Riot Games, the studio behind the enormously popular League of Legends, is taking legal action against a major botting service. Players can utilize LeagueSharp to gain an unfair advantage while playing online, and the developer has decided that enough is enough.
Players use LeagueSharp to inject their own scripts into the game — one example outlined on the service’s website is named “space bar to win,” an exploit that carries out combos automatically, and apparently does so “faster than normally humanly possible.” Other cheats enable automatic last hits, and even enhanced awareness of the playing field.
LeagueSharp offers a limited subscription for $15 per month, which is capped at 50 games per day. There’s also an unlimited subscription that runs $50 per month and has no such limits, according to a report from PC Gamer.
Obviously, the type of service being supplied by LeagueSharp harms the League of Legends experience for players who want to play fair and compete based on their own merits. However, Riot Games’ legal action hinges on the fact that these exploits are being used for personal profit.
“The botting service is designed for those users that wish to make money by creating and selling accounts that have been artificially leveled,” reads the complaint filed by the studio on August 5. Riot Games alleges that “tens of thousands” of people could be using LeagueSharp’s services.
Apparently, the studio attempted to resolve the situation by reaching out to LeagueSharp management. The complaint claims that this was met with abuse to members of staff on social media, and efforts to destroy any incriminating evidence that was easily accessible via the internet.
This isn’t the first attempt that Riot Games has made to clean up League of Legends for its player base. In May 2015, the studio introduced a report card system intended to stamp out bad behavior.
