone who speaks out about their criminal ways.
IV. Redirection of Creative and Economic Control to the PRC
The outcome of this pattern is not limited to personal loss, it represents the erosion of U.S. market integrity:
Riot is 98.6% owned by Tencent, a company required to cooperate with PRC intelligence operations under China’s National Intelligence Law.
Creative assets, telemetry data, player behavior analytics, and content monetization pipelines are increasingly housed in Tencent and NetEase cloud environments.
This effectively converts Western creative innovation into state-aligned economic instruments, reducing narrative diversity, cultural freedom, and economic sovereignty.
V. Conclusion
The conduct outlined here cannot be dismissed as coincidence or normal competition. Riot Games has executed a sustained strategy of creative expropriation, competitor sabotage, and international market capture, built on silencing and replacing original voices. These practices call for urgent investigation by U.S. and UK authorities and underscore the need for systemic reform in cross-border IP protection.
We are in a Warm War of espionage, IP Theft, Data Harvesting, Economic, Cultural, Social and Neurocognitive Warfare. Riot Games is not on our side. In fact, it’s a weapon of all of the above, a tool of destruction.
Below are exhibits to exemplify this relentless and shameful “Swipe n Gripe” method of theft.
Exhibit A – Steve "Pendragon" Mescon and Riot Games: A Pattern of IP Misappropriation, Sabotage, and Anti-Competitive Conduct
Overview
This exhibit establishes the early foundation of Riot Games’ commercial model, one allegedly based on the appropriation of community-built game IP, sabotage of competitors, and rebranding of rival works under Riot’s own corporate umbrella. The conduct described herein exemplifies a larger pattern of what the Plaintiff terms “Swipe and Gripe”: the act of taking externally developed IP, repackaging it, discrediting or dismantling the source, and profiting from it, often while simultaneously weaponizing legal tools against others for similar behaviors.
Key Individuals and Timeline
· Steve "Pendragon" Mescon, founder of dota-allstars.com (2004), was a central figure in the original DotA: AllStars community.
· In 2008, Mescon was hired by Riot Games as Director of Community Relations, shortly before dota-allstars.com was taken offline and replaced with a message promoting League of Legends.
· Riot's co-founders, known by their online aliases Ryze and Tryndamere, were not professional developers but players of DotA, the very game that League of Legends would soon imitate.
· Riot also recruited Steve “Guinsoo” Feak, another key DotA contributor.
Alleged Pattern of Conduct
Acquisition and Sabotage
Riot hired figures with intimate knowledge of DotA: AllStars, including site founder Mescon. Once employed, Mescon took down the site, redirecting millions of users toward League of Legends. His statement promised archival preservation but instead functioned as a funnel to Riot’s competing product. Tencent invested in Riot Games from the beginning and owned a majority of Riot Games just 13 months after LOL was launched in 2008.
Exploitation of Rival IP
Riot’s early product closely mimicked the gameplay structure of DotA, with minor accessibility improvements and rebranding. While Riot denies copying source code, its founders admitted in interviews that DotA directly inspired their vision. Riot continued to poach many US developers from DotA and redirected their efforts and profits back to Tencent.
Riot then weaponized legal tools to attack smaller developers for using generic terms like "Arcane" or "League."
Retaliation and Anti-Competitive Targeting
Following their rise, Riot allegedly engaged in:
· Legal harassment of indie MOBA developers
· Intimidation of rivals (including individuals)
· Use of DMCA takedowns to erase origin claims
· Repurposing community labor and code into commercial monopoly
Ongoing Behavior
The Plaintiff alleges this same model was used to absorb and reframe his original manuscript, Bloodborg: The Harvest, into Riot’s Arcane series. The Plaintiff contends that Riot’s leadership culture has remained unchanged since its founding: extract IP, suppress the source, and monetize the result, whilst abusing women.
Supporting Quote from Steve Mescon’s Website Redirect (2009)
“The website will be offline for the next week or so while the database is moved to its new permanent home where its contents will remain archived and available to the public for the sake of historical preservation... In the meantime, I hope some of you will join me and over 3 million other players for a game of League of Legends (it’s free!)”
Steve Mescon’s sabotage was never corrected, the site never recovered to full capacity of what it once was.
Below is a published Article concerning Exhibit A
PDF article is retained.
Sabotage And Treachery: Why DoTA players hate Riot Games.
By permastun August 10, 2013 15 Comments
In 2004, Steve ‘Pendragon’ Mescon founded dota-allstars.com, which became a worldwide hub for the DoTA community. For four years, it was the central destination for all things DoTA, including strategy discussion, design discussion, actual hero designs, hero stories, and fan art. In 2008, Mescon was hired by Riot Games to be the director of community relations. Riot Games was founded Brandon ‘Ryze’ Beck and Marc ‘Tryndamere’ Merrill. Riot quickly hired up DoTA All-Stars collaborator Steve ‘Guinsoo’ Feak, who had taken over development of the mod originally created by a Warcraft 3 player known as Eul.
In 2008, Riot Games also released its first game, League of Legends, into beta. Not long after hiring Mescon, dota-allstars.com was abruptly shut down. In its place was a letter to the community from Pendragon himself, explaining why. It read in part:
The website will be offline for the next week or so while the database is moved to its new permanent home where its contents will remain archived and available to the public for the sake of historical preservation.
