League of Legends Developer Wins $10m in Cheating Lawsuit

A lawsuit brought by Riot Games against LeagueSharp, a subscription hacking service to aid League of Legends players to cheat at the game, has been settled for $10 million. The suit, filed in August 2016, alleged that LeagueSharp, which offered bot-assisted playing in League of Legends for $15-per-month, violated the game’s DMCA.

Riot’s original complaint from last August reads (via Kotaku):

“LeagueSharp “injects assemblies,” or scripts, into LoL for a $15 subscription fee. For $50 a month, LeagueSharp’s botting service quickly levels League of Legends players’ characters. The lawsuit also accuses LeagueSharp of attacking Riot’s servers, teaching LoL players how to cheat without being caught and advising them how to fraudulently dispute transactions in-game.”

Following the settlement, LeagueSharp posted the following (now-deleted) message (via PC Gamer):

“As some of you may know, Riot Games has filed a lawsuit against LeagueSharp and has made it clear to us that LeagueSharp violates their Terms of Use. As a result of our lawsuit with Riot, we have agreed to cease development and support for LeagueSharp and any other tools related to Riot Games,” the company wrote on its website. “You also should be aware that using third-party tools in League of Legends may result in the suspension or banning of your account by Riot Games. We apologize for any pain we’ve caused to players of League of Legends.”

In addition to the financial settlement, the software responsible for the cheating has been banned and all LeagueSharp domains are now under the ownership of Riot.