Is had a sign or graphic shown before the event started saying something along the lines of “We at Blizzard do not share the opinions expressed by our participants yada yada” . Could have avoided this whole mess
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Alternatively they could have put a clause in the player contracts that said something along the lines of not using the event as a platform to express controversial beliefs. That could work too
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Which one is easier?
Freedom of speech is controversial? Opposing a dictatorial totalitarian state that is on record of killing 10’s of millions of its own people is controversial?
/facepalm.
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Did blizz call beijing and ask if the punishment was satisfactory?
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Good, now I can talk all I want about ‘THE WALL’ when I go pro. Don’t have to worry about feeling bad about some company taking the heat for that.
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The ban was a panic reaction. The tweet from Blizzard Chinas CS twitter account didn’t help things.
"We are very angered and disappointed at what happened at the event and do not condone it in anyway. We also highly object the spreading of personal beliefs, in this manner.
Effectively Immediately we have banned this contestant from events, and terminated work with the broadcasters, we will always respect and defend the pride of our country."
Unlike living in the US, where we can freely critique our government and the worst thing we’ll get is people mad at us, in China that’s a good way to end up disappearing for good or having your family hurt. Such is the way of living under an authoritarian regime.
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They shouldnt hace bowed to communists.
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I think sometimes people forget that you can’t just say and do whatever you want, regardless of if it’s morally correct or not. No one is saying that, but their platform is not a place to spout off crap like that. Why is that so hard for people like you to understand?
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Some people take where they live for granted and while every place has problems, they can’t even imagine what it would be like living in a place like that.
“Why can’t you say whatever you want…what do you meaaaaaaaan???”
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Exactly. Anyone that gets interviewed after a sporting game and starts spouting out their political beliefs would get treated the same way. It doesn’t matter what the beliefs are it is about then using the platform.
Now if they were fired for posting a tweet about it I might think differently
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Even some of the most prominent names within Blizzard eSports think that Blizzard did it to appease China.
Brian Kibler, one of the most well known casters in the (English speaking at least) world, has decided to step down from casting Grandmasters over this decision.
http://bmkgaming.com/statement-on-blitzchung/
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There is no freedom of speech over there. And it was Taiwans location that fired the two interviewers and took the money. I just hope they don’t go missing, cause they can, and do.
Remember that doctor that did the genetic splicing? After the public shock went down and he was fired, he went missing. Its not a win either way in this situation, since Blizz has so many employees over there as well. I couldn’t imagine living in that sort of state, and I hope to hell we don’t ever have to find out in America.
I’m not even saying the punishment was correct, I thought they went too HAM with it. But them doing nothing would set a precedent for all of their future broadcasts after that. If he can say something about that and get away with it, why is someone not allowed to scream about abortion at the next event? People who are fortunate enough to live where we live often forget that our way of life isn’t the standard for 50% of the rest of the world.
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Like the one ESPN reporter that got fired for her Trump views. It doesn’t matter if you agree or disagree, most companies don’t want to take a public stance on matters.
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In the article though, he states the following:
"Even so, I do think that Blizzard was correct in issuing him a penalty for his actions. They do not want to set the precedent for their official broadcasts being used as political tools. The players agreed to particular rules for behavior, and he violated those rules.
I have seen many descriptions of the situation claim that Blizzard took action against Blitzchung “for his support of the Hong Kong protests”, but that’s not an entirely accurate description. They did not penalize him for his political stance – they penalized him for breaking the rules by using their official broadcast to promote that stance"
He, like most other sane people, feel a punishment was the right thing to do. However, the way they did it and the severity of it proves how stupid they are as a company.
There’s this thing called the first amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
^^^ Just in case, if you are a United States resident, and you forgot.
Free speech is really f’ing important.
Also this (literally Blizz’s own words enshrined under Thrall’s feet on their Irvine campus):
“Think Globally” and “Every Voice Matters”
Go look it up. Educate yourself.
So no, it’s not a matter of saying or doing whatever you want.
It’s either siding with freedom and freedom of speech, especially political speech or siding with a murderous totalitarian regime that has murdered 10’s of millions of its own people (again, go look it up). Blizz had a choice and sided with the latter, not even apparently reluctantly.
That’s their right to do so. After all, they do have corporate profits to protect. But that means they are open to criticism for doing so. And that’s where we are now.
Do you think Blizzard should not be criticized for siding with a murderous totalitarian regime?
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Exactly. Dont use a platform that isn’t yours to express personal beliefs. I have previously worked as a high school teacher and during class time would never discuss religion because it has no place being discussed in schools and would be me using my platform as a representative of the school for something that is irrelevant.
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It is to many people these days. You don’t keep up with current events in the US, do you? Even history is controversial and offensive to many folks now.
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Absolutely.
Nobody reasonable thinks that Blizzard should have done nothing. But in the context of Hearthstone, which many people are missing here, his punishment is almost mindbogglingly severe.
In any other game what he did would have earned him at most, a game or two suspension. Maybe a fine, and almost certainly a ban from any future post-win interviews (that aren’t pre-recorded at least).
But while I’m only a sporadic hearthstone viewer and player, I cannot remember a single time Blizzard has EVER punished a professional HS player as hard as they came down on Blitzchung.
The closest I can think of was for what happened to Dreamkazper in OWL, and quite frankly he’s lucky he didn’t go to jail over what he did.
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