J. Allen Brack: Regarding Last Weekend’s Hearthstone Grandmasters Tournament

[Maglen]

In the US they're saying "We're sorry"

But in their chinese social media accounts they're saying ( an official Blizzard account run by the company's Chinese publishing partner Netease took a tougher stance.):

“We express our strong indignation [or resentment] and condemnation of the events that occurred in the Hearthstone Asia Pacific competition last weekend and absolutely oppose the dissemination of personal political ideas during any events [or games]. The players involved will be banned, and the commentators involved will be immediately terminated from any official business. Also, we will protect [or safeguard] our national dignity [or honor].”



https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/10...?sf110478740=1

https://twitter.com/Slasher/status/1181925730877345793

[Vorkreist]

You are a hypicrite for supporting an company who helps china like apple who gave chinese goverment a way to watch iphone users inside their country and then boycoting another company you should boycot all or nothing as picking and choosing is so entitled and if everyone started boycoting chinese products and companies which support china then it would hurt China but people like you make it impossible.

You keep pretending not to get the point in your chinese lawyering drivel.
So in a lack of clear a answer from you after repeating it 3 times now, its basically ok to eat up any free speech abuse done by western companies in china's name and interests because you bought a tv with parts made in china. Got it.

[xuros]

People spam Free Hong Kong just to anger Blizzard. I doubt most of them even care about HK. They are just heroes of the moment because they stand for what is right. Everyone is hero from behind the keyboard.

Truth. I totally agree with you about the internet culture. But still, they should treat them all the same way with the shitty political posts, not make such an extreme example of this young man. It was a total shit thing to do to make their chinese overlords happy.

[MrDaemon]

I wouldn’t call it heroes of the moment. More like edgy hate train users....
Most of the ppl that spam F HK have 0 clue of what is happening and give 2 scent about humans rights.

Hell wanna speak about humans rights lest discuss N Korea situation that is been longer that China HK situation

This ppl give a crap about all this a lot just hate blizzard for other reason and are using this to keep the hate high

Or claim how bad is blizzard for trying to use the Chiness market when 90% of what they consume come from China

Exactly. Also Hk situation is not as black and white as everyone who scream think it is.

This is comment on reddit from someone who is from HK.

[dranlord]

In the US they're saying "We're sorry"

But in their chinese social media accounts they're saying:

“We express our strong indignation [or resentment] and condemnation of the events that occurred in the Hearthstone Asia Pacific competition last weekend and absolutely oppose the dissemination of personal political ideas during any events [or games]. The players involved will be banned, and the commentators involved will be immediately terminated from any official business. Also, we will protect [or safeguard] our national dignity [or honor].”

https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/10...?sf110478740=1

https://twitter.com/Slasher/status/1181925730877345793

Dude you quoting IGN the worst game journal website 8-10 their info are wrong

[zolfare]

So, an honest question to everyone who is buthurt here: He broke the rules he agreed to. Blizzard punished him for it. The specific issue he broke the rules for. to protest against china vs HK are irrelevant.

So my question: If this EXACT situation had been repeated, except it was an American who hijacked the broadcast to protest against Trump, and received exactly the same punishment, would anyone here even have batted an eyelash?

This issue is about the the rules he broke for which he was punished. It is NOT about WHY he broke the rules, or WHAT he broke the rules for.

The exact same thing has happened... an AU gamers team held up a sign saying "Free Hong Kong Boycott Blizz" and they refuse to ban them. There is obviously an agenda at work here. Yesterday I was all for there being some kind of punishment for breaking that rule, but when Blizz will only enforce it when it appeases their agenda? No, this is just wrong. I will not be supporting this company any further until they make further amends than whatever this bull crap is.

[Vorkreist]

for real tho.people here defending china are showing how low IQ they are, or how naive or ignorant they are.

If I read that retarded "don't you guys have something made in china in your house? derp derp You hypocrites" again I'm going to punch a kitten.

[matrix123mko]

Believe what? Guy wanted to give his political message across on a gaming tournament stream, did it and got punished. What's wrong with that?

It is wrong because they punished living saint. HOW DARE THEY!!??111////

[Mardux]

I wonder how many accounts on the US forums have received 1k year bans for insulting the US. Fairly sure that number is up to 0 by now.

Probably much less than the number of accounts that have received 1000 year "bans" for other things .

[dranlord]

If I read that retarded "don't you guys have something made in china in your house? derp derp You hypocrites" again I'm going to punch a kitten.

Just for you

Don’t you guys have something made on China in your house? Derp derp you hypocrites



Outside the joke, I doubt someone defending the point of view here is pro-China like that post you quote

[Ara Myrr]

The exact same thing has happened... an AU gamers team held up a sign saying "Free Hong Kong Boycott Blizz" and they refuse to ban them. There is obviously an agenda at work here. Yesterday I was all for there being some kind of punishment for breaking that rule, but when Blizz will only enforce it when it appeases their agenda? No, this is just wrong. I will not be supporting this company any further until they make further amends than whatever this bull crap is.