In the meantime, I hope some of you will join me and over 3 million other players for a game of League of Legends (it’s free!)
To put this into context, allow me to give you an analogy. This would be like Josh Allen going to work for Blizzard, shutting down tankspot.com and replacing it with a link to whatever project Titan ends up being. What’s worse is that the promise of the site archive being available in the next few weeks wasn’t accurate. It took over 3 years for the archive to be released, with an attached snarky message.
Well fuck you too.
Hey seriously though - I put this out there because I want people to have it, so I’m going to drop in the link and my contact details if anyone wants to use it for anything and need help please let me know.
Whether you like me or hate me, I poured years of my life into helping create a community that lots of people enjoyed and I’m proud of what it became. You can disagree with decisions I’ve made - some of which have been great and some of them not so great, but my intentions have never been anything but good.
Feel free to keep on hatin’
Mescon also sold the rights to the dota-allstars.com domain to his employer, Riot Games, who then turned around and sold it right to Blizzard. Unfortunately all attached files, including community made heroes, heroes that had been removed from the game, and tons of fan art, were not part of the archive. So in the end, a large part of four years of DoTA history was gone.
However, according to some community members Pendragon doesn’t seem to have been an extremely likeable figure in the community. Some DoTA veterans that I’ve spoken with over the past year or so have told me that they believe Pendragon, and his supporters, to be one of the underlying roots to the toxic nature of the communities in this genre. Many have cited his very public spats of rage in the early days of the mod to be very symptomatic and somewhat viral throughout the community.
Pendragon isn’t the sole reason these communities are toxic. He’s not even the sole reason Dota players despise Riot. A lot of this comes down to marketing tactics—such as creating the genre acronym MOBA—in an attempt to disassociate League of Legends with its predecessor and prevent it from being called DoTA-like, in the way that dungeon crawling RPG’s are sometimes referred to as Diablo-like.
But the real straw that broke the camel’s back was this marketing campaign.
Players felt this was a distasteful jab at a game and community that made their very existence possible. And they weren’t done yet. In 2012, Geoff ‘iNcontrol’ Robinson mentioned a rumor that he had heard over Twitter about Riot contractually preventing teams from having squads in other MOBA games. This was later confirmed by Evil Geniuses COO Scott ‘Sir Scoots’ Smith.
Riot declared these rumors to be unfounded, and eventually Riot relented on their demands. but the damage had already been done. As the years go on, it will be interesting to see if Riot will attempt to mend fences. Many members of the community have washed their hands of the situation and moved on, either to Heroes of Newerth or Dota 2. If the bottom ever falls out of League of Legends, Riot could be in some serious trouble when it comes to the hardcore gaming community.
Exhibit A Conclusion
This exhibit demonstrates that Riot Games’ early success was built not on innovation but on the appropriation and sabotage of a rival U.S.-based game property, aided by insiders who redirected community infrastructure, intellectual property, and market share, almost instantly to Eastern market control. These actions mirror the alleged theft and misappropriation of Bloodborg, suggesting a long-standing, systemic pattern of exploitative and retaliatory corporate behavior.
The Plaintiff’s Worry.
I believe Arcane is stolen from my BloodBorg: The Harvest manuscript submitted to Riot Forge, and I can show this. Moreover, the timelines of production are fake to deceive customers and hide IP theft. The fake writers have deliberately engaged in editing and backdating lies in a method which resembles espionage and propaganda and disinformation tactics which bear a resemblance to militarized government origins. I know these methods well. These are systematically implemented to evade lawful processes and to build plausible deniability.
Exhibit A shows that these tactics of soft warfare were used in the founding of Riot Games and are still being used against creatives like me to steal IP, rebrand it, and use it to branch into new domains of data control, then to redistribute the profits and markets back to China.
Two Bro-mancing college graduates didn’t fall onto the secrets of another games code and simultaneously trip onto billions of dollars of Chinese funding, with an eastern free-to-play business model because they changed it to a bad rip-off product.
Exhibit B- Original 40, or so, Characters.
(Of the original drawings, some were unused).
The original 40 League of Legends champions, available at the game's launch on October 27, 2009, include Alistar, Amumu, Anivia, Annie, Ashe, Blitzcrank, Cho'Gath, Corki, Dr. Mundo, Evelynn, Fiddlesticks, Gangplank, Heimerdinger, Janna, Jax, Karthus, Kassadin, Katarina, Kayle, Malphite, Master Yi, Morgana, Nasus, Nunu, Rammus, Ryze, Shaco, Singed, Sion, Sivir, Soraka, Taric, Teemo, Tristana, Tryndamere, Twisted Fate, Twitch, Veigar, Warwick, and Zilean. These champions were crucial in establishing the game's identity and setting the stage for future releases.
However, the older originals from the first released character drawings are listed below. Of these characters (champions) we already see (and can trace) a mix of archetypes / tropes with originality and then some blatant IP appropriation.
