Shortly after Blizzard’s decision, a moderator from the Hearthstone subreddit (which boasts more than 1 million subscribers), decided to step down from that position saying, “After four years of being a moderator for the sub and an advocate for this game, I am leaving the moderation team as this is no longer a company I want to support or follow.” They blasted the decision, and proudly aligned themselves with Hong Kong protesters.
In the English-speaking world, backlash to Blizzard’s ruling came quickly and loudly from Hearthstone players, as well as other gamers. Tencent has also partnered with Activision Blizzard (Blizzard Entertainment’s parent company) on projects such as Call of Duty Online for the Chinese market.Īctivision Blizzard is among the largest gaming companies in the world, with revenue of $7.5 billion in 2018. Esports is big business in China, with analyst reports speculating that the sport could be worth $3 billion as the government moves to recognize it as a profession.Īdditionally, the largest gaming investor company in the world, China’s Tencent, owns a 5% stake in Blizzard, according to multiple reports. In the ruling, Blizzard also said it would cut ties with the two streamers who attempted to hide themselves from Blitzchung’s actions, saying “We will also immediately cease working with both casters.”īlizzard is a huge developer and publisher of video games, responsible for some of the most popular titles worldwide like World of Warcraft, Overwatch, the Starcraft series and the Diablo series.īesides the cited rule violation, the most obvious reason for Blizzard to punish all those involved is China’s enormous, and expanding market.
“Grandmasters is the highest tier of Hearthstone Esports and we take tournament rule violations very seriously,” the ruling stated.īlizzard punished Blitzchung by taking away any prize money he won in the Grandmasters second 2019 season and banned him from playing in Hearthstone esports professionally for a year. Two days later, Blizzard issued a “ruling” that Blitzchung’s message on the stream violated a section of the Grandmasters’ rules that states players would refrain from “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…”
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