100 Thieves has apologized after Old School RuneScape players spotted what appeared to be AI-generated artwork in an upcoming merch collaboration with Jagex, with the organization admitting that the design made it all the way to a promotional photoshoot without anyone catching the problem.

The controversy started after 100 Thieves teased the RuneScape collection on September 29. One of the featured shirts recreated the familiar Old School RuneScape skills interface, but players quickly noticed that several of the supposed skill icons weren't actually correct.

That included imagery resembling a creepy sort of mask where the Prayer icon should be, a strange cross-like symbol for Defence, a malformed slayer icon, and so many other details that looked close enough to RuneScape at a glance but fell apart under even basic scrutiny from someone familiar with the game.

The OSRS Community Noticed the Errors Almost Immediately

For a collaboration specifically designed around Old School RuneScape, the mistakes were particularly noticeable because the skill icons are some of the most recognizable imagery in the entire game.

Players began circulating screenshots and accusing the artwork of being AI-generated shortly after the teaser appeared. Gaming creator Jake Lucky also shared a preview of the collection, while OSRS player Lainezor later claimed both the original 100 Thieves post and Lucky's post were deleted after the backlash began.

The criticism wasn't simply that AI may have touched the artwork. A major part of the reaction focused on how obviously incorrect RuneScape imagery had apparently survived the design, approval, manufacturing, and promotional process.

For longtime players, these weren't obscure lore mistakes hidden somewhere in the background. The shirt was built around an interface they have spent potentially (probably) thousands of hours looking at.

100 Thieves Says a Designer Used AI During a Last-Minute Edit

100 Thieves responded on September 30 and acknowledged that AI had, in fact, been used on the design.

The organization said work on the collaboration with Jagex began in July and that the team had a little more than a month to design, review, approve, and manufacture the apparel. Multiple graphic designers were reportedly brought in to help meet that schedule.

According to 100 Thieves, the problem happened during the final stage of the shirt design when one designer used AI while making a rushed edit. The altered version was then sent forward as a sample for the collection's photoshoot without the AI-generated mistakes being identified.

In other words, 100 Thieves isn't claiming the entire RuneScape collection was created with AI. Its explanation is that AI entered the process late, affected this particular design, and wasn't caught before promotional material was produced.

The Bigger Failure May Have Been That Nobody Caught It

That explanation addresses where the AI came from, but it also creates an uncomfortable second question: how did a RuneScape collaboration reach that point without someone recognizing that the RuneScape icons were wrong?

100 Thieves described the project as a passion project involving people from across the company, while also saying the collaboration was intended as a celebration of Old School RuneScape and RuneFest.

That makes the review failure arguably just as important as the AI itself. The community didn't need specialized tools or image analysis to identify the errors. Players simply looked at the shirt and immediately recognized that familiar in-game symbols had been distorted.

The compressed production schedule may explain how the mistake happened, but the sample still passed through enough of the process to appear in an official photoshoot before being challenged publicly.

100 Thieves Says AI Has No Place in Its Apparel Design

100 Thieves went further than simply promising to fix the individual shirt. The organization said AI has no place in its apparel design and positioned that stance alongside Jagex's emphasis on human-created games and artwork.

It also apologized directly to the Old School RuneScape community and said it is working with Jagex to make the situation right.

What's still unclear is what that means for the actual product.

The collaboration had been scheduled for a full reveal on October 2, but 100 Thieves has not yet said whether the criticized shirt will be redesigned, completely removed from the collection, or replaced with something else.

Players Are Split Over Whether AI Itself Is the Problem

The reaction after the apology hasn't been completely one-sided, either.

Some players criticized 100 Thieves for allowing AI-generated artwork into an official RuneScape collaboration at all, while others argued the bigger issue was quality control. Their position was essentially that AI usage wouldn't have become a controversy if the final artwork had actually been checked and corrected by a human before being shown publicly.

Others dismissed the backlash almost entirely, arguing that companies using AI tools is increasingly unavoidable.

But even among people who aren't fundamentally opposed to AI-assisted design, the distorted RuneScape icons remain difficult to separate from the story. The design wasn't criticized because someone discovered hidden metadata showing an AI tool had been used. Players noticed because parts of the finished artwork visibly didn't look like Old School RuneScape.

The October 2 Reveal Now Has a Much Bigger Question Hanging Over It

The strangest part of all of this is that the merchandise itself was supposed to be the teaser ahead of the real reveal. Instead, the incorrect shirt has become the story surrounding the collaboration before the full collection has even been shown.

100 Thieves moved quickly to acknowledge what happened, and its explanation puts the AI usage on a rushed late-stage edit rather than the entire project.

Now the more important test will be what actually appears when the collaboration moves forward: whether the shirt returns with corrected artwork, disappears entirely, or becomes the first visible sign of a larger review-process change between 100 Thieves and Jagex.

You can find where 100 Thieves addressed the backlash directly in a statement posted on X, acknowledging the mistake and explaining how AI made its way into the final design.