Yeah we'll just have to wait for an official response from the company president. This could go any number ways really. I believe Netease are the ones in charge of Blizzard operations over there and I seriously have doubts that their message was approved by Blizzard beforehand. For all we know, their silence is due to some internal cleanup going on right now. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
This. So much. To be honest, and fair, I am not surprised by blitzchung's statement, nor am I too much surprised by ActiBlizz's reaction... it's a company, and we have seen them stepping away from a customer, consumer, player oriented way of handling things towards... well... the Acti side of things. So much for ethics. But this is neither the only company (Apple just took a map app, which supposedly was used in HK demonstrations on the protester's side, off the app store for exactly this reason), and certainly things are riling up because this issue just so happens to be connected to our hobby. I have yet to hear that the US, the EU, or any other major political power or block frankly and firmly states they're abolishing the force (live ammo) used against protesters in HK. That's, to be honest, far more concerning than a single player being banned and his prize money taken from him because of this, or the casters being fired, or others quitting on their own. Because you know, the world outside of video games is so much bigger and... more important than if a pro player gets banned. So the political reaction is even smaller than the backlash against a single company about this etc.... I have yet to read a single one of those deleting their accounts or not casting / playing for Blizz anymore actually say something about the protests. Yes Kibbler and ThatsAdmirable, I'm talking about you guys. No statement against CN, but against Blizz? I hope I made myself understood why in particular all that uproar is stupid and feels like a storm in a glass of water (as they saying goes in AUT/GER) and totally blown out of proportion. Which brings me to @D3M1G0D 's quote: Honestly, ActiBlizz has all the time felt like it would concentrate on the NA more than EU. Particularly because of release time frames etc, merch before they used to have an EU shop, stuff like that. Fine, it's a US company, so far it even makes sense. America first and all But CN... I'm not sure they know what they're getting in to. Sure, CN is as big as NA and EU combined, but honestly, I don't dare to ask myself if there isn't more money spent in EU and US shops than CN... let alone taking any political statement.
The issue is that they are so blatantly on the side of China. They targeted Blitzchung because he was a Hong Kong player - I think they see him as one of the protesters and want to punish him for that reason (the year-long ban was also probably done hoping that the protests would die down by then). China doing what they're doing is bad enough, but Blizzard is purposely aiding and abetting (an American company aiding a foreign government in suppressing human rights!).
china and human rights do not belong in the same sentence point of fact. they simply do not believe in them. the sticking point of china wanting hong kong to extradite anyone for any reason, many of which are china dissidents, and umm yea the people of hong kong are not happy about that and other things like their govt controlled by china. not to mention china plans for the south china seas and tiawann and japan and beyond. the leftists flying the china communist flag at political events is classy as hell also. guess they support live forced organ harvesting and slavery. this been building for decades china was the 1000 lb gorilla that everyone was busy getting ripped off by front and back yet they made enough money to stfu and allow to escalate. our govt other govts trade commissions, environmental treaties all were pandering to china economic power that is largely smoke and mirrors. and now they got enough hand and enough willing us companies to force their lies into the west. what really baked my brain was seeing that the apple store REMOVED the flag of hong kong under pressure from china un fing real.
The official statement is out: https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/bli...weekend-s-hearthstone-grandmasters-tournament
never watched a blizzard event or blizcon ever never had a interest, this will be a historic first with popcorn and my medicine. ;p
For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure not a mod is looking in here so we're safe from bans or other stuff I have not heard an opinion I don't understand and sympathize with, but still, I try to keep it away from the political side, and will from now on keep my responses limited to Blizzard, blitzchung, and the casters, as well as people (other casters / streamers) reaction to the matter at hand. Thanks for posting m8. Might have missed it, I'm hardly checking my twitter on weekends Yeah... so they reduced his "sentence" to 6 months ban only? Same with the casters? They're only afraid of the backlash. Still stinks, imho. But hey... at least he gets his prize money. But I'm certainly not the only one that has the opinion that this could have gone down better. Even if one's opinion is that some action is valid, they should have thought it over first, only announcing consequences, before that quickshot. But yeah... I have a feeling this isn't the last scene of this.
yea the prize money fine that was a no gdam brainer that was money he earned. should have gotten a warning and a chance to do over, still bucking the terms of his contracts? well then you fine and suspend. a year was a political nod to china to punish this guy, the situation in hong kong is sore sport ping the punk is looking like a moron. too much international eyes on the place for them to act and they done all but that sofar. but the more conered ping boi feels well how long will he not push it? they shooting protestors now in hk. and another fun fact i find creepy as hell is the memory hole around france and the roits there. macron has his people tearing the place apart cops beating people to death on the streets and no blogs no live streams no news coverage? not even the "fringe" sites i rely on for news at times, have barely mentioned france in the last year or so since those riots kicked off over gas taxes. this scares the living hell out of me oddly. glad people getting woke on HK the more eyes on HK the more constrained china is. but their leader is all sorts of being squeezed on all sides it could get wild.
I find it interesting that ActiBlizz can lie so blatantly and think people won't see it. Although I guess it's not out of character at least.
