Activision is facing a lawsuit from professional gamers over the company’s Call of Duty League. The lawsuit alleges that Activision monopolized leagues and tournaments for the Call of Duty franchise. It’s seeking to get at least $680 million in damages and was filed by Hector Rodriguez and Seth Abner. Hector Rodriguez is the CEO and Founder of the OpTic Gaming team, and Seth Abner is a former Call of Duty world champion and former player for OpTic Texas. The Call of Duty League is Activision’s solely owned and operated professional esports league for the Call of Duty franchise. It’s comprised of 12 professional teams spanning a global group of cities across both North America and Europe.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed in California’s federal court on February 15, Activision holds an unlawful 100% monopoly over leagues and tournaments. Its regulations over professional leagues and tournament play attempt to prevent competitors from entering a lucrative market. While its rules for teams are “draconian contract provisions.” Forcing team owners and players to abide by “extortionate financial terms.”
This includes what the lawsuit says was a mandatory $27.5 million entry fee to remain as one of the league’s permanent teams. Activision also caps the team number at 12. This makes it impossible for other teams to compete if they can’t meet Activision’s terms. Forcing them out of the league altogether. Activision was able to create these conditions for the league after purchasing Major League Gaming back in 2016. At the time, MLG was the largest professional esports league for the Call of Duty franchise. By 2019, Activision had announced its plans to create the Call of Duty League. This set in motion all of the changes that the lawsuit says “keeps teams under Activision’s thumb.”
Activision says the claims in the Call of Duty League lawsuit are “meritless”
Naturally, Activision is going to try and protect its investment. So it shouldn’t come as a shock that an Activision rep (as reported by Variety) has called the lawsuit claims meritless. Activision says that it’s “disappointed” that members of the CDL would bring the lawsuit against the company. The statement also mentions that the suit is disruptive to everyone from team owners to fans. According to Activision, Rodriguez and Abner requested tens of millions in payment prior to the lawsuit. But once Activision didn’t meet those demands the lawsuit was filed.
The biggest component of the lawsuit is that Activision has stifled a once-flourishing market for competitive Call of Duty leagues and tournaments. Prior to the 2019 CDL creation, and even more so before the MLG sale to Activision in 2016, professional Call of Duty esports was a lucrative and open situation. Through MLG, more than 63 teams qualified for the finals. Additional leagues were also held by other organizations. Including ESL, GameStop, UMG Gaming, Gfinity Esports, and others.
Under Activision’s regulations post-2019, professional teams competing in the CDL were prohibited from participating in or supporting other leagues and tournaments.
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