Blizzard has finally suspended the US Hearthstone collegiate team that held up a “Free Hong Kong, Boycott Blizz” sign during a tournament stream, following accusations from the community (and the team itself) that its failure to punish the players was hypocritical.
The on-stream incident occurred last week, as a direct response to Blizzard’s announcement that it would be suspending Hearthstone Grandmaster Chung ‘blitzchung’ Ng Wai from competitive play for one year, following his decision to express support for protesters in Hong Kong during a streamed post-match interview. Blizzard also fired the casters involved in the stream, and denied Blitzchung his winnings – a heavy handed punishment that many fans saw as Blizzard kowtowing to the Chinese government.
The following day, the American University team staged its own protest by holding up the Free Hong Kong sign, an action which was not punished by Blizzard, despite the company claiming that it would censure all teams that engage in acts that “brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard image”.
