League of Legends を開発・販売する Riot Games が、G2A がゲーミングチームのスポンサーになることを禁止

以前書いたように G2A というグレーなゲームキー販売サイトがあるのですが、G2A はお金があるのでゲーミングチームのスポンサーになったりしています。その G2A が League of Legends をプレイするチームのスポンサーになることを、League of Legends を開発・販売する Riot Games が禁止したようです。

Riot asks teams to remove G2A logos as it mulls sponsorship ban

Riot Games is considering banning G2A from sponsoring League of Legends professional teams, leaving the game key reseller in limbo.

G2A has run into trouble with the game developer thanks to a listing on its site promoting services from a third party that sells League accounts and offers elo boosting services, both of which are direct violations of the Riot Games terms of service and the League Championship Series rulebook.

At Riot's request, teams that G2A sponsors, including Cloud9, Counter Logic Gaming, H2K, and paiN Gaming have removed G2A’s logos from their merchandise at the 2015 League of Legends World Championships.

G2A has told the teams that, if it fails to settles it disputes with Riot, it will drop sponsorship across the board.

That would make G2A the second key reseller this year to pull back from big sponsorship deals. Competitor Kinguin recently dropped sponsorship from Fnatic, Team SoloMid, Nihilum, Enemy, and more after what it called a corporate restructuring. It also sold its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad to Gamers2, though it later inked an exclusive sponsorship deal with the organization.

G2A's future, is of course, still uncertain, and it's not clear when Riot will make its decision.

上は The Daily Dot の記事で、スポンサーの禁止を「考えている」、という話になっていますが、Reddit で Riot Games の J. "Riot Sargonas" Eckert が 10/6 に下のようにコメントしました。

Riot asks teams to remove G2A logos as it mulls sponsorship ban - Reddit

It's pretty on point minus one key part, we've already formally banned them as a sponsor as of September 18th, and have no plans to reconsider the decision at this time.

This was NOT a decision we made lightly, and came after many weeks of back and fourth conversations with G2A to find a resolution, which we were not able to reach an agreement on. We do not at all enjoy affecting the income of the teams, but the LCS rules include guidelines specifically against this sort of thing. We did however keep teams in the loop during the process in an attempt to avoid any surprises.

EDIT - To clarify, it seems the wording I used was a bit ambiguous on "an agreement". Rest assured, "Remove all account selling an boosting-site links" was indeed our request. We weren't going to compromise our values on that one in the sake of preserving the sponsorships.

「G2A のスポンサーの禁止は 9/18 の時点でもう公式に決まっていて、現時点でこれを再考することはない」。「これは軽い決定ではない。G2A と解決に向けて何週間も話し合ったが、合意には至らなかった」。

Riot Games は G2A に「League of Legends のアカウントとブースティングサービスの販売を止めること」を要求し、G2A が拒否したようです。

私は League of Legends をプレイしていないのでよく分かりませんが、"elo boosting" という手法があるようで、そのサービスが G2A で販売されてるようです。"elo boosting" というのを調べてみたところ、ゲームがうまい人が他人のアカウントにログインしてそのアカウントのランクを上げることをいうようです。これは LoL では禁止されているとのこと。

また League of Legends Championship Series(LCS) では、アカウントやブースティングサービスを販売・促進するスポンサーを付けてはならないようです。

https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/3npuh2/riot_asks_teams_to_remove_g2a_logos_as_it_mulls/cvqeijk

The LCS rules explicitly state that teams may not have sponsors who engage in the selling or facilitation of selling Accounts or Boosting services. (Among other things)

日本では G2A をスポンサーにしている「DetonatioN」というゲーミングチームがありますが、G2A をスポンサーにしている限り、LCS には出場できないことになります。

私は G2A は危ない会社だと思っているので、次のコメントに賛同します。

https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/3npuh2/riot_asks_teams_to_remove_g2a_logos_as_it_mulls/cvqohag

G2A is a very scummy organisation that pays a lot of people to pretend G2A would not be scummy.

G2A が関わる Dota2 の大会でもそろそろ何かあるかも知れませんね。