Right as Worlds 2021 kicked off, Riot Games introduced a new policy for the biggest international LoL tournament this year: community channels not affiliated with Riot are banned from posting any footage from Worlds 2021. The official statement reads:
“During Worlds 2021, content creators may publish footage from the event only after a 24-hour broadcast delay following the original live stream. Creators can stream or upload VODs without showing the footage live. Please always follow these rules.”
Legally, Riot is in the right since match footage copyrights belong to Riot, official channels, sponsors, and of course the teams and players. But community channels have long shared high-quality clips for free. Simply put, posting match footage (like highlight clips) without Riot’s permission is copyright infringement, and Riot clearly wants to stop this.
Emotionally, though, watching those clips is a real need for fans who can’t always catch matches live. Highlights help them quickly catch up. Plus, Riot and its official partners are often slower to upload highlights compared to community channels. So this new policy has sparked a lot of anger among the LoL community.
Some fans have suggested Riot partner with community channels to officially share highlights and match clips instead of banning them outright.
Riot’s move is legally justified since copyright must be protected and Riot plus sponsors invest heavily in Worlds. But since the goal is to serve fans, Riot really needs to think carefully so this policy doesn’t end up doing more harm than good.
