Several days after outrage spawned from Blizzard’s choice to ban a competitive Hearthstone player and rescind his prize money, the company has issued an official statement. To provide context to those unfamiliar with the still-developing situation, Reddit user /u/midoriiro provided a brief overview of the situation in the popular subreddit /r/OutOfTheLoop.
“Answer:
During the Hearthstone Grandmaster Season 2 finals, the player Blitzchung publicized his support and solidarity for Hong Kong during the live feed.
The moment this happens is apparently here.Blizzard has since banned this player from the game for 1 year as well as revoking any and all prize money that’s already been awarded to him. They are doing this because of a breach of contract in which they were not permitted to make a political stance of any kind on live feed.
In addition to this, the two casters (also in the video posted above) were terminated, effective immediately. It is unclear to me if they also showed solidarity or are being terminated for permitting what Blitzchung said live or allowing it to happen.”
Shortly after Blizzard’s punishment was made public on Tuesday, it ignited heated discussion across the internet and especially so on Reddit. The story has become the most upvoted news article on /r/news of all time, with more than 202-thousand upvotes. Beyond that, the discussion has spread to /r/technology, /r/games, /r/worldnews, and /r/HongKong.
The latest statement, signed by J. Allen Brack, president of Blizzard Entertainment, would see the 1-year ban reduced to 6 months. The player will also be receiving all of the prize money he had earned throughout the season. To many commenters, this statement did not do enough to sway their opinion of the situation.
A comment chain from a post on /r/technology discussing Blizzard’s latest statement. The post currently has more than 20-thousand upvotes.
Many Redditors have speculated that it is Blizzard’s intention through this punishment to placate China’s government by suppressing any support for Hong Kong protestors. A post made from Blizzard’s official Weibo account (a Chinese social media network) has been cited as evidence that Blizzard has not remained politically neutral, but has instead backed China.
The post made from the official Hearthstone Weibo account.
The discussion on these forums has started a movement from gamers to boycott Blizzard games and cancel subscriptions to World of Warcraft. A number of those involved in the movement are even outright deleting their accounts.
But that is not the only form of protest that has come about from the situation. Posters on /r/HongKong have begun using a character from another one of Blizzard’s games, Overwatch, as a symbol for their protest. Mei, the only Chinese hero in Overwatch, has been altered by artists to depict pro-Hong Kong phrases and imagery.
This has been done in an attempt to have the game banned in China in a similar fashion to Winnie the Pooh. Images of Pooh bear were banned in China after memes began circulating comparing the appearance of president Xi Jinping to that of Disney’s ‘hunny’-loving bear from the Hundred Acre Woods.
Redditor /u/JamesYusufi’s contribution to the protest.
As of posting this article, large numbers of gamers continue to push back against Blizzard and are planning protests to occur during the company’s annual event Blizzcon in early November.