We see good and acceptable new retellings of age-old Archetypes and tropes from myths, books, films and pop culture such as:
Alistar (The Minotaur), Fiddlesticks (Scarecrow), Warwick (Werewolf), Amumu (Mummy), Singed (Mad Scientist), Sion (Frankenstein), Tabu (Voodoo Shaman), Plant King (Plant Being), Water Wizard (Poseidon), Dr Mundo (Mad Scientist/ Mr. Hyde), Soraka (Greek mythology/ Pan/ companions of Dionysus), Kayle (angelic figures from monotheistic religions and Christian mythology), Evelynn (Succubus), Nunu (Yeti but later became a Yeti rider), Zilean, the Chronokeeper (Father Time Fables & Folklore), Anivia, the Cryophoenix, (Phoenix Mythology), Tryndamere (primarily, the historical figure Genghis Khan, the berserker fantasy),
Priscilla before being reworked into Elise (Spider People Mythology but similar to Lolth, the Spider Queen in Dungeons & Dragons), and Morgana (heavily inspired by the mythical sorceress Morgan le Fay from Arthurian legend), Master Yi (Splinter Cell mixed with Wuju style martial arts and Asian warrior tropes, particularly those from Chinese and Japanese cultures).
I think we would all agree that these age-old Archetypes and tropes from myths, books, films and pop culture, whilst not entirely original, are safe from being direct infringements of Intellectual Property.
Blurred lines and IP Theft.
This is where Riot Games begins to blur the lines between borrowing, inspiration and of IP theft.
0, Teemo and Tristana (Star Wars characters Yoda)
Before we move onto direct infringements we should explain why, although Yordles such as Teemo and Tristana, were directly inspired by Star Wars characters such as Yoda and perhaps Ewoks/ Wookiees, these characters are perhaps safe because they are anthropomorphized sage side-kick archetypes common in the structure of storytelling.
Anthropomorphic sage sidekicks, often animals or mythical creatures, are common in storytelling as a source of wisdom and guidance for the hero. They embody the "sage" archetype, offering knowledge, experience, and common sense to aid the protagonist on their journey. Examples include Yoda & R2-D2 from Star Wars, Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio, Orko from He-man Masters of the Universe, and even Mr. Jingles in The Green Mile.
1, Shaco, the Demon Jester.
Shaco mixes the jester Archetype (Safe), with the Mad Hatter from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, as evidenced by his "Mad Hatter Shaco” skin. Still Safe, as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 English children's novel by Lewis Carroll. Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) died in 1898, so his works, including "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," entered the public domain 50 years later, in 1948. However, the 1911 Copyright Act extended the term to 70 years after the author's death, and this change applied retroactively, meaning the copyright on "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" expired in 1907.
Yet, Shaco is also confirmed to have been drawn from the Joker, particularly the interpretation seen in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. The Batman's Joker character is owned by DC Comics, a subsidiary of Warner Bros, an American company.
(Perhaps safe, but dodgy).
2, Kassadin, the Void Walker
Kassadin is inspired by a few key concepts: the Cthulhu Mythos, the Helghast from Killzone, Mind Flayers from D&D and Emperor Zurg from Toy Story.
The Cthulhu Mythos from H.P. Lovecraft's works. The Call of Cthulhu," were published before 1928 and are now in the public domain in the US. This means anyone can freely use and adapt them without needing permission.
The Helghast are the primary antagonists in the Killzone video game franchise owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), an American company.
Emperor Zurg from Toy Story. The Walt Disney Company, an American company, owns the Toy Story franchise. Disney acquired Pixar Animation Studios, the original creators of Toy Story, in 2006, thus taking ownership of all Pixar properties, including the Toy Story franchise.
Mind Flayers from D&D, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is an American game.
(Very dodgy).
3, Karthus
Karthus was reportedly first inspired by David Lo Pan from Big Trouble in Little China. While the character Karthus from League of Legends is not directly a lift of David Lo Pan from Big Trouble in Little China, both characters share some similarities in their themes of death, necromancy, and a quest for power. David Lo Pan is a sorcerer who seeks to regain his physical form and power, while Karthus is a necromancer who embraces death and uses its power.
Big Trouble in Little China is owned by The Walt Disney Company. 20th Century Fox distributed the film. The movie was produced by TAFT Entertainment and SLM Production Group, all American.
(Very dodgy, Unsafe).
4, Twitch
Twitch, the mutated rat from the sewers (The Black Death, Skaven from Warhammer Fantasy Battle, and Splinter from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics).
Twitched is admitted having been “inspired” by Skaven from Warhammer Fantasy Battle, owned by Games Workshop, a British company, headquartered in Nottingham, England.
It is reported that Twitched was also borrowed from Splinter from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, owned by Mirage Studios (1984–2009) then Nickelodeon (2009–present). Nickelodeon is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global, owned by American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation operated and owned by theater company National Amusements.
(Well Dodgy, Unsafe)
5, Rammus
Rammus (Bower from Super Mario- King Rammus" skin in League of Legends is indeed a reference to Bowser from the Super Mario franchise. This skin, released during the game's closed beta, features a green shell similar to Bowser's.)
Nintendo owns the Super Mario franchise. This includes the character Mario, the games, and all related intellectual property. The franchise was created by Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, but Nintendo owns the rights to it.
This Japanese IP marks the first IP “Borrowed” property not from the US and UK.
