Blizzard Entertainment managed recently to get involved into a huge fuss – a professional Hearthstone player named Ng Wai Chung and nicknamed ‘Blitzchung’ was banned and his prize money of thousands of dollars have been rescinded by the Californian company. The official reason was an inappropriate statement done by the player.
Blizzard’s president, J. Allen Brack, said that the player ‘Blitzchung’ made a statement during an interview that was in violation of “rules he acknowledged and understood, and this is why we took action,”.
Did Blizzard’s relationships in China influence the decision?
This is the big question now since Blitzchung claims that part of the reason for the ban he received is the fact that Blizzard wants to show support for the protests in Hong Kong.
However, Brack denies it firmly: “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,”
Brack acknowledges some mistakes done by Blizzard
Blizzard is standing firm on the decision to give the player the penalty, but its president Brack suggests the company could have treated the case some other way:
“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,” He also adds:
“We want to ensure that we maintain a safe and inclusive environment for all our players and that our rules and processes are clear. All of this is in service of another important Blizzard value–Play Nice; Play Fair.”
Blitzchung says in his own statement that he is grateful for Blizzard reducing his ban from one year to 6 months. He added that, at the time he spoke about the Hong Kong protests, it wasn’t unknown for him that he might have a penalty or consequence for his act.
Blitzchung also said he will behave 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.”
