Tencent vs Moonton: Cell Legends developer wins defamation lawsuit – Esports

Moonton had took Tencent to courtroom in 2019 for defamation and spreading false info.

A 2019 business defamation lawsuit by Moonton, the developer of Cell Legends: Bang Bang in opposition to Tencent for business defamation has reached a conclusion.

A Chinese language courtroom has ordered Tencent to pay Moonton 220,000 Chinese language Yuan (about $30,000) for damages it has brought on because of the defamation.

Moonton mentioned that Tencent unfold deceptive info

Tencent and Moonton are direct opponents. Tencent launched the MOBA cell title Honor of Kings for China in 2015 with a worldwide model following up in 2016. Moonton, however, launched Cell Legends: Bang Bang in 2016.

Whereas Honor of Kings has been capable of carry out extraordinarily good in China, its international model hasn’t fared very well, particularly within the profitable SEA market. Cell Legends has managed to turn into the king of the Southeast Asian cell MOBA market with a reported 90 million month-to-month common customers. The sport can be one of many most-watched esports titles globally.

With stiff competitors, it isn’t stunning to see Tencent and Moonton butting heads in opposition to one another continuously.

In 2019, Moonton filed a lawsuit in opposition to Tencent for defamation and unfair competitors. The corporate mentioned that Tencent fabricated false info which brought on critical harm to Moonton’s enterprise fame.

In October 2020, a Chinese language district courtroom discovered Tencent responsible of spreading false info in opposition to Moonton. The courtroom dominated that Tencent had employed an area lawyer in Indonesia to unfold deceptive details about Moonton within the nation. This was carried out when he Cell Legends Skilled League (MPL) Indonesia, a franchised league, was going to be held.

It’s unclear what the precise timeline of this deceptive info was.

Tencent had appealed the ruling in an Mental Property courtroom however couldn’t discover any respite. The corporate has now been ordered to pay Moonton 220,000 Chinese language Yuan as compensation.

Tencent vs Moonton: A protracted historical past of lawsuits

Tencent and Moonton have fairly a historical past relating to taking one another to courtroom. In 2018, Tencent gained a lawsuit in opposition to Moonton’s co-founder Xu Zhenhua who needed to pay about $2.9 million USD.

Really, Xu Zhenhua was a former worker of Tencent who based Moonton shortly after he left the tech big. This was discovered to be in violation of a non-compete settlement he had signed. It’s to be famous that this lawsuit was in opposition to Xu Zhenhua as a person and never Moonton.

Apart from this, Tencent-owned Riot Video games sued Moonton earlier this 12 months for allegedly ripping-off League of Legends: Wild Rift. The corporate mentioned that Moonton had copied the brand, characters, gameplay, heroes, and extra from Riot Video games. This case remains to be pending in courtroom.

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Wasif Ahmed

Wasif is an esports journalist from India who covers cell gaming information. From PUBG Cell to Wild Rift, he has been masking cell esports for over three years. You may attain out to him on Twitter to talk about video games and esports anytime.