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Riot vs. Moonton

Alleged League of Legends Copycat Threatens to Sue Detractors

Moonton games fires back against those accusing it of being a copycat.
This article is over 7 years old and may contain outdated information

Chinese video game studio Moonton has been called out by more than a few members of the media, and Riot Games themselves for allegedly copying League of Legends characters in one of its games. It has denied those allegations and stated that media and competitors have spread “unreal information and rumors” about it and that it reserves the right to protect itself and take legal action.

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Whether intentional or not, Moonton’s game Magic Rush contains characters that do bear striking similarities to those in Riot Games’ League of Legends. The characters were so similar in fact that Riot has filed a suit against Moonton in the United States citing copyright and trademark infringement.

Riot states that in 2016 it discovered Magic Rush when it was first released. It went on to say that all of the playable characters in Moonton’s game were near carbon copies of League of Legends champions.

One of Riot’s examples of infringement featured its character Annie and Moonton’s character Emily. They’re both young girls; both have large toy bears that they can summon to fight for them, and both use fire to attack enemies.

Riot Games/Moonton character comparison

In the same complaint, Riot says in a 2016 communication it informed Moonton of the infringing material. Moonton made changed to the game to “fix” those infringements, but then released Mobile Legends: 5v5 MOBA which uses a battlefield that looks almost exactly like the Summoner’s Rift from League of Legends.

For a full list of Riot Game’s allegations, you can refer to the complaint filed in LA Federal Court. Cloning has been a widespread issue in mobile gaming, but it looks at least one studio is taking a stand for their intellectual property.

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Author
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Brittany Vincent
Brittany Vincent is the former News Editor at Twinfinite who covered all the video games industry's goings on between June 2017 and August 2018. She's been covering video games, anime and tech for over a decade for publications like Otaku USA, G4, Maxim, Engadget, Playboy and more. Fueled by horror, rainbow-sugar-pixel-rushes, and video games, she’s a freelancer who survives on surrealism and ultraviolence. When she’s not writing, watching anime or gaming, she’s searching for the perfect successor to visual novel Saya no Uta.