A veteran Hearthstone participant and commentator is pulling away from Blizzard after they banned pro player Chung “Blitzchung” Ng Wai for voicing help of Hong Kong’s pro-autonomy protests in a post-match interview. Brian Kibler has commentated a number of official Blizzard tournaments however now he’s pulling out of casting this yr’s Hearthstone Grandmasters finals at BlizzCon. “I will not be a smiling face on camera that tacitly endorses this decision,” Kibler mentioned. Some Blizzard staff protested the decision this week too. So far, the ban stands.
Blizzard this week punished Blitzchung, who lives in Hong Kong, for saying “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!” throughout a livestreamed post-match interview. They eliminated him from the Grandmasters match, cancelled his prize cash, and banned him from Hearthstone esports for one yr. They additionally mentioned they’ll not work with the match’s two commentators. Blizzard say Blitzchung violated the competitors rule towards “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.”
Kibler mentioned in his statement yesterday that he agrees a punishment was warranted, provided that Blitzchung explicitly broke the competitors guidelines, however that the one Blizzard meted out “is incredibly harsh.” He defined, “I could understand a fine, or even a short suspension from competitive play, but removal from Grandmasters, clawing back the prizes he already earned, and banning him for a full year seems completely overboard to an extent that feels completely unwarranted and unfair.”
He’s involved that Blizzard is likely to be bowing to strain to guard their enterprise pursuits.
“The heavy-handedness of it feels like someone insisted that Blizzard make an example of Blitzchung, not only to discourage others from similar acts in the future but also to appease those upset by the outburst itself,” he mentioned.
“That kind of appeasement is simply not something I can in good conscience be associated with. When I learned about the ruling, I reached out to Blizzard and informed them that I no longer feel comfortable casting the Grandmasters finals at BlizzCon. I will not be a smiling face on camera that tacitly endorses this decision. Unless something changes, I will have no involvement in Grandmasters moving forward.”
A scandal operating parallel to this illustrates the state of affairs Blizzard is likely to be fearing. On Sunday, the overall supervisor of the Houston Rockets NBA basketball crew tweeted in help of the Hong Kong protests. Within days, a number of broadcasters have scrapped plans to indicate exhibition matches in China between two different NBA groups, a number of NBA media occasions in China have been cancelled, Rockets merchandise has been faraway from some Chinese shops, and plenty of Chinese corporations have pulled their NBA sponsorship. I don’t doubt companies concern shedding entry to the doubtless enormous Chinese market.