It's not like banning the AU team would have led to a bigger shitstorm that they were trying to avoid.

Nope, not at all.

[Mardux]

Holy fucking shit, they're not even apologizing.



This shitstorm just keeps getting worse.

"We're sorry we reprimanded you for breaking a rule that you yourself acknowledged you knew about and broke anyway." - Blizzard

[DotEleven]

I get it, when the news of this first happened, I knew the reason was definitely due to them going off-topic on to a personal matter.

I 100% get that they should face a punishment for what they did, the problem is how Blizz went about it. And the only official blizz communication was a post on a Chinese site that was as political pro-china as it could get. Granted there is a possibility that the government altered that message, I've heard they have access to edit that site. But with no other communication from Blizz I have to believe that's their stance, as they never addressed that message.

And this latest message also misses the point, it only addresses the punishment, not the perception. The perception is Blizz is in China's pocket and any messages they push is purely for profit. They did nothing to assuage that idea.

I'm not expecting them to be pro-HK or anything. I expect them to be transparent to a point.

I mean, that message from what I recall was the Chinese statement on Blitzchung's ban not a reaction to the outcry that happened otherwise.

Like, as I recall, those messages (the initial ruling and the chinese statement) were on the same day or the day right after.

Honestly, the perception doesn't matter. People are gonna be upset. I'm pretty dang sure people aren't upset that Blizzard banned someone for saying something political but something political that they agree with. I've stated before, I bet most of these people saying "Boycott Blizzard" would be cheering for Blizzard if they banned someone for speaking against the riots.

[Mardux]

"We are very angered and disappointed in what happened at the event last weekend and highly object to the expression of personal political beliefs, as always we will defend the pride and dignity of China."

Direct quote from Blizzard.

But don't worry guys his specific views had nothing to do with it.

Can you source that for future references? Apparently google is in bed with china as well since the only thing that comes up when I search for that quote is your post in this specific thread.

[MrDaemon]

I mean, that message from what I recall was the Chinese statement on Blitzchung's ban not a reaction to the outcry that happened otherwise.

Like, as I recall, those messages (the initial ruling and the chinese statement) were on the same day or the day right after.

Honestly, the perception doesn't matter. People are gonna be upset. I'm pretty dang sure people aren't upset that Blizzard banned someone for saying something political but something political that they agree with. I've stated before, I bet most of these people saying "Boycott Blizzard" would be cheering for Blizzard if they banned someone for speaking against the riots.

Good thing these people are no longer in our games. Oh wait most of them will be back after blizzcon anyways.

[Onikaroshi]

Can you source that for future references? Apparently google is in bed with china as well since the only thing that comes up when I search for that quote is your post in this specific thread.

Netease wrote that post, a chinese company that runs that twitter.

[Mardux]

He was punished because it may make China mad if he wasn't. So it was done for money any nothing else.

He was punished for willingly and premeditatively breaking competition rules on a blizzard forum. At least try to not lie.

I agree with blitzchung's general sentiment. I disagree with what china has been doing regarding the subject (and some of what the HK protesters have been doing like blatant vandalism and lighting reporters on fire via Molotov cocktails). But spreading lies and misinformation isn't the right way to go about things.

- - - Updated - - -

Netease wrote that post, a chinese company that runs that twitter.

So a Chinese company wrote a pro-china tweet? And people want to act surprised by this?

[barackohmama]

Good. I'm not against protests in other forms. But I'm tired of politics ruining sport events... Sports bring people together but if you use it as a political platform then you ruin it basically.

[Onikaroshi]

So a Chinese company wrote a pro-china tweet? And people want to act surprised by this?

Basically, though i do think it MIGHT say blizzard on the twitter account, but netease runs all their chinese affairs, or as some people call it "the weabo account" or whatever

[Mycrosys]

Can you source that for future references? Apparently google is in bed with china as well since the only thing that comes up when I search for that quote is your post in this specific thread.

He can't, because it is a translation made by a random guy that is not native with the language. The Translation is also wrong, taken mandarin chinese with a word by word translation which is ridiculous, because it is a very contextual heavy language. There are about 5 different translations out there, but ppl only quote the one inciting the flames. Also, the translation takes 3 Sentences out of a whole block of Statement, which basically is the same that J. Allen Brack posted here - that they want to leave politics out of their plattform.

The part with "we will defend the pride and dignity of China" is plainly wrong. The correct translation reads more on the lines of "we will resolutely safeguard national dignity". There's no mention of China there, it is meant as a generic not only for China, but for other countries as well.

In any case, ppl will always see whatever they want to see. I have already found some ppl using linguistics to "proof" that J Allen Bracks message was written originally in chinese and then translated to english which is ... come on guys ...