(Well Dodgy, Unsafe)
6, Ryze (inspired by Kratos from "God of War")
Ryze from "League of Legends" and Kratos from "God of War" are often compared due to their similar appearances and thematic elements, particularly in fan art and discussions about their character designs. Both characters are depicted as powerful, older, and burdened by their past, with Ryze's lore and visual design drawing inspiration from Kratos's portrayal in God of War.
The God of War franchise is owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Specifically, the games are developed by Santa Monica Studio, which is a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment… American.
(Well Dodgy, Unsafe)
7, Averdrian
(Dhalsim is a character in Capcom's Street Fighter series)
Dhalsim, a character in Capcom's Street Fighter series, is a yoga master and monk from India who is known for his unique fighting style, which includes extending his limbs, breathing fire, and teleportation. He is a pacifist, fighting primarily for the poor and oppressed, and is deeply concerned with maintaining his spiritual discipline while using his powers. Dhalsim can travel bodily through the astral plane in the form of teleportation.
Averdrian, the Astral Guardian is a cancelled Lol champion of the same, just turned blue, which seems to be the chosen colour of IP masking for Riot Games.
(Well Dodgy, Unsafe, thus unreleased)
8, Sivir (design and backstory were influenced by Xena: Warrior Princess, Wonder Woman).
It is confirmed that Sivir’s design and backstory were influenced by Xena: Warrior Princess, and Wonder Woman.
Xena: Warrior Princess is owned by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, which is itself a division of NBCUniversal. NBCUniversal is, in turn, a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings, is an American multinational mass media, telecommunications, and entertainment conglomerate.
Wonder Woman is primarily owned by DC Comics, a division of Warner Bros… American.
(Undeniable Infringement)
9, Annie (the film with the same name)
The character Annie in League of Legends is inspired by the musical and film "Annie". While her design also draws inspiration from Tim Burton films and the character Wednesday Addams, her name and some aspects of her character are directly linked to the "Little Orphan Annie" story.
Annie (franchise) is an American media franchise created by Harold Gray.
Both Annie and Little Orphan Annie are copyrighted IP owned by American Companies.
(Undeniable Infringement)
10, Jax (Garet Jax from The Sword of Shannara trilogy)
The champion Jax from League of Legends is heavily inspired by Garet Jax from Terry Brooks' The Sword of Shannara trilogy. Both characters are known as "Weapons Masters," adept with any weapon and are renowned for their combat prowess. In the League of Legends lore, Jax's ability to use a lamppost as a weapon further echoes Garet Jax's versatility with different tools.
(Confessed Infringement)
11, Cho'Gath (The Violator from the Spawn comics).
Cho'Gath from League of Legends bears a strong resemblance to The Violator from the Spawn comics, and it's widely believed that the Violator was indeed an inspiration for Cho'Gath's design. Cho'Gath shares several visual similarities with the Violator, including a large, hulking frame, prominent horns, and a monstrous appearance. Additionally, Cho'Gath's name itself may be a combination of influences, including the Shoggoth from H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, Cho'gall from Warcraft, and Ku'gath from Warhammer 40,000.
Again, we see a change of name and colour and very little else.
(Undeniable Infringement)
12, Ashe was Directly taken from Drow Ranger from DotA
League of Legends' Ashe is widely considered to be directly lifted from Drow Ranger (also known as Traxex) from the Warcraft III custom map Defense of the Ancients (DotA), which later became Dota 2. Both characters share a similar visual design and gameplay style, particularly their roles as ranged marksmen who can slow enemies with ice arrows.
Both Ashe and Drow Ranger are depicted as attractive, ranged female characters with long, flowing hair (silver for Ashe, and blonde for Drow Ranger) and wear dark blue clothing. Both are primarily played as ADCs (Attack Damage Carries) and excel at kiting (attacking while moving) and slowing enemies. Both have abilities that involve shooting arrows that slow enemies, which is a core aspect of their kits.
League of Legends was created by developers who previously worked on the DotA mod. While Ashe has unique lore and abilities that differentiate her, the core concept and design elements of Drow Ranger are undeniably present in Ashe's creation.
Valve Corporation owns the Dota intellectual property. Valve acquired the rights to DotA after a legal dispute with Blizzard Entertainment, the creators of Warcraft III, the game in which DotA originated as a mod. This began with Riot Games swiping code, sabotaging DotA Allstars and poaching developers with trade secrets.
Blizzard Entertainment, along with many other American companies and industries s have suffered great losses and infringements because of Riot Games’s unethical antics.
(Undeniable Infringement)
13, Twisted Fate and the Gambit Parallel
Twisted Fate, a champion from the game League of Legends, shares several thematic and visual parallels with Gambit from the X-Men comics. Both are charismatic rogues who utilize cards as their primary weapon, and both come from marginalized groups. While Twisted Fate's lore is less explicitly tied to a specific mutant background, his old lore did reference a Dr. Xavier Rath, a potential nod to Professor X, and his powers were initially attributed to a scientific experiment.
This pairing marks the end of the original 40 or so and will be further explored in Exhibit C as it directly links to Arcane.
