2019 Blizzard Boycott

Overview

2019 Blizzard Boycott refers to video game developer and publisher Blizzard Entertainment banning Hearthstone player Chung "Blitzchung" Ng Wai from participating in Blizzard-organized Hearthstone tournaments for one year and stripping him of his winnings after he called for the liberation of Hong Kong during a post-game interview. Following the ruling, the company met a major backlash online, with multiple users announcing they would quit Hearthstone and boycott future Blizzard titles.

Background

On October 6th, 2019, following the final match of the group stage of Blizzard-organized GrandMasters 2019 Season 2 tournament,^[1] professional Hong Kong Hearthstone player Chung "Blitzchung" Ng Wai participated in a post-match interview with the casters. During the interview, Chung, who had just been eliminated from the tournament, shouted "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!", calling for the separation of Hong Kong, where a series of anti-China protests had been being staged for several months, from China.

Notable Developments

On October 6th, 2019, esports website Inven Global reported on the Blitzchung's interview,^[2] with the tweet containing the recording of him shouting the phrase receiving over 3,300 retweets and 6,400 likes in two days (shown below).^[3] The clip of the interview gained over 437,000 views on Twitter in the same period.

The VOD of the game has been subsequently deleted by Blizzard. In the following days, more news outlets reported on the interview and the removal of the VOD.^[4]

On October 7th, 2019, Blizzard published a statement^[5] in which the company announced that Blitzchung has been removed from the tournament and stripped of his winnings (3,000 USD). Additionally, Blitzchung has been suspended from participating in Blizzard-organized Hearthstone tournaments for a period of one year. The company also announced that they cease working with both casters who took the interview. The company quoted 2019 Hearthstone® Grandmasters Official Competition Rules v1.4 p.12, Section 6.1 (o) as the direct reason for the action.^[6]

Online Reactions

Starting on October 7th, 2019, multiple news outlets reported on the story.^[7] On October 8th, Redditor ChikaToChika made a post about Blitzchung being suspended by Blizzard in /r/worldnews subreddit, which received over 55,300 upvotes before being removed by the moderators.^[8]

Starting on October 7th, multiple users on Twitter, Reddit and other online platforms made posts condemning Blizzard for punishing a player for voicing support for the Hong Kong's independence. Esports personality Rod "Slasher" Breslau highlighted that Blizzard disabled comments on their statement (shown below, top left).^[9]

On October 7th, 2019, Twitter user @SanguineStorm tweeted #BoycottBlizzard, with the hashtag gaining popularity in the following hours.^[10]

On Reddit, Twitter and other platforms, multiple players announced that they would be quitting Hearthstone and abstaining from purchasing Blizzard games following the ruling.^[11][12]

American University "Free Hong Kong" Sign

On October 8th, 2019, during an American Collegiate Hearthstone Championship between the teams of Worcester Polytechnic Institute and American University, member of the American University team held up a sign reading "Free Hong Kong, Boycott Blizz," with the active stream overlay promptly adjusted to hide the message by the official PlayHearthstone stream.^[13] On the same day, esports personality Rod "Slasher" Breslau tweeted the clip, with the post receiving over 7,000 retweets and 22,600 likes in 24 hours (shown below).^[14] The video received over 424,000 views on Twitter in the same period.

in tonight's Collegiate Hearthstone championship, American University held up a "Free Hong Kong, boycott Blizzard" during the broadcast, which was quickly cut away by Blizzard pic.twitter.com/Y9eXtLfuGw

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) October 9, 2019

In the following hours, multiple news outlets reported on the stream.^[15]

On October 15th, 2019, American University Hearthstone team member Casey Chambers tweeted that Blizzard issued a six-month ban to the team quoting rule 7.1.B of the Hearthstone Collegiate Championship Fall 2019 Official Rules (tweet and ban message shown below).^[20][21]

Pro-Hong Kong Mei

On October 8th, 2019, Redditor batture made a post in /r/HongKong subreddit in which they suggested that Overwatch hero Mei, who, according to the Overwatch lore, is Chinese, should be made a pro-democracy symbol in order to get Blizzard's video games banned in China (post shown below).^[16]

In the following hours, posts presenting Mei as a symbol of the Hong Kong protests gained popularity online on Reddit and other platforms. For example, an October 8th, 2019, post by Redditor FloL00L received over 58.400 upvotes in one day (shown below, left).^[17] A Modern Problems Require Modern Solutions /r/memes post by Redditor yamideath gained over 130,000 upvotes in 13 hours (shown below, right).^[18]

Blizzard's Statement and Return of the Prize Money

On October 11th, 2019, Blizzard Entertainment J. Allen Brack issued a statement on the reasons behind Blitzchung's punishment, claiming that the company's Chinese relationships had no influence upon the company's decision.^[19]

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.

Also in the statement, Blizzard announced that the company will pay out the prize money to Blitzchung, stating that the company "reacted too quickly." Additionally, the one-year suspension given to Blitzchung was decreased to six months, with the suspension period for the casters also set at six months.

Over the past few days, many players, casters, esports fans, and employees have expressed concerns about how we determined the penalties. We’ve had a chance to pause, to listen to our community, and to reflect on what we could have done better. In hindsight, our process wasn’t adequate, and we reacted too quickly.

Overwatch Nintendo Switch Launch Event Cancellation

On October 14th, 2019, Nintendo NY twitter account announced that the launch event planned for the release of the Overwatch version for Nintendo Switch was canceled by Blizzard.^[22] In the thread, multiple commenters suggested that the cancellation was caused by the recent controversy.^[23][24]

Search Interest

External References