Riot Games says Sam Bankman-Fried’s love of League of Legends hurts the brand

League of Legends developer Riot Video games says Sam Bankman-Fried’s affiliation with the sport is hurting the corporate’s picture (via Molly White). In a submitting in FTX’s chapter case, Riot Video games asks the court docket to terminate its League of Legends Championship Collection (LCS) sponsorship take care of the collapsed crypto change, citing irreversible “reputational hurt.”

Bankman-Fried’s love for gaming entered the highlight following the autumn of FTX, and he turned infamous for taking part in League of Legends (and different video games) throughout conferences. In a now-deleted profile of Bankman-Fried posted by enterprise capital agency Sequoia, co-founder Neeraj Arora says he was even taking part in League of Legends throughout their first assembly over Zoom.

The previous billionaire hasn’t been shy about his curiosity in League of Legends, both (though he’s self-admittedly bad on the recreation). He wrote about taking part in League in a lengthy thread on Twitter posted final yr, saying: “I play much more than you’d anticipate from somebody who routinely trades off sleep vs work. Why? Nicely, there’s one reply, which is the apparent one. The one most common factor about LoL is that everybody who performs it says they need they didn’t.”

“Pictures of Mr. Bankman-Fried taking part in League of Legends have been displayed alongside textual content describing his cavalier angle in the direction of investor conferences and irresponsibility with company funds,” the submitting reads. “These pictures created a public narrative that Mr. Bankman-Fried’s curiosity in League of Legends, as soon as relatable and human, was now reckless and juvenile.”

In response to the submitting, FTX nonetheless owes Riot Video games $6.25 million for the time it spent as an LCS sponsor in 2022, however that can improve to $12.875 million subsequent yr. These funds will “escalate every year by way of 2028,” bringing the deal’s complete worth as much as round $96 million. Along with allegedly experiencing injury to its model, Riot says it desires to finish the deal now so it may substitute FTX with yet one more crypto sponsor for the 2023 season.

“The reputational hurt inflicted upon Riot can’t be undone,” the submitting reads. “FTX can’t return in time and put in place company controls for the safekeeping of buyer funds which have within the public eye now been absconded.”