As protests in Hong Kong continue to escalate, concern about Chinese censorship has now spilled over into the world of Hearthstone, as Blizzard has suspended a competitive player for voicing Hong Kong support in a competition.
Earlier this week, Hong Kong player Chung “Blitzchung” Ng Wai appeared in a Grandmasters Asia Pacific post-match interview, where he signed off with a bold statement. Wearing a gas mask similar to those worn by protestors (and recently banned in Hong Kong), Blitzchung said: “Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our age!” The stream quickly cut to an ad break, but the damage was already done, and all three of the streamers have now been punished by Blizzard. Yes, including the two casters who very clearly didn’t want to be involved.
[BREAKING] Hong Kong Hearthstone player @blitzchungHS calls for liberation of his country in post-game interview:https://t.co/3AgQAaPioj
@Matthieist #Hearthstone pic.twitter.com/DnaMSEaM4g
— Inven Global (@InvenGlobal) October 6, 2019
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In a post on the Hearthstone website, Blizzard claimed Blitzchung violated section 6.1 of its competition rules, which state that players cannot engage in any act that “brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard image”. The punishment for this is removal from Grandmasters and the total loss of the player’s prize money, which is exactly what Blizzard has imposed on Blitzchung.
“Effective immediately, Blitzchung is removed from Grandmasters and will receive no prizing for Grandmasters Season 2”, the statement reads. “Additionally, Blitzchung is ineligible to participate in Hearthstone esports for 12 months beginning from Oct. 5th, 2019 and extending to Oct. 5th, 2020.”
Despite the two presenters covering their faces and quickly cutting to a commercial, Blizzard says it will “immediately cease working with both casters”.
Eurogamer has contacted Blizzard for further comment.
While Blizzard has not fully explained its reasoning for the suspension, it’s hard not to view it in the context of the Hong Kong protests, which began in June following proposals to permit extradition to mainland China. Over fears this would erode Hong Kong’s relative autonomy under the “one country, two systems” deal, Hong Kong citizens have since been regularly protesting in the streets – but news of this rarely makes its way back to China. Papers and TV in China are under Communist Party control, while the heavily-regulated internet (dubbed the Great Firewall of China) blocks foreign sites and critical voices on social media. Many use VPNs to get around this, but the government has reportedly started issuing fines for these too.