from Hacker News

Blizzard bans player from Hearthstone following on-stream Hong Kong protest

by wei_jok on 10/8/19, 6:55 AM with 93 comments

• by alpaca128 on 10/8/19, 7:19 AM

  "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 [...]"

  That's pretty close to "Blizzard can remove you from Grandmasters as soon as you open your mouth". Sad to see such a cowardice from corporations, although in the case of Blizzard it was kind of to be expected after all their visual modifications to Hearthstone in order to appeal to the chinese market.

• by orisho on 10/8/19, 7:22 AM

  Title is clickbaity. They did it for a political protest during an official Blizzard tournament stream, not for actions on his own stream or something.

  He put on a gas mask and called for liberation of HK. I'm with him, but I definitely see why Blizzard has the rule in place, and it would not be right to overlook this - they would then have to be OK with others doing other protests. Blizzard should not pick a side.

• by Iv on 10/8/19, 7:26 AM

  > Blizzard has ruled that Hearthstone pro Chung "blitzchung" Ng Wai will been removed from Hearthstone Grandmasters, following the player's call for Hong Kong's freedom during a post-match interview. Additionally, Blizzard has stated that it will no longer work with the two casters who appeared in the now deleted broadcast.

  https://www.pcgamer.com/blitzchung-removed-from-hearthstone-...

  I am a huge starcraft 2 fan. But from now on, I'll refrain talking about it. Boycott Blizzard. They support Chinese censorship.

  I am so sad. That was a company I really loved.

• by Rainymood on 10/8/19, 7:25 AM

  While I agree with the sentiment that is being expressed here (i.e. it's "wrong"). I can't help but think about the fact that he ... simply broke the rules. There is a clear clause in the ToS that states basically "You are working for us. If you say anything that can damage our reputation, we can cease working with you." Which, to me, makes a whole lot of sense to have as a clause.

• by cheeze on 10/8/19, 7:24 AM

  Companies are spineless and will do pretty much anything for money.

  We've seen it from the NBA, Blizzard, Disney, and the like. The fact of the matter is that if you want to do business in China, you have to be open to censoring things that they don't like.

• by zeouter on 10/8/19, 7:39 AM

  The fact they went so hard on this (and will no longer work with the two casters who tried to hide / not be associated) is part of what's particularly so insulting, and egregious.

  They are implicitly making an example of this, thereby sending a political message.

• by __s on 10/8/19, 7:32 AM

  Similarly, let's not forget the MtG deck Umbrella Revolution: https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/adriennereynolds-101714-whats...

• by mister_hn on 10/8/19, 7:07 AM

  That's really sad and stupid. Now magically all the tech giants are blocking the accounts of HKers.

  Here you have the power and the dark side of the cloud: one click and it's game over

• by playing_colours on 10/8/19, 8:42 AM

  I am thinking about it from the angle of video games vs. real world.

  Be a hero, a revolutionary, a pirate, feel encouraged to work hard, explore more, improve yourself, rebel, but only there in a safe artificial illusion, virtual world they built for you. In real life, do stay a passive compliant consumer, a source of money (or energy like in Matrix).

  This chasm seems to keep widening with the progress in technologies like VR, and this way of organizing a society is very convenient for businesses and people in power. Welcome to Coward New World!

  Ingenious next steps in this direction would be to seamlessly integrate our jobs into artificial reality, so that people can sustain themselves, make money for corporations and people in power - do all this staying totally immersed in the illusionary world. Get exclusive game currency, bonuses to your stats from your employer for a good work. Mmmm, I want to write a book about it :)

• by sawaruna on 10/8/19, 7:23 AM

  The cost of Tencent investment funds.

• by ngcc_hk on 10/8/19, 8:54 AM

  Not a surprise. If you still do not get, prepare for a world with no freedom of speech. Starting from Cathay, nba abd this.

  You have to kill Winnie the pool per South Park advice. You have to ... there is choice when you have to no freedom.

• by prepend on 10/8/19, 12:34 PM

  I like how esports is so close to sports sports. This is the equivalent of “taking a knee” during NFL games while the national anthem is played.

  What’s curious is that it now pits free speech vs China with Heartstone own Kaepernick. The NFL issue, I think, was two social groups (kneeler vs people upset by kneelers) with NFL/Nike/etc in the middle.

  This new situation has a social group (players/free speeches/HK) vs a state (China) with Blizzard/etc in the middle.

  It’s curious how Blizzard so quickly picked their side while NFL and Nike are still not going all in on one side (NFL didn’t ban, just no one hired player).

• by craftoman on 10/8/19, 10:08 AM

  I keep tracking Blizzard cause I play Hearthstone from time to time. This company is unethical, it doesn't even care or respect their own employees and you can see it based on their previous scandals. They are treating both designers & developers like money making machines and they ruined almost every of aspect of their games. They spend millions of dollars in tournaments and always trick their costumers into buying more and more gaming content. It's the most greedy gaming company after EA.

• by jimbob45 on 10/8/19, 7:38 AM

  At this point, Blizz must be hoping that the bad publicity is better than their current no publicity. Hearthstone is the #14 title on Twitch as I type this out and prominent players have noted how much less viewership the tournaments consistently get.

  Also Tencent owns a portion of Activision Blizzard. That would be my guess for who is pulling the strings behind this specific incident.

• by Debugreality on 10/8/19, 7:56 AM

  Very brave @blitzchungHS hope your message is heard.

• by ohashi on 10/8/19, 7:20 AM

  NBA, Blizzard, who is next?

• by x220 on 10/8/19, 7:20 AM

  The act didn't bring Blizzard into public dispute. Blizzard banning the player brings Blizzard into public disrepute because it shows that they are cowardly whores willing to do anything for money.