X-Men comics and related film rights were formerly owned by 20th Century Fox, but were acquired by Disney in 2019 when Disney purchased 21st Century Fox. Disney now owns the rights to X-Men, including the characters and their associated intellectual property, and has integrated them into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
(Undeniable Infringement)
Conclusion of Exhibit B – Character Derivation and IP Infringement Patterns
A detailed review of Riot Games’ original 40 champion designs reveals a consistent pattern of unauthorized appropriation, derivative mimicry, and IP obfuscation. Of the initial 40 characters released at launch:
A subset of characters can be attributed to broad, public-domain archetypes or classic mythology. These are not considered IP violations.
However, 13 champions show direct or near-direct appropriation from specific pre-existing intellectual properties. These come predominantly from:
· 11 United States-based sources, including Disney, Warner Bros, DC Comics, Nickelodeon, Valve, Sony, and Universal.
· 1 Japanese source, specifically from Nintendo.
· 1 UK-based property, linked to Games Workshop’s Warhammer Skaven.
This means that 13 out of 40 champions, or 32.5 percent, are materially derived from protected IP not owned by Riot Games. Many of these infringements involve not just inspiration but structural, thematic, and visual replication of known, monetized characters. These figures do not include characters whose infringement may have been concealed through visual redesigns, palette shifts, or narrative reworks after launch.
This Exhibit supports the broader claim that Riot’s business model was founded on and continues to rely on the unauthorized use of others’ intellectual property. The same approach used in building the League of Legends roster appears to have been applied in the development of Arcane, where the Plaintiff alleges that material from Bloodborg: The Harvest was taken and incorporated without consent, license, or acknowledgment.
The 32.5 percent infringement rate within the launch roster, but before launch, is a statistically and legally significant figure. It strengthens the Plaintiff’s argument that Riot Games has created ongoing commercial value through systematic misappropriation of protected creative works.
Moreover, it supports the Plaintiff’s claim that Riot Games, through their owners Tencent, have systematically violated, sabotaged, diminished, destabilized and then redirected U.S and UK IP, markets, Data and Tech to China.
These figures are extremely liberal to be safe, such as Master Yi’s Splinter Cell googles and Yordles being “Inspired by Yoda” and so on.
Exhibit C- Twisted Fate and the Gambit Parallel- Many Layers.
Riot’s Pattern of Creative Abuse.
Twisted Fate was one of the 13 characters already evidenced in the original 40 in Exhibit B. However, because he was also originally meant to be in Arcane, I chose him to expand upon to show the extent of stolen IP being fed into more stolen IP creating a layered pattern of systematic theft and misuse.
The similarities between Riot Games’ characters and established U.S. intellectual properties have sparked controversy before. But one of the most glaring examples of alleged creative borrowing from the original 40 is Twisted Fate from League of Legends, a champion who looks and feels remarkably like Gambit from Marvel’s X-Men franchise.
Gambit was introduced in 1990. He is known for his glowing red eyes, kinetic-charged playing cards, and trench coat style. He is a streetwise Cajun antihero with a mysterious past and a flair for the dramatic. Twisted Fate, released by Riot in 2009, also wears a long coat, flips magical playing cards as weapons, and exudes the same cool, roguish charm.
The parallels are impossible to ignore:
1. Playing cards used as magical weapons
2. Long coat and hat
3. Smooth-talking outlaw persona
4. Flashy teleportation-based powers
5. Mysterious, antiheroic background
6. Glowing eyes
7. Side by side image copying
Even players unfamiliar with Marvel comics have noticed the similarity just through cultural awareness. Riot has never publicly acknowledged any inspiration from Gambit, but it never does, it just abuses and keeps on abusing. The Gambit copying is so ridiculously blatant that any fan of X men can look at an image of Twisted Fate and recall the exact image of Gambit that it was directly copied from. I’ve presented a few images here, but I can also recall the very moments in the cartoon where Gambit’s stance, mannerisms, personality and image was directly lifted from to make Twisted Fate.
Yet, Twisted Fate is more than just a Gambit lookalike. The character played a key role in the original Arcane script, a version of the show that was completely overhauled after mid-2020.
Scrapped Characters and a Shift in Direction
Internal tips, development artifacts, internal comments, public statements and other evidence shows that in early versions of Arcane, Jinx was originally set to ride a hot air balloon with Twisted Fate and Graves in episode 3. This version of the story was still tethered to Riot's traditional League of Legends characters and visual assets. In fact, Twisted Fate features heavily in Riot’s 10-year anniversary video, suggesting he was part of the visual branding and narrative development for the Arcane series early on.
However, after Riot received the manuscript for Bloodborg: The Harvest in early 2020, the project underwent a massive transformation. Whistleblower information and legal filings indicate that Riot scrapped the previous direction entirely, performed an 180-degree pivot in theme and tone, and removed Twisted Fate and Graves from the show.
The reworked Arcane script instead centered on Jinx’s trauma, emotional instability, and fragmented psychological state as well as the Piltover-Zaun conflict. The new version of the show bore a striking resemblance to Bloodborg, which also focuses on fractured trauma narratives, modular lore structures, and immersive psychological depth, as well as the same center conflict and duality of under-and-over cities.
