Blizzard has suspended and penalized a professional Hearthstone player for making remarks in favor of Hong Kong protestors on a tournament livestream, bringing broader international concerns about the power of Chinese censorship to a head inside of the video game community. The player, Hong Kong native Chung "Blitzchung" Ng Wai, wore a gas mask during the stream and signed off by saying ""Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our age!" Blizzard has rescinded Wai's prize money and suspended him for one year, according to a post on its website. The clause in question gives Blizzard broad authority to punish players at its discretion:
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, in addition to other remedies which may be provided for under the Handbook and Blizzard’s Website Terms.
This controversy, originally reported by Invenglobal, comes only moments after the NBA appeared to force Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey to apologize for pro-Hong King protestor comments, a move that drew equal degrees of criticism from commentators. The Chinese government and Tencent, which owns a stake in a wide range of large video game companies including Activision-Blizzard, are now suspending their broadcast of NBA preseason games as a result.
Blizzard has also fired both casters present during the stream, both of which physically ducked out of shot and cut to commercial after Blitzchung's statement The move drew sharp criticism from across the political spectrum, even reaching beyond traditional video game channels and into the broader sphere of political news:
Shame on @Blizzard_Ent and the @NBA for putting profits before freedom and democracy, allowing China’s money to bully you into censoring speech. By doing so, you’re standing with authoritarianism and repression. https://t.co/hwNRbohSH0
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) October 8, 2019
What Blizzard has done here is shameful and immoral, and I’m cancelling my WoW subscription today. https://t.co/cUTglINKiT
— Elizabeth Sampat (@twoscooters) October 8, 2019
The traditionally irreverent South Park was also recently banned in China for an episode critical of Chinese censorship, though creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone responded with slightly less deference than either the NBA or Blizzard:
Watch the full episode - https://t.co/oktKSJdI9i@THR article - https://t.co/nXrtmnwCJB pic.twitter.com/Xj5a1yE2eL
— South Park (@SouthPark) October 7, 2019
We've contacted Activision-Blizzard for comment and will update with any response.
