The Call of Duty League (CDL), the professional esports league in CoD, has been hosted by Activision since 2020. In a lawsuit, two CoD legends are now demanding $680 million from the publisher: the CDL would have an unlawful monopoly.
What kind of lawsuit is this? On February 15, 2024, prominent members of the e-sports organization OpTic Gaming filed a lawsuit against CoD publisher Activision. CEO Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez and ex-professional Seth “Scump” Abner claim that Activision has an unlawful monopoly over the e-sports scene in CoD with its Call of Duty League (CDL for short).
In a statement, Activision announced that it would “vigorously defend itself against the allegations.”
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Activision used its power “like a virtual nuclear weapon”.
What are the allegations? The indictment states, among other things, that Activision has the sole right to enter into contracts with sponsors and broadcasters. Teams and players, however, are prohibited from “participating in or supporting other professional ‘Call of Duty’ leagues.”
This means that professionals are not allowed to take part in any commercial games, not even informal friendly games on stream.
Through these contractual clauses, according to the prosecution, Activision enriched itself at the expense of the players in the CDL. The publisher used his power “like a virtual nuclear weapon,” the indictment says.
H3CZ also accuses Activision of not allowing him to participate in the CDL in 2021 as the sole owner of OpTic, even though he had the financial means to pay for the unpaid portion of the “extortionate entry fee” of $27.5 million.
Instead, he had to team up with Envy Gaming Inc. and give the investors a 92.5% stake in OpTic.
As a result of the CDL, H3CZ and Scump had to forego various sources of income, which caused them millions of dollars in damages.
Here you can see some excerpts from the indictment in English:
In addition, the indictment also accuses Activision of purchasing Major League Gaming’s competition in 2016 without FTC approval, thereby gaining a complete monopoly over the professional CoD scene. Organizers of other commercial competitions would not receive CoD licenses.
The US financial regulator recently had Activision in its sights because of the planned takeover by Microsoft.
What does Activision say? In a statement to Dot Esports, the publisher calls H3CZ and Scump’s allegations baseless and says it will defend itself against them. They are also disappointed that it even got to this point:
Mr. Rodriguez (aka OpTic H3CZ) and Mr. Abner (aka Scump) demanded that Activision pay tens of millions of dollars to avoid this meritless lawsuit, and when their demands were not met, they filed suit. We will vigorously defend ourselves against these demands, which are neither factually nor legally justified. We are disappointed that these members of the esports community are filing this lawsuit, which is disruptive to team owners, players, fans and partners who have invested so much time and energy into the success of the Call of Duty League.
Activision spokesperson told Dot Esports
There is also trouble with Activision elsewhere. After the billion-dollar deal finally seemed to be over and Microsoft was allowed to buy Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, the American financial regulator is now complaining: Microsoft has broken its promises.
Authority says: Microsoft lied to them – Do they have to release Activision Blizzard again?