As soon as the 2021 World Championship began, Riot Games introduced a new policy that will be applied at this year’s largest international League of Legends tournament: banning community channels not affiliated with Riot from posting any content using footage from the 2021 World Championship. The exact wording is as follows:
“During the 2021 World Championship, content creators may publish content that includes footage from the 2021 World Championship in a broadcast format 24 hours after the original broadcast ends. Creators can stream in the form of live stream or VOD without displaying visuals. Always adhere to these regulations.”
Legally, Riot’s actions are not incorrect as match copyrights are Riot’s property along with official channels, sponsors, and of course, teams and players. However, community channels have previously operated freely with high quality content. In short, posting content that uses footage from matches (such as highlight clips) by channels not affiliated with or approved by Riot is a copyright infringement, and Riot certainly does not appreciate this.
Nevertheless, from an emotional perspective, viewing this footage is a legitimate need for the community, but not everyone can follow a live match as it airs. Watching highlights can help them quickly summarize the match. Moreover, in terms of the speed of highlight clip uploads, Riot and affiliated or partner channels appear much slower compared to community channels. Therefore, Riot’s policy has understandably outraged the League of Legends community.
However, some viewers also suggested that Riot should consider partnering with community channels as partners to upload highlights and related footage of League of Legends.
Riot’s actions are legally justified as copyright issues need to be prioritized, and Riot along with sponsors have invested substantial resources to conduct the World Championship. However, with the ultimate goal of serving the audience, the creators of League of Legends truly need to consider carefully to avoid unintended consequences from their policies.