Mobile game brazenly steals from League of Legends, even copies the story of the champions
The mobile game I Am Hero: AFK Tactical Teamfight is still quite new on iOS and Android. Now it has a lawsuit from Riot on its neck. Reason: it boldly copies League of Legends and Teamight Tactics.
What kind of game is this? I Am Hero: AFK Tactical Teamfight comes from the Vietnamese studio Imba Games and is a so-called auto battler in the style of auto chess. The game promises tons of rewards even if you’re not actively playing, meaning you’re “AFK”. A real idle game.
The game is available for both iOS and Android devices and has been downloaded over 500,000 times according to the two stores. Ratings range from 3.9/5 to 4.5/5 stars.
The principle of the game is quite easy: you collect heroes with special properties and use them to build teams that compete with opponents. The properties result in synergies and bonuses. There should even be multiplayer guild bosses.
The basis sounds similar to the popular Teamfight Tactics, LoL’s auto-battler. Developer Riot thinks so too and is now filing a big lawsuit, because the similarities are probably too great.
I Am Hero Copies Character Descriptions, Charges Lawsuit
The copy looks like this: The name “Tactical Teamfight” is apparently based on Teamfight Tactics. However, the developers even copied directly from League of Legends. Some of the available heroes have strikingly similar names:
- Heimerdinger vs. Things
- Teemo vs. Tomee
- Vi vs. Vy
- Viktor vs. Victor
- Talon vs. Tolan
- Zac vs. Zak usw.
Even the design of the characters from I Am Hero corresponds to those from League of Legends or TFT. The descriptions of the heroes also show that the similarities are no coincidences. The texts are partially copied one to one, only the names have been changed:
I Am Hero is said to attract over 100 million players per month. Riot now wants compensation for these players and earnings coming together through copies of their work. I Am Hero is free but has a shop with microtransactions.
How about the lawsuit? Already in December, according to the Reuters news agency filed an injunction against the Vietnamese developer. This was not complied with, which is why it is now being followed up again.
We cannot say exactly what the sums are. Rumor has it that each point will be dealt with individually and cost $150,000 in damages. Riot is also demanding that Google and Apple remove the game from the offer.
The LoL developer has previously successfully sued a studio that used the content:
League of Legends: Plagiarism – LoL developer sues Mobile Legends
Reference-mein-mmo.de