World in Review: OCT 22

Blizzard faces backlash after suspending gamer

Nicholas Redmond
NEWS REPORTER

Gaming giant Activision Blizzard suspended professional eSports gamer Ng Wai Chung October 8 for six months after he showed support for the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong against China.

China and Hong Kong have been in crossfires recently due to people in Hong Kong protesting a proposed extradition bill and demanding major reform throughout the city and country governments. The New York Times reported that the bill has been withdrawn, but the protests persist because of a fear of a growing overreach of the Chinese government on Hong Kong and have become increasingly violent with police using live bullets on protesters.

During a post-Hearthstone Grandmasters gamers livestream, Chung said, “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution for our times,” but not before his teammates ducked under their table.

Activision Blizzard, an American gaming company, but one that is partially owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent, suspended Chung and his teammates from competitions for a year. The company also revoked Chung’s prize money.

"I feel like the punishment for me is too harsh. I believe they ban me because of the pressure from China,” said Chung to Newsweek.

The company’s China branch released a statement on the country’s version of Twitter, Weibo, which translated to, “We are very angered and disappointed at what happened at the event and do not condone it in any way. We also highly object the spreading of personal political beliefs in this manner … We will always respect and defend the pride of our country.”

Blizzard’s actions were soon met with protests claiming that the gaming company were favoring China’s money over freedom of speech.

Employees of Blizzard staged a walkout October 9 protesting the company’s decision, as reported by The Daily Beast.

“Not everyone at Blizzard agrees with what happened,” tweeted eSports personality Kevin Hovdestad.

College Hearthstone players also joined in the protest, posting “Free Hong Kong, Boycott Blizz” posters online.

After the backlash, including a bipartisan letter from Congress, the Blizzard company took to Twitter, saying, “The specific views expressed by blitzchung were NOT a factor in the decision we made. [We] want to be clear: our relationships in China had no influence on our decision.”

The Verge reported that the company also reduced Chung and his teammates six months ban and returned the prize money back.