The Rise of "Extracts" and Modularity
One of the most specific allegations in the Plaintiff’s case is Riot's adoption of a development framework known internally as “Extracts.” This modular storytelling system, a method that breaks lore into nonlinear, interconnected pieces, was a core structural device in Bloodborg. Riot had no history of using this technique until they had access to this manuscript.
This raises deeper concerns. The issue is not just that Riot created a card-flinging cowboy that looks like Gambit. The issue is that Twisted Fate and other unused characters were part of an earlier, discarded version of Arcane, and that their removal coincided with a sweeping narrative shift toward content that matches the unpublished work of an independent and disabled author’s personal trauma writing.
Thus, Riot Games, if found to be guilty, have not merely infringed on isolated elements of copyrighted characters. They will have engaged in a deeper and more calculated act of literary misappropriation. The repurposing of unreleased, discarded, or legacy character concepts like Twisted Fate, and the replacement of those characters with material directly reflecting an independent author's unpublished trauma writing, points to a knowing and selective substitution of original IP.
This is not a case of parallel development or coincidence. It is the systematic extraction of vulnerable creative material, followed by a deliberate shift in narrative direction that mirrors personal and unpublished work. The broader implications include not only copyright infringement, but potential violations of moral rights, exploitation of disability, and manipulation of the discovery process to conceal the origin of source material.
If proven, these acts form part of a pattern of suppressing attribution, avoiding legal licensing, and monetizing stolen narratives while silencing the original creator. Such conduct would justify civil and potentially criminal liability under copyright law, fraud statutes, and relevant anti-competition provisions.
A Pattern of Creative Extraction
Twisted Fate may never have made it into Arcane, but the blueprint for his role still exists in Riot’s development trail. His resemblance to Gambit highlights a broader pattern of copying without attribution. And his quiet removal from Arcane after Riot received Bloodborg only strengthens the case that Riot was reengineering its storytelling approach in response to new, external material post 2020, which everyone now knows happened as Riot published this themselves.
The creative trail speaks volumes, it never starts at Riot Games, it takes US IP, copies it and makes a worse and generic version of it, very Chinese knockoff style. I wonder where they got this thieving trick from. Riot’s handling of characters like Twisted Fate raises valid questions about originality, attribution, and the protection of submitted creative works in the entertainment industry.
If Chinese backed gaming and tech giants can’t keep their fingers off IP, and so evidently abuse at will, blatantly daring people to challenge them, and blatantly disrespecting laws, property and courts, what do you think they are doing to data?
Exhibit D- League of Legends Launch Characters (October 27, 2009)
League of Legends (LoL), developed by Riot Games, was released on October 27, 2009. It launched after a period of beta testing that began on April 10, 2009. The game was initially announced on October 7, 2008.
League of Legends launched with a total of 40 champions.
This number is confirmed in Riot’s own retrospective posts and historical data from game archives and wikis. However, during the closed and open beta periods, more than 40 champions were tested, rotated, or previewed, which may be why it feels like more were “available” at or around launch. Of the Original 40 covered in Exhibit B, somewhere not released at this time.
From this list, the other League of Legends Launch Characters which we haven’t covered in Exhibit B are:
1, Veigar, the Tiny Master of Evil (July 24, 2009)
2, Nidalee, the Bestial Huntress (December 17, 2009)
3, Taric, the Shield of Valoran (August 19, 2009)
4, Blitzcrank, the Great Steam Golem (September 2, 2009)
5, Janna, the Storm's Fury (September 2, 2009)
6, Malphite, Shard of the Monolith (September 2, 2009)
7, Corki, the Daring Bombardier (September 19, 2009)
8, Katarina, the Sinister Blade (September 19, 2009)
9, Nasus, the Curator of the Sands (October 1, 2009)
10, Heimerdinger, the Revered Inventor (October 10, 2009)
11, Udyr, the Spirit Walker (December 2, 2009)
12, Gangplank, the Saltwater Scourge (August 19, 2009)
1, Veigar, the Tiny Master of Evil (July 24, 2009)
Veigar, the Tiny Master of Evil in League of Legends, was copied from a World of Warcraft guild called the "Tiny Masters of Evil". This guild was comprised entirely of gnome warlocks, and one of the original developers of World of Warcraft, Kevin Jordan, was a member. The character design, particularly the "Tiny Master of Evil" aspect, was copied by this guild.
(Undeniable Infringement)
2, Nidalee, the Bestial Huntress
Nidalee, the Bestial Huntress in League of Legends draws inspiration from Machiko Noguchi from the Predator franchise, owned by The Walt Disney Company, and her backstory references the concept of a "black cat".
Though not similar enough to say she is a copy, Nidalee can not be claimed to be a wholly original work because she was not completely independently created.
(Suspect but safe)
3, Taric, the Shield of Valoran
Taric, the Shield of Valoran, from League of Legends, was inspired by several factors. His visual design was influenced by Model Fabio Lanzoni. His design pillars from World of Warcraft included "Charming Outsider," "Crystallized Starlight," and "Battle Cleric".
Thus, A real person’s human likeness and a rival gaming companies IP.
