The Blizzard Issue

Controversy erupted at Blizzard this week at the Hearthstone Grandmasters tournament.
Grandmasters - GM - is one of the top tiers of competitive play for this game, professional players battle for both notoriety and a huge prize pool of thousands, and sometimes millions, of dollars.
Drama unfolded after professional player Ng “Blitzchung” Wai Chung won the tournament, and in his exit interview - donning a gas mask and mouthpiece - Chung shouted in Mandarin “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our generation”.
Chung was immediately banned from competing in esports for 12 months, and Blizzard are holding his prize money - $10,000. Both GM casters were also fired.
The result was catastrophic for Blizzard.
Hearthstone players quickly rallied together on sites like Reddit to express their support for Chung and Hong Kong, and voice their disgust in Blizzard.
By the evening of the 9th October, the
story was all over the Reddit front page overshadowing posts on r/worldnews, r/hearthstone, r/blizzard, r/gaming and was even on the front page of the BBC news.

Blizzard claimed Chung violated one of their GM rules whereby no user, in Blizzard’s sole discretion, shall offend a group or portion of the public, bring the company into disrepute or otherwise damage Blizzard’s image. They argued that GM - or any other major esports events - should not be used as one’s personal political platform.
However, even if you agree with Blizzard
on this matter, it’s difficult to justify such a heavy handed response. After all, Blizzard themselves alongside thousands of their own players have regularly and publicly expressed support for human rights, such as equal marriage.
Further, Blizzard has been embroiled in their fair share of damaging situations in the past, but have never reacted in such a way before. Last year, for example, the Chinese Taipei team was banned from the Global Hearthstone Games after being caught “stream-sniping” - that is, watching their opponents’ live delayed broadcast to gain an edge on the game. Although the delay is around 20-30 minutes, the Chinese Taipei team were able to gain advantages such as figuring out what was in their opponents’ hand, or being able to play around their strategies.
The team was disqualified from the Global Games. It took Blizzard a further tear to ban team captain Roger for 12 months, and even still Roger has been able to compete in events such as HCT and Worlds.

In light of the aftermath, the r/blizzard subreddit was changed to private for a day, where only moderators could post.
Players were outraged, World of Warcraft
fans cancelled their subscriptions and Hearthstone users logged out for the last time. Hundreds quickly raced to permanently delete their accounts in protest of Blizzard’s actions, with many more following suit soon afterwards.
Blizzard became inundated with deletion requests, the vast influx of sudden traffic caused technical difficulties which led to the deletion option temporarily being taken down so Blizzard staff could cope with the volume of requests and stabilise their servers - although many believe Blizzard intentionally revoked the ability to delete accounts in a move to halt or slow the boycotting.

People were further enraged as the official Chinese page for Blizzard commented publicly on the situation on their Weibo account. The statement, in its simplest form, essentially condemned Chung’s behaviour and stated they would “always respect and defend the pride of [their] country”.
This is already hugely problematic. How
can Blizzard react so aggressively to Chung on the guide that he made a political statement, then outwardly defend China? This is a double standard.

Several key figures in the Hearthstone community have taken this opportunity to speak out, such as Brian “BMKibler” Kibler and Octavian “Kripparian” Morosan.
Kibler has been one of Hearthstone’s leading casters for, essentially, as long as matches have been broadcasted. Similarly, Kripp has been a longstanding popular public figure supporting Blizzard in it’s Diablo era, he’s been one of Blizzard’s most consistent streamers since closed beta days.
Both men denounced Blizzard and expressed support for Chung and Hong Kong. They also both raised important points regarding other figures in the community. Their role within the community is the main source of income for many streamers and casters who cannot risk their livelihood, by speaking out they know they will likely have their contracts with Blizzard terminated.
There has, for example, been an outcry
for one of Hearthstone’s most prevalent streamers, Thijs Molendijk, to make a statement. However, Thijs is under a partnership with G2 esports; by making a statement he wouldn’t just risk his own career, but likely the position of everybody at G2.
Even Thijs, who frequently peaks as the first or second most viewed streamer on Twitch, loses 80% of his audience when he switches from streaming Hearthstone to Magic: The Gathering. Many of these high paid, popular streamers depend almost entirely on Hearthstone fans for their income, switching to another game is simply not sustainable for them.

The internal crisis at Blizzard is also becoming overwhelming. Many employees and moderators have outwardly expressed disgust, disappointment and disagreement with Blizzard, and a number have given their jobs up entirely.
Outside Blizzard’s headquarters, the plaques depicting the company’s values - such as “Every voice matters” - have been covered by disgruntled employees.

The issue Blizzard faces is they’re damned irrespective of what they choose to do next.
Action that further appeases the Chinese leaves the EU/US market furious and alienated, but any decision which pleases the West may potentially cost Blizzard their entire Chinese market.
ATVI shares have increased by 2.8% since yesterday, indicative that the entire situation will likely continue being ignored by Blizzard. The question is: Will they recover from their own silence? The company is being pulled apart from the inside and long term fans are deleting every aspect of Blizzard from their lives.

Hong Kong fights for freedom, democracy and human rights. Many players feel disillusioned, they view Blizzard as prioritising profits over human lives and rights. Silencing the cries for democracy is never justified.
Blizzard’s immediate future is uncertain.
After last year’s disappointing annual conference - Blizzcon - the pressure is high to deliver a peaceful, entertaining event this November 1st.
Although, the change of protestors is almost a guarantee. A heavy handed approach will certainly cause backlash and leave their reputation amongst EU/US players in tatters. However, allowing any kind of demonstration in support of Hong Kong will upset the Chinese market - a particularly high risk option as Tencent (the world’s largest gaming company, based in China) own a 5% stake in Activision Blizzard.

At this moment in time, the problem does not feel as though it can be rectified.
The view of many is that J. Allen Brack should step down as CEO of Blizzard, with numerous people in agreement that the company’s public relations are irreparable.
Nothing is certain right now, but the silence is deafening and disengaging players more.

Blizzard should refer to and stand by its own values: Think globally; Every voice matters.