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

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

A 2019 industrial defamation lawsuit by Moonton, the developer of Cellular Legends: Bang Bang towards Tencent for industrial defamation has reached a conclusion.

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

Moonton stated that Tencent unfold deceptive info

Tencent and Moonton are direct rivals. Tencent launched the MOBA cellular title Honor of Kings for China in 2015 with a world model following up in 2016. Moonton, alternatively, launched Cellular Legends: Bang Bang in 2016.

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

With stiff competitors, it isn’t stunning to see Tencent and Moonton butting heads towards one another steadily.

In 2019, Moonton filed a lawsuit towards Tencent for defamation and unfair competitors. The corporate stated that Tencent fabricated false info which triggered severe injury to Moonton’s enterprise popularity.

In October 2020, a Chinese language district court docket discovered Tencent responsible of spreading false info towards Moonton. The court docket dominated that Tencent had employed a neighborhood lawyer in Indonesia to unfold deceptive details about Moonton within the nation. This was finished when he Cellular 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 court docket 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: An extended historical past of lawsuits

Tencent and Moonton have fairly a historical past in the case of taking one another to court docket. In 2018, Tencent gained a lawsuit towards 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 large. This was discovered to be in violation of a non-compete settlement he had signed. It’s to be famous that this lawsuit was towards Xu Zhenhua as a person and never Moonton.

In addition to this, Tencent-owned Riot Video games sued Moonton earlier this 12 months for allegedly ripping-off League of Legends: Wild Rift. The corporate stated that Moonton had copied the emblem, characters, gameplay, heroes, and extra from Riot Video games. This case continues to be pending in court docket.

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Wasif Ahmed

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