(Undeniable Infringement)
4, Blitzcrank, the Great Steam Golem (September 2, 2009)
A tinman golem creature from Jewish folklore, Taken from Hayao Miyazaki's 1986 animated film Laputa: Castle in the Sky and from D &D. In Dungeons & Dragons, a metal golem typically refers to an iron golem.
Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. The film is owned by Studio Ghibli.
(Undeniable Infringement)
5, Janna, the Storm's Fury (September 2, 2009)
Janna, the Storm's Fury was inspired by Storm from X-Men, but she has changed a lot and has been combined with folklore, particularly stories of wind spirits and guardian figures.
(Undeniable Infringement)
6, Malphite, Shard of the Monolith (September 2, 2009)
Malphite's design in League of Legends was inspired by Korg from the Marvel cinematic universe and Kord Zane from the Slugterra series.
Malphite is a very generic living stone character. Rock monsters are too generic to be copyright, unless you directly use the IP of others to build your rock monsters, say from Korg.
Korg first appeared in the marvel comics in Aug. 1962, Journey into Mystery #83.
(Undeniable Infringement but too generic)
7, Corki, the Daring Bombardier (September 19, 2009)
Corki is quite clearly a lift of the iconic Doctor Eggman (Dr. Robotnik), the main antagonist of Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, created by the Japanese game designer Naoto Ohshima for Sega.
(Undeniable Infringement)
8, Katarina, the Sinister Blade (September 19, 2009)
Katarina's design and character concept in League of Legends are a mix of other characters created by several sources. These include the Gakusen Toshi Asterisk anime, particularly Claudia Enfield and Julis Riessfeld, with similarities in appearance and personality. Her weapons are also designed off those of Claudia Enfield's swords and the Energy Sword from Halo. Additionally, her color palette in the Sapphire chroma skin is reminiscent of Medaka Kurokami from Medaka Box.
(Perhaps safe, but dodgy, let it slide)
9, Nasus, the Curator of the Sands (October 1, 2009)
Nasus is pretty much Anubis.
Nasus, a champion in League of Legends, is primarily taken from the Egyptian god Anubis, the jackal-headed deity associated with the afterlife and mummification. His lore and appearance, particularly his head and overall design, directly reflect this lift.
(Direct Retelling of Egyptian Mythology)
10, Heimerdinger, the Revered Inventor (October 10, 2009)
Yoda Einstein.
Heimerdinger's character in League of Legends was inspired by the historical figures J. Robert Oppenheimer and Erwin Schrödinger, and the Yordle race from the game's lore. His name is a portmanteau of their last names, Oppenheimer and Schrödinger. He is also inspired by the concept of a mad scientist, particularly figures like Albert Einstein, and his design helped shape the visual identity of the Yordle race.
(Based on the likeness of real people and Yoda).
11, Udyr, the Spirit Walker (December 2, 2009)
Udyr does not appear to infringe upon any specific pre-existing intellectual property. He is rooted in broadly available fantasy archetypes, a spirit-shaman warrior, but has been uniquely fleshed out by Riot’s worldbuilding team. As such, it is reasonable to class him as original within the context of League's champion roster.
(He’s Original)
12, Gangplank, the Saltwater Scourge (August 19, 2009)
Gangplank is too generic to have been lifted. No strong claim has surfaced that Gangplank is a direct lift from a singular IP, but he heavily embodies the archetypal pirate fantasy and crossovers with figures like Long John Silver, Captain Hook, and even Donkey Kong’s pirate themes.
Gangplank appears to be a character constructed through composite archetypes common in pirate and naval fiction. While he may not rise to the level of outright IP infringement, his design clearly leans on well-established genre tropes from across gaming, cartoons, and adventure literature, which of course is fine, and is common practice.
Below is a full list of the 40 League of Legends Launch Characters with a Traffic Light System depicting Original, Borrowed or Infringed upon another IP.
Traffic Light System
Green = Original.
Amber = borrowed from elsewhere such as age-old Archetypes and tropes from myths, books, films and pop culture, or other IP but too generic to be IP infringement.
Red = Suspected Infringement of any degree above what a right minded and informed person would deem as too generic.
Original 40 Launch Champions (2009)
1.
Alistar
21. Master Yi
2.
Amumu
22. Morgana
3.
Anivia
23. Nasus
4.
Annie
24. Rammus
5.
Ashe
25. Ryze
6.
Blitzcrank
26. Shaco
7.
Cho'Gath
27. Singed
8.
Corki
28. Sion
9.
Dr. Mundo
29. Sivir
10.
Evelynn
30. Soraka
11.
Fiddlesticks
31. Taric
12.
Gangplank
32. Teemo
13.
Heimerdinger
33. Tristana
14.
Janna
34. Tryndamere
15.
Jax
35. Twisted Fate
16.
Karthus
36. Twitch
17.
Kassadin
37. Udyr
18.
Katarina
38. Veigar
19.
Kayle
39. Warwick
20.
Malphite
40. Zilean
41. Nidalee
Analysis of Exhibit D— List of the 40 League of Legends Launch Characters.
Riot Games had 40/ 41 League of Legends Launch Characters on their launch in October 2009. The flagship game they launched, League of Legends, has been shown to have been a case of Swipe and Sabotage from a U.S based rival and many public modders. They sold this stolen IP back to the public with a roster of these 40/ 41 playable Characters.
