Scump & H3CZ sue Activision for $680M over Call of Duty League\u2019s \u201cmonopoly\u201d on CoD esports ActivisionCall of Duty legends Seth \u2018Scump\u2019 Abner and Hector \u2018H3CZ\u2019 Rodriguez have filed a lawsuit against Activision, citing its \u2018monopolistic\u2019 hold over the CoD esports scene. CoD\u2019s most popular player and OpTic\u2019s owner respectively in Scump and H3CZ, filed a lawsuit on February 15, 2024 against Call of Duty publisher Activision. The suit alleges Activision holds an \u201cunlawful monopoly\u201d over the CoD esports scene, and has \u2018wielded\u2019 its power to \u201cprohibit\u201d growth in an \u201canticompetitive\u201d nature. Namely, those involved have taken a legal stance against the Call of Duty League\u2019s initial \u2018entry fee,\u2019 alleging \u201cActivision coerced 12 teams to pay an \u201cextortionate $27.5 million\u201d for the \u201cprivilege\u201d of being able to compete. It was just last year the Overwatch League, another exclusive esports ecosystem under the Activision Blizzard King umbrella, crumbled, with teams being owed up to $7.5 million at the time of its shuttering. Teams impacted are seeking up to $680 million in damages. This news was first reported by Bloomberg Law. The lawsuit points to a number of restrictions enforced by CoD\u2019s publisher. For one, Activision allegedly holds the \u201cexclusive right to contract with the most lucrative sponsors,\u201d limiting the brands individual teams and players can enlist to drive additional revenue. Furthermore, those signed to the CDL allegedly must \u201crefrain from participating in or supporting any Call of Duty leagues of tournaments other than the Activision CoD League.\u201d This has been a hot topic in recent years, with offseason tournaments typically a sore spot with CDL player involvement never guaranteed. This restriction also extends to \u201ccommercialized Call of Duty gameplay outside of the league,\u201d meaning teams cannot monetize friendly competitions with zero bearing on the CDL standings. Referencing specific interactions with League officials, the lawsuit highlights one occasion in which Scump, the biggest name in the CDL at the time, was \u201cforced to agree to lengthy, Activision-drafted\u201d documentation \u201cwhile at a photoshoot, without adequate time to review, under threat of being excluded from the CoD League.\u201d This can be traced back to a tweet posted by Scump in November 2020. Keeping with Scump, the lawsuit even claims the CDL is still imposing various restrictions on the mega-popular CoD star to this day, despite his retirement last year. \u201cActivision used its monopoly power to prevent these former players from accepting vast categories of revenue opportunities related to professional Call of Duty.\u201d Ultimately, those involved in the lawsuit claim the CDL \u201cimpermissibly enriched Activision at the expense of the professional Call of Duty players and the team now under Activision\u2019s thumb.\u201d At this stage, with Major 2 Online Qualifiers just about to commence, it\u2019s unclear how the remainder of the 2024 CDL season will pan out. Competition could come to a close much sooner than planned, OpTic would refuse to compete, or the remaining weeks may play as intended out in what could be the CDL\u2019s final year of operations. Shortly after publishing, Dexerto received the following statement from Activision Blizzard: \u201cMr. Rodriguez (aka OpTic H3CZ) and Mr. Abner (aka Scump) demanded that Activision pay them tens of millions of dollars to avoid this meritless litigation, and when their demands were not met, they filed. We will strongly defend against these claims, which have no basis in fact or in law. \u201cWe are disappointed that these members of the esports community would bring this suit which is disruptive to team owners, players, fans, and partners who have invested so much time and energy into the Call of Duty League\u2019s success.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Scump & H3CZ sue Activision for $680M over Call of Duty League\u2019s \u201cmonopoly\u201d on CoD esports ActivisionCall of Duty legends Seth \u2018Scump\u2019 Abner and Hector \u2018H3CZ\u2019 Rodriguez have filed a lawsuit against Activision, citing its \u2018monopolistic\u2019 hold over the CoD esports scene. CoD\u2019s most popular player and OpTic\u2019s owner respectively in Scump and H3CZ, filed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}