Blizzard have briefly banned Hearthstone professional Chung “Blitzchung” Ng Wai for saying “liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!” throughout a post-match interview, expressing his help of the Hong Kong protests. This occurred final Sunday, in the course of the Hearthstone Grandmasters match. In addition to removing from the remainder of the match and a one 12 months ban, Blizzard won’t pay out the prize cash Blitzchung is owed for his participation to this point. Blizzard have additionally stopped working with the 2 casters concerned within the interview.
Nice one, Blizzard.
Blizzard have launched a statement claiming that the interview violates their competitors guidelines. Specifically:
“Engaging in any act that, in Blizzard’s sole discretion, brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard image will result in removal from Grandmasters and reduction of the player’s prize total to $0 USD, in addition to other remedies which may be provided for under the Handbook and Blizzard’s Website Terms.”
The assertion laughably concludes with “while we stand by one’s right to express individual thoughts and opinions, players and other participants that elect to participate in our esports competitions must abide by the official competition rules.”
Blitzchung’s assertion might nicely deliver him into “public disrepute” for a portion of Chinese residents, nevertheless it appears extra notable that failing to punish Blitzchung would injury Blizzard’s picture within the eyes of the Chinese authorities. They’ve beforehand taken motion towards firms they discover objectionable, together with scrapping plans to show two US NBA basketball games after a crew government tweeted their very own help of the protest. In different phrases, then, Blizzard (like most firms) don’t stand by one’s proper to specific particular person ideas and opinions when their expression might trigger Blizzard monetary hurt.
Blitzchung issued a response to esports website Inven Global:
“As you know there are serious protests in my country now. My call on stream was just another form of participation of the protest that I wish to grab more attention. I put so much effort in that social movement in the past few months, that I sometimes couldn’t focus on preparing my Grandmaster match. I know what my action on stream means. It could cause me lot of trouble, even my personal safety in real life. But I think it’s my duty to say something about the issue.”
Blizzard have apparently stopped working with the 2 casters as a result of method they egged Blitzchung on. I don’t perceive Mandarin, however viewer Chua Zhihong claimed on Twitter that the casters mentioned “say the eight words, then we’ll end the interview immediately.” Here’s the interview in query.
[BREAKING] Hong Kong Hearthstone participant @blitzchungHS requires liberation of his nation in post-game interview:https://t.co/3AgQAaPioj
@Matthieist #Hearthstone pic.twitter.com/DnaMSEaM4g
— 🎃 Inven Global 🎃 (@InvenGlobal) October 6, 2019
Blizzard have eliminated the match and this footage from their video archives.
Their actions have, predictably, introduced them into a level of public disrepute.
Header picture: Ka Hei Mak, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license, cropped.
