Blizzard Entertainment, an American video game game based in Irvine, CA, suspended one of its top players and took away his prize money because the Hong Kong based player dared to speak out in support of the Hong Kong protests;
Blizzard Entertainment said it was suspending a player of the online game Hearthstone for a year and was forcing him to forfeit prize money after he spoke out in support of the Hong Kong protests during a livestreamed interview https://t.co/TqUWQR9kex
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 8, 2019
From the New York Times:
The world of e-sports had its own run-in with Chinese politics on Tuesday, when Blizzard Entertainment said it was suspending Chung Ng Wai, a Hong Kong player of the game Hearthstone, for a year and forcing him to forfeit prize money. Mr. Chung, who uses the name Blitzchung, had spoken out in support of the Hong Kong protests during a livestreamed interview.
The company said Mr. Chung had broken a rule barring players from engaging in any act that “brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages” Blizzard’s image.
He reportedly said, “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!” at the end of his livestream:
in a post-match Hearthstone Grandmasters winning interview, Hong Kong HS player @blitzchungHS said "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!"
in response, Blizzard Taiwan has now deleted the VOD from their official Twitch channel https://t.co/l5lcMu4ULR
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) October 7, 2019
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The Chinese company Tencent has a 5% stake in Blizzard:
Shortly after the Daryl Morey-NBA kerfuffle, Blizzard (an American company where Tencent has a 5% stake) cut off an interview with a Hong Kong gamer who won a Hearthstone tournament and expressed support for the protests. https://t.co/Iabb4g3PwP
— Ankit Panda (@nktpnd) October 8, 2019
Blizzard also fired two “casters involved in the incident”:
It gets much worse.
Blizzard is:
— banning the Hong Kong-based player for 12 months
— fining him his prize money
— firing both the casters involved in the incident#China pic.twitter.com/RfJlfOJ4e6— Ankit Panda (@nktpnd) October 8, 2019
Did they even know what was going to be said?
Blizzard has also fired both of the Hearthstone casters working the event, both of whom literally ducked underneath the desk during the interview and neither of which to my knowledge had any idea what was going to be said
very cool, Blizzard
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) October 8, 2019
Awful.
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