Of the 41, only two can be claimed to be highly original and one of the two, Gangplank, is only original precisely because he is too generic to claim any swiping.
So, approximately 4.88% of the champions appear to be original or not clearly derived from other IPs.
Of the 41, 18 were constructed using widely recognized archetypes and tropes, drawn from mythology, literature, film, pop culture, and other intellectual properties. However, these borrowings are sufficiently broad or generic to fall short of direct copyright infringement.
So approximately 43.90% of the champions are based on broad archetypes or tropes, or broader borrowings that are not considered direct IP infringement.
Of the 41, 21 of the characters can be traced directly back to IP or a mix of IPs of rival companies, mostly from the US, and a few from the UK and Japan.
So approximately 51.22%, a slight majority, of the original 41 champions appear to be directly derived from identifiable intellectual property owned by rival companies, predominantly from the United States, with some from the United Kingdom and Japan.
Conclusion for Exhibit D- Eastern Gaming Industry Heist
Over half of Riot Games’ original 41 champions can be traced directly to identifiable intellectual property held by rival companies, primarily based in the United States, with additional sources in the United Kingdom and Japan. These are not generic inspirations but clear, and sometimes admitted, derivations from established IP. The remaining group of 18 champions includes at least half whose designs draw heavily on common archetypes or public-domain tropes, though even among those, a case could be made that several cross the line into derivative use. This analysis already errs on the side of caution.
It is increasingly clear that League of Legends itself was built on a foundation of IP appropriation, backed by a broader pattern of economic sabotage targeting Western gaming and entertainment industries. Tencent, a Chinese tech conglomerate closely aligned with the PRC, acquired a majority stake in Riot Games by February 2011, just 13 months after the launch of League. Their entry into the company may not have been incidental, but strategic, possibly even part of what could be termed the “Eastern Gaming Industry Heist.” Since then, Tencent has played a dominant role in shaping the global gaming market, including the harvesting of U.S. data, the systematic capture of Western creative output, and the monetization of re-skinned IP under the free-to-play model. This IP stripping and reselling for infinitely more via micro- transactions have also spread into the business practices of NetEase who wear a false mask of rivalry to Tencent. This is not rivalry, it’s branching rivulets of the same heist.
Continued Pattern of Abuse
Tencent and Riot Games did not stop there. The Plaintiff will propose:
That this theft continued, that perhaps drawing big companies into litigation by poking and nibbling at their IP borders is a strategy of IP warfare to destabilize rivals and western markets.
That, the reason Riot has gotten away with it for so long is because these big, predominantly US, companies have not taken the bait and allowed their fins to be nibbled in a silent and brush-it-aside strategy alike the appeasement of Hitler prior to WW2 and this strategy will fail and lead to declarations of economic warfare.
That Riot also aimed down, stealing from the defenseless, and even abusing thousands of women working for them, daring them to speak out, then publicly abusing them and humiliating them with hacking, retaliations and legal bullying and abuse.
That Riot’s unethical and highly illegal business practices such as IP swiping, retaliations, sabotage, threats, “Treasured Gateways”, economic abuse, and legal bullying and fraud is proliferating and has allowed them to infest more US and Uk industries.
That Riot, via Tencent, via The Chinese Communist Dictatorship is challenging and pressure testing the US courts and legal systems to see what they can get away with and to expose the weaknesses, and that they are doing this by paying unethical US attorneys to exploit these weaknesses, pointing out the technicalities, hurdles, and officials who might be sympathizers or oriented to bending. Of course we can turn the blind eye to pretend that this doesn’t happen, but this is precisely why it is happening and precisely why 6 million jews were send to consetration camps
This is not simply business expansion, it is coordinated cultural and economic warfare. It has come at the direct expense of U.S. and U.K. developers, writers, artists, and companies, whose work has been exploited, erased, and resold without credit or compensation. Riot’s business model exemplifies this trend.
Exhibit E- Post-Launch Champions and Strategy of “Slow Bleed” of external IP
After launching with the original 40 champions on October 27, 2009, Riot adopted a strategy of continual and incremental champion releases over time.
Post-Launch Champion Releases:
• New champions were released roughly every 2 to 4 weeks during the early years.
• Riot maintained this fast pace for several seasons, gradually expanding the roster.
• By the end of Season 1 (2011), League of Legends had 75 champions.
• They continued this trend into Season 2 and 3 but slowed down after reaching 100+.
Release Rate Over Time:
2009–2013: Rapid releases, sometimes 15–20 champions per year.
2014–2020: Slower but more deliberate releases, focusing on mechanics and lore integration after 2018.
2021–2024: Even fewer releases (often ~4–6 per year), with reworks replacing some new champions.
Others were teased in concept art or dev blogs but never made it in.
Riot’s Strategy:
This slow drip of champions kept the game fresh, maintained community engagement, and gave Riot time to iterate and retcon lore, especially as they built the Runeterra universe.
It also helped them test and refine what kinds of characters resonated most, both narratively and monetarily.
Pattern of IP Appropriation
This release strategy shows that Riot had continuous opportunity to harvest external material, mask it, test audience responses, and gradually incorporate "swiped" or rebranded ideas without drawing early scrutiny.
