Blitzchung controversy
incident between Blizzard Entertainment and an eSports player's support of the 2019 Hong Kong protests
In October 2019, American video game developer Blizzard Entertainment punished Ng Wai Chung (吳偉聰) (known as Blitzchung), a Hong Kong esports player of the online video game Hearthstone, for voicing his support of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests during an official streaming event. Blizzard also terminated their contract with the two livestream presenters who were interviewing Blitzchung. The public's response, which included a boycott and a letter from United States Congress representatives to Activision Blizzard, prompted Blizzard to reduce the punishment, but not to eliminate it.
Events
Banning of Ng Wai Chung
On October 6, 2019, during the Hearthstone Grandmasters streaming event in Taiwan, Ng Wai Chung, a professional Hearthstone player and resident of Hong Kong known as "Blitzchung", was being interviewed following his match, during which he donned a mask similar to those worn by protesters in the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests and said "Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times". The stream was cut off shortly after. The following day, on October 7, Blizzard announced that Blitzchung had been banned from the current tournament, would forfeit any prize money (approximately US$4,000 by that point), and would be banned from other Grandmaster tournaments for one year. The company cited a rule that prohibits Grandmasters players from offending the public, making political speech or impugning Blizzard's image. Blizzard later said that while they respect its players' freedom of speech, they are still bound by competition rules. Blitzchung, in an interview afterwards, stated that he had performed the protest because his effort towards the social movement over the preceding months sometimes interfered with his preparation for the tournament.
Stream caster contract terminations
Blizzard additionally terminated the contract with the two stream casters that had been conducting the interview, "Virtual" and "Mr.
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