Legal Challenge VIII is ON!

Morning, counsels! We're happy to report that the latest edition of Legal Challenge is now officially open, and arrives with a big new feature. Let's dive in:

What is Legal Challenge?

This is a moot court that's fully focused on video games: the kind of cases that are common in our industry, argued in the international environment that is a key characteristic of our community – where cross-country projects are the norm rather than an exception.

Our aims:

• enabling competitors to evaluate their legal skills & industry knowledge
• providing competitors with a preview of "what it's like to work with games"
• connecting young talent with studios & industry firms, accelerating careers

For us, this is also one of the most impactful way to spend a part of the Summit's sponsorship budget (many thanks every firm that makes it possible!).

Legal Challenge VIII

In 2024/2025, Legal Challenge runs for the 8th time. The competition is open to those with a law degree (either completed or still in progress), except for the folks that have already competed in the semifinals of the earlier editions.

Team size ranges from of 1 to 3, with 3 being the most common. Each year we see about 25 teams sign up, and about 20 pass the first round (written submissions). About half of competitors already work at law firms or in-house, mostly with tech and IP (but sometimes also in fashion and in human rights); and there's always a few teams where members come from the same law firm, mentored and supported by the firm's senior partners (which is great training, by the way!).

Geographically, we've seen over 20 regions represented: from Mexico to Malaysia, from China to Finland, and from Serbia to India.

The registration for Legal Challenge VIII is open until January 17, 2025. The first submission is due on January 24, the second on February 14, and the oral pleadings happen on March 25-27, in the week following next year's GDC.

The 4 teams that make it into the semifinals, get complimentary passes for Summit X and enjoy whatever publicity we manage to provide in the course of the competition, culminating in the award ceremony on stage in Vilnius.

New Feature: Storyline

This year we take the moot court one step further, with a proper story written by the narrative designer and the producer of Charlie Oscar and illustrated by Bandit Bandit Studio.

The story is included in the full set of case materials (HERE), as well as is available directly on our website (HERE). Thanks to our community's fact-checkers, the particular story is fictional – but the setting, and the characters, are based on real organizations and events.

Two reasons why we decided to develop a proper story:

• to provide the competing teams with "emotional ammunition" for arguing specific points with more passion, and details, and more personality;
• to account for the real-life aspect of most arbitration and litigation cases, where the moral aspect – what's "fair" and "ethical" – is almost always brought up by one or by both parties.

As much as we like to think of business-to-business cases being impartial, our clients are human, and the reasons behind agreements – or disagreements – very often have roots in emotions, and in personal circumstances.

This Year's Case

This year's case starts in Cape Town, develops in a former Italian colony in Africa (Marzaria) and culminates in a former US territory in the Caribbean (Baharosa). At the heart of the case is a lawsuit filed by Red Dawn Entertainment s.r.l. against Quantum Heaven, Inc. in Baharosa, alleging infringement of IP and unfair competition practices.

A young woman sends a prototype of a game to an indie studio, and gets hired to work full time on a new game. She is forced to leave the studio shortly before that game is released. The game becomes a roaring success. The woman raises funds from a tech investor to set up her own studio, and creates another game. That game becomes a global bestseller, too. The original indie studio, however, feels that it's nothing but a clone of their own product. The use of generative AI further complicates the matters.

This Year's Judge Panel

It is no coincidence that this year's presiding judge, 🇿🇦 Pieter Koornhof, hails from Cape Town – the same city as our protagonist Zanele Mbali. He certainly does not swim alone in False Bay when the weather is windy.

🇲🇽 Efraín Olmedo and 🇧🇷 Vanessa Pereja Lerner are just a short flight away from the seat of Quantum Heaven, over in the Caribbean. People say that at one point their firms were approached by DQJ with investment projects, but both refused on the ethical grounds (did it really happen?).

🇸🇬 Meryl Koh 许君宁 shares the city with Anton Li, the pacifist investor in Quantum Heaven and the owner of Bright Horizon 2.0. On some of his deals, Anton may have worked with 🇨🇳 Tracey Tang 汤擎, developing his tech empire in China and in Singapore – no details have leaked, though, as he uses rather aggressive NDAs in his projects.

We know for a fact that 🇨🇾 George Mountis has consulted several studios from Marzaria, with Cyprus being the closest EU hub to that country. Perhaps Red Dawn was among those clients, since Twin Blades generated a lot of revenue, some of which Liam and Rohan have invested overseas.

We heard that both 🇦🇺 Michael Boughey and 🇮🇳 Sneha Jain have contributed opinions on consumer law and age ratings for Bright Horizons 2.0 in their respective countries, prior to the launch of Twin Hearts – Anton wasn't taking any chances, and had the legal budget to be diligent.

🇬🇧 Kostya Lobov and 🇬🇧 Xuyang Zhu advised their (undisclosed) London-based clients on investment proposals for taking a stake in Red Dawn, once Twin Blades became a success. At that time, though, the founders felt that they're not interested (Liam's visa issues may have had something to do with it, hard to tell).

🇨🇳 🇺🇸 Yue Lu 卢月 was involved in the deal between Zanele Mbali and Anton Li, as the money went through the US (Baharosa is a great place to live, but not the best place for keeping one's current accounts).

Based on the talk around GDC '21, people say that the exclusivity deal between Red Dawn and Mega was based on a master agreement drafted by 🇩🇪 Felix Hilgert. But it's quite possible that Mega's MENA biz dev relied on another draft – created by 🇨🇦 Philipp Park for Mega's office in Montreal.

Until a few months ago, 🇵🇱 Anna Kruzsewska developed a film deal based on Twin Blades, for a Polish animation studio; but that deal was placed on hold as the studio first switched its attention to Twin Hearts, and then decided to wait out until the current case between Red Dawn and Quantum Heaven is resolved.

Finally, last week both Red Dawn and Quantum Heaven approached 🇺🇸 Karin Pagnanelli to represent them in this case, but Karin couldn't take them as she was already appointed to the judge panel.

Action Points

The best thing that you can help us with, is spreading the word about this year's moot court and reach the young lawyers for whom it has relevance. All the materials, and the registration form, are available on the website of Legal Challenge.

• Perhaps you teach at a university, and your students are interested?
• Perhaps the associates at your firm want to check their knowledge?
• Or perhaps you know someone who wants to join the games industry, but hasn't had an opportunity to do so yet?

Let's spread the word, and may the strongest team win!

// Sergei & Team CO