In the course of the court proceedings surrounding Intrepid and Ashes of Creation, new documents have come to light that seem to confirm a rumor about an investment offer from Riot worth millions.
What are these documents? Following the sudden resignation of CEO Steven Sharif at the end of January 2026, the subsequent implosion of Intrepid, and the likely end of Ashes of Creation, a plethora of rumors, documents, and allegations circulated online, many of which have been hard to verify. In many cases, to this day, it is a case of one statement against another.
As the parties involved around Steven Sharif, the representatives of TFE Games Holding, and investors like Jason Caramanis are currently battling it out in several court cases, more light should gradually be shed on the matter over time. The many documents that are publicly submitted during the proceedings will help in this regard.
Among them is a fresh email dated December 20, 2022, in which Mark Sottosanti (the CFO of Riot Games) made an offer to Steven Sharif and John Moore. Specifically, it concerns the potential acquisition of Intrepid by Riot Games and an investment in Ashes of Creation of between 250 and 500 million US dollars. It specifically states:
Referring to our conversation from last week, I would like to share our initial thoughts on the financial component of a potential acquisition of Intrepid by Riot with you. It is obvious that we pursue the common goal of creating and further developing a genre-defining MMO that captivates millions of players over decades.
With this goal in mind, we aim to align our incentives: We want to safeguard your investment in Ashes of Creation (AoC) in the short term while providing you with significant profit opportunities in the long term. Above all, we want to ensure that the game has sufficient resources to achieve the vision and results we are striving for together. […]
This corresponds to a total investment of 250 to 500 million dollars by Riot, which could further increase after the launch as we invest in additional content and features for AoC over time.
Excerpt from an email from Mark Sottosanti to Steven Sharif dated December 20, 2022 (shared on Reddit, via courtlistener.com)
Ashes of Creation was hardly in Early Access on Steam when the MMORPG dream burst:
The solution to all financial concerns?
What caused the offer to fail? So far, we only know the perspective of Steven Sharif, which you can read in one of the legal documents (via ibb.co). There, the developer explains that he was pressured by Robert Dawson to reject the offer from Riot Games. As evidence, he apparently submitted the transcripts of voicemails to the court.
Previously, Steven Sharif had made serious allegations against specifically Robert Dawson, which range from the deliberate destruction of Intrepid to forgery of documents to physical and psychological intimidation. Due to his enormous investments, Dawson allegedly demanded increasing influence, which ultimately led to the resignation of Steven Sharif.
Whether all of this or part of it is true, the court cases in the coming months will have to reveal.
Inquired: Hoping for insights from a party not directly involved in the proceedings, we asked Riot Games if they would like to comment on the offer at that time and what impact this investment would have had for the LoL MMORPG. As soon as we receive a response, we will supplement it here in the article.
How does MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz evaluate the offer from Riot Games? It is clear: An investment from Riot of between 250 and 500 million US dollars would have significantly eased Intrepid’s financial situation and could have curtailed the increasing influence of investors like Robert Dawson (who, according to reports, were supposed to have been involved since 2020/2021).
Moreover, Riot Games, with its expertise, could have certainly helped to complete and launch a large MMORPG like Ashes of Creation.
But would that have solved all problems? Probably not. For one thing, it still needs to be clarified whether there is any truth to the allegation of embezzlement of funds. If the money for development does not reach the development, then no investment, no matter how high, will be beneficial.
At least, however, the internal documentation of operational expenses and revenues at Intrepid seems to have been a disaster. There seems to have been no clear separation between personal and business accounts – various documents and reports currently indicate this.
On the other hand, various Intrepid developers have reported that while Steven Sharif was said to be a pleasant boss, he was not particularly competent in the context of developing a AAA game.
The fact that he wanted to approve everything and contribute his ideas had a noticeably negative impact on development – as illustrated by the example of the battle royale offshoot Ashes of Creation Apocalypse, which is said to have burned a lot of time and money.
Whether the Riot investment could have also solved these issues seems unlikely. Especially since Riot has not always proven to have a good hand when it comes to investing in external projects – the developers of Hytale can attest to that.
What about the LoL MMORPG? The question remains why Riot wanted to invest so much money in Ashes of Creation. After all, in 2022, the development of the LoL MMORPG was in full swing – still under the leadership of Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street. It is unclear whether the departure of Street in March 2023 and the restart of the project had anything to do with the failed investment in Ashes of Creation.
Perhaps there was uncertainty in 2022 about whether they were on the right path with the LoL MMORPG. Maybe Riot also had an eye on Intrepid’s server technology, which later made it possible to welcome 8,000 players simultaneously on a server of Ashes of Creation – which so far no game using Unreal Engine 5 has achieved.
The MMORPG for League of Legends is still in development. In January 2026, the team welcomed a new member, Senior Game Producer Raymond Bartos, who has worked on WoW and H1Z1 in his career. More about this can be found here: After half a year without new information, the LoL MMORPG proves that it is still alive, securing an experienced developer from WoW
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