Blizzard again? News of a 700 billion won lawsuit against the professional gaming league
Haebom
This is also a story that has been discussed several times on popular gaming YouTube channels. Leagues for various games like Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, and Dota 2 once existed but have now disappeared. Of course, there are cases where they stage a comeback with renewed popularity (such as KartRider). Still, the closure of most leagues essentially means that the developers are no longer hopeful for the game's performance or success, and so the game gradually fades into oblivion.
Of course, in Korea, the case of 'StarCraft 1', nicknamed a folk game, is quite unusual. The official league has indeed disappeared, and the association has become virtually meaningless, yet the league remains active through AfreecaTV, YouTube, ChiziJik (Twitch), and other platforms. I, too, really enjoy watching AfreecaTV's ASL or the Stock Company Broadcast team's final matches. In fact, this is a case with no real precedent anywhere else in the world.
Limiting it to Korea, it seems the only official game leagues left are League of Legends and Battlegrounds, while globally, leagues for titles like Dota 2 and Valorant are still thriving. (Plenty of Korean players are active in these leagues—they're just not popular in Korea...) That makes me wonder: are developers and publishers the only ones who can organize leagues? Back when we were young, local PC cafés would host tournaments, or influencers would organize their own leagues; in Korea, this has never really been a topic of much interest.
To be precise, most gamers aren't that interested in the details of how leagues make money. Lately, game influencers have brought these issues into the spotlight, raising questions about league deficits and the franchise model, but it seems like they're still struggling to find any sustainable solution beyond relying on sponsors. (It's still cheaper than baseball or soccer, though...)
A lawsuit worth about 786 billion won has been filed over the monopoly of the game league.
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Activision Blizzard has been sued for $680 million due to monopolistic practices related to the Call of Duty (CoD) esports league. The lawsuit was filed by Hector "H3CZ" Rodriguez, CEO of OpTic Gaming, and Seth "Scump" Abner, a retired OpTic player. They claim that Activision Blizzard's monopoly forced them into financially ruinous partnerships just to participate in the league; otherwise, they couldn't even compete.
Monopolistic Practices by Activision Blizzard
According to the lawsuit, Activision Blizzard fundamentally changed the structure of competitive Call of Duty tournaments with the launch of the Call of Duty League (CDL) in 2019. Before that, independent third parties could host open tournaments with all kinds of teams entering, but after the CDL began, only one tournament was available each year and joining required paying millions of dollars in franchise fees.
Main Points of the Lawsuit
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Market Monopoly: The lawsuit argues that Activision Blizzard has achieved a total monopoly over the professional Call of Duty league and tournament market, using this power to eliminate competition and force team owners and players to either completely leave the market or accept anti-competitive terms that only benefit Activision.
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Franchise Slot Cost: Teams had to pay $27.5 million for a spot in the league, and hand over 50% of their merchandise and event ticket sales revenue to Activision Blizzard.
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Sponsorships and Participation Limits: Activision Blizzard had exclusive sponsorship deals with its most profitable advertising partners and banned teams and players from joining outside tournaments or securing personal sponsorships.
Both Sides' Perspectives
Activision Blizzard responded that Rodriguez and Abner's claims are either inaccurate or have no legal basis, and vowed to firmly defend against the lawsuit. They also expressed disappointment, saying the lawsuit confuses teams, players, fans, and partners who have invested in the Call of Duty League's success.
This case has brought renewed attention to monopoly practices within the esports industry, calling for a thorough review and reassessment of how Activision Blizzard runs its esports leagues. Interest is growing in both the lawsuit's outcome and its potential impact on the wider esports ecosystem.
낭만의 시대가 있었습니다.
What makes this news especially interesting is that Activision Blizzard became so sensitive about esports leagues because of the broadcasting rights controversy that started in Korea. Back then, lots of channels like Ongamenet and MBC Game were already running StarCraft leagues. When KeSPA, the newly established Korea e-Sports Association, claimed the broadcasting rights and said only registered players could join the league, all sorts of disputes erupted—but, surprisingly, they hadn’t consulted at all with Blizzard, the game's developer. Later, Blizzard got involved and things became even more chaotic, destructive, and messy, but then Blizzard just withdrew, and the whole thing kind of fizzled out. Eventually, Blizzard introduced the system that laid the groundwork for franchise fees and participation restrictions to the StarCraft 2 and Overwatch Leagues—which have now become an issue overseas. And the result was... (Of course, I don’t think these games ended up this way just because of that system.)
For game developers and publishers, the franchise system definitely offers many reasons to keep it going, but from the perspective of running a league, and for gamers or league staff, I personally don't think it’s a model that will last long term. Since everything depends so much on sponsors right now, companies are willing to support leagues because it gives them a youthful image, but just like in baseball, soccer, or volleyball, if keeping a team in a pro league becomes just a marketing cost, companies often sell or disband the team if they think it isn’t popular or isn’t helping their brand image.
As someone who also likes games, has developed them, and still plays passionately, I think now is a good time to reconsider whether the current practices for maintaining game leagues are really right. I’ve attached the documents containing each side's arguments from this lawsuit below, so if you’re interested, I think it’d be worth taking a close look.
call-of-duty-esports-lawsuit.pdf458.26KB
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I post articles related to IT 💻, economy 💰, and humanities 🎭.
If you are curious about my thoughts, perspectives or interests, please subscribe.
haebom@kakao.com