Not even the world of esports is immune from the effect of the Hong Kong-China protests. On October 8, a professional gamer was suspended and stripped of his winnings for shouting a message of support for Hong Kong protesters during a livestream, drawing congressional ire.
Ng Wai “Blitzchung” Chung is a professional Hearthstone player from Hong Kong and, during a livestream interview after a tournament match, said, “Liberate Hong Kong. The revolution of our age.” Blizzard Entertainment, the developer behind the card game Hearthstone and famous for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft, suspended Chung for a year immediately after the interview and stripped him of his winnings. Blizzard, based in Irvine, California, cited rules against making political statements in its initial decision.
“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,” Blizzard said. “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.”
That statement stands in contrast to the one released by the official Hearthstone account on the Chinese website Weibo, which had a significantly different tone. The statement comes from a Chinese company that operates Blizzard’s games on their behalf, as Chinese law prevents the publishing of games in China by foreign companies.
“We are very angered and disappointed at what happened at the event and do not condone it in any way. We also highly object to the spreading of personal political beliefs in this manner,” the translated Chinese statement said. “Effective immediately, we’ve banned the contestant from events and terminated work with the broadcasters. We will always respect and defend the pride of our country.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, signed a joint letter with fellow members of Congress condemning Blizzard’s decision, demanding “in the strongest terms” that the punishment be revisited.
“Because your company is such a pillar of the gaming industry, your disappointing decision could have a chilling effect on gamers who seek to use their platform to promote human rights and basic freedoms,” the letter said. “You have the opportunity to reverse course. We urge you to take it.”
The letter was signed by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, Mike Gallagher, R-Wisconsin, and Tom Malinowski, D-New Jersey, along with Rubio.
The decision and statements drew immediate backlash in the gaming community and protests in the form of subscription cancellations and displays of support for Hong Kong protesters on other Blizzard streams. One of the most prominent examples is developer Mark Kern, who worked with Blizzard as the original head of World of Warcraft and who convinced the company to relaunch the original version as WoW Classic. Kern tweeted that, due to Blizzard’s decision to punish Chung, he could no longer support WoW Classic and would be joining the #BoycottBlizzard movement.
“This hurts. But until Blizzard reverses their decision on @blitzchungHS, I am giving up playing Classic WoW, which I helped make and helped convince Blizzard to relaunch,” Kern tweeted. “There will be no Mark of Kern guild after all. Let me explain why I am #BoycottBlizzard.”
Before Congress’ letter, however, Blizzard already relented somewhat in the face of criticism, restoring Chung’s winnings and reducing his suspension to six months.
“The specific views expressed by blitzchung were NOT a factor in the decision we made. I want to be clear: our relationships in China had no influence on our decision,” Blizzard President J. Allen Brack said in a statement. “We have these rules to keep the focus on the game and the tournament to the benefit of a global audience, and that was the only consideration in the actions we took.”
Critics of Brack’s statement, including Kern, raised questions of the sincerity of the company after the post was dated Oct. 12, but released in the United States on Oct. 11. It would’ve been the 12th in China.
“See the date. As others have noted, even though this post was on Friday, which was the 11th, the date on the post is the 12th, indicating that it was posted from overseas, possibly China,” Kern tweeted. “That’s not a big deal in and of itself, but let’s me talk about how these things are done.”
Chung released a statement on Twitter expressing gratitude to Blizzard for revisiting the punishment but expressed concern for the length of his suspension and the suspensions of the broadcasters.
“Earlier this week, I told media that I knew I might have penalty or consequence for my act because I understand that my act could take the conversation away from the purpose of the event,” Chung wrote. “In the future, I will be more careful on that and express my opinions or show my support to Hong Kong on my personal platforms … Once again, I appreciate for their reconsideration on this. To be honest, I think six months is still quite a lot to me. … However, I wish Blizzard can reconsider about their penalty on the two casters involved.”
