League of Legends players have accused Riot Games of plagiarizing an artist to create splash art for the Bel'Veth Battle Boss skin. The new cosmetic will arrive for the champion release in the upcoming 12.11 patch and is one of the most spectacular to accompany a champion release. However, its illustration has been the source of much controversy within the community. According to many players, who have provided strong evidence, the company has plagiarized one of the key elements of the splashart.
Plagiarism controversy in Bel'Veth splash art
Some "Fight Boss" skins belonging to the "Arcade" cosmetic line feature elements intended to pay homage to other video games. This is the case of the cosmetic shared by Riven and Blitzcrank, which presents a selection of champions similar to that of fighting games. The reference is more than obvious, although the differences with any known game are very large. However, in the case of the new Bel'Veth skin, there are hardly any distinctions and Riot Games may have copied the mod created by a member of the Terraria community.
The truth is that the life bar is very similar , with only a few things changed around the edges. The community, who noticed the similarities, even performed a pixel-by-pixel comparison to find that even color changes occur at the same image coordinates. Something similar happens with the red gradient inside this health bar. Riot's creation is, in many ways, identical to the original version created by Tyler and freely shared with the Steam community .
The flaw that could explain Riot's possible plagiarism
Before lighting these torches, several circumstances could explain these similarities. Almost all of the items for which the company has been accused of plagiarism have a common factor. These are artistic pieces entrusted to freelancers outside the company. This happened in the case of an emoticon that Riot Games ended up modifying. The case would be extremely similar, as the company also has a habit of outsourcing a lot of the artwork created for its skins.
The artist lives in the state of California, where Riot also has its offices. In light of this situation, it's even been mentioned that the original artist would have been responsible for Bel'Veth's splash art as well. In this sense, if copying remains a reuse that may be displeasing, the practice would hardly be reprehensible. However, we will have to wait for an official response from the developers of League of Legends to clear things up.
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