Sam Bankman-Fried was the target of various jabs in a motion submitted by Riot Games.
Riot Games has filed a legal move to try to discontinue FTX’s sponsorship of its League of Legends Championship Series in an effort to sever its relationship with the disgraced cryptocurrency exchange.
On Friday, Riot submitted a motion to the bankruptcy court, requesting to terminate the seven-year sponsorship agreement it had last summer with FTX (via Engadget).
According to Riot, FTX still owes half of the $12.5 million it pledged to pay as part of the arrangement for including FTX branding at LCS events, as was discovered by crypto-skeptic and developer of “Web3 is Going Just Great,” Molly White
However, this is not all.
The annual payment was anticipated to rise throughout the course of the seven-year sponsorship agreement, with the first quarterly payment for 2023 scheduled to arrive on January 2. Riot claims that FTX will now owe additional millions.
Given that FTX is in bankruptcy proceedings and that Sam Bankman-Fried, the company’s founder and former CEO, is sought after in the US on suspicion of fraud and money laundering, it is extremely doubtful that this would be paid.
Funny enough, the motion makes reference to Bankman-now Fried’s known penchant for League of Legends.
The petition states that photographs of Mr. Bankman-Fried playing Riot’s game, League of Legends, while FTX was crashing were widely circulated by media outlets and Twitter commentators.
However, in an ideal world, Bankman-Fried would have simply been better at managing a cryptocurrency exchange. “Perhaps the reputational harm would have been less severe if Bankman-Fried was truly brilliant at the game.”
It’s not the only partnership FTX has with the gaming industry.
Additionally, TSM and Furia, two esports organisations, secured contracts with the cryto exchange.
TSM made an announcement last month that it was dissolving its partnership with FTX.
It agreed to a $210 million sponsorship deal with FTX in 2021, exceeding all previous records.
The deal, which resulted in a name change to TSM FTX and a ten-year duration, has obviously been abandoned.
FTX declared bankruptcy last month after collapsing as a result of a run brought on by inquiries into thebusiness’s finances.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the company’s founder and former CEO, is now in the Bahamas, but according to a Reuters article, he is prepared to forego his right to extradition and turn himself in to authorities in the US to face accusations.
