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

[Lulbalance]

I don't care about HK, China or Blizzard.. really entertaining to watch this dumpster fire though,lol!

[anon5123]

"haha he broke the rules, human rights don't matter lol just let china do what they want xd"

How much is China paying you?

[buck008]

What's wrong with it is Blizzard choosing to defend a brutal dictatorship that is oppressing its citizens and violating human rights on a daily basis.

If you can't see what's wrong with that, then I can only assume you're a paid shill.

EDIT: Looks like there's a few other chinabots in this thread too. Lol.

Blizzard has had a business relationship with China for years. China hasn't changed. Hell, most of the major companies you interact with on a daily basis also do. Blizzard is an easy company to dunk on, so they did something shitty and everyone can pretend they care about China for a minute.

It's funny to me to see when people decide a company should take a moral stand at the cost of their bottom line and when they blame everyone else instead.

Lastly, while we may not like silencing a protest, they were basically on a Chinese state broadcast. We're not playing by our rules, we're playing by theirs. And those rules were clearly spelled out.

None of that is caping for China nor Blizzard. It's just reality. I don't know your life, maybe you do boycott companies that deal with China all the time already. I doubt it, but I could be wrong. But if you gave a shit about China, if anybody did, we'd have heard about protests before now. This is way more about Blizzard and finding something else to shit on them for. Look, they deserve it, but don't pretend you're crusading for human rights or something.

[Nokami]

Your whataboutism changes nothing. Again, you're going out of your way to just dodge the issue at hand while going "w-w-w-what about this?!? you're a bad guy!". Excpet, I supported none of that, Stop with your morally grey fence sitting and deal with the issue that was brought up and don't try to hop subjects to avoid dealing with it. If you're fine with authoritarians crushing the freedoms of people, say so but don't try to whataboutism your way out of the topic.

I just do not jump at human right violations at other countries while my own is doing the same stuff without a huge outcry. People are so fast to point at china all the time but are just fucking blind to the human rights we as western nations violate every single day. The issue here is simple, no one got killed (something that we are already better) but someone broke a rule and got punished for doing so.

If i break a fucking law in real life i will be punished for that, deal with it.

[Skirdus]

They didn't even have to get into the nitty gritty of the political climate they're dealing with. They just had to apologize, and they couldn't even do that. Absolutely shameful

[Goldielocks]

It's funny how people are continuously equating legality with morality as if they're interchangeable. There was no display of vulgarity or anything of the sort. All he did was hold up a sign. Fact of the matter is that this rule would not exist and the punishment would not be this severe if Blizzard didn't care about China's view of them.

This whole thing stinks of bootlicking.

[cuafpr]

to me the key take away is them saying they would have taken the same action had she spoke out in favor of China... long as the stance is equally applied to all sides it's ok.

[anon5123]

Blizzard has had a business relationship with China for years. China hasn't changed. Hell, most of the major companies you interact with on a daily basis also do. Blizzard is an easy company to dunk on, so they did something shitty and everyone can pretend they care about China for a minute.

It's funny to me to see when people decide a company should take a moral stand at the cost of their bottom line and when they blame everyone else instead.

thanks for defending a dictatorship actively oppressing its citizens

[Nokami]

Fact of the matter is that this rule would not exist and the punishment would not be this severe if Blizzard didn't care about China's view of them.

First of all where is the fact that blizzard would not do that with any other political view? We have one incident now, so there is not enough room for your "fact". Also EVERY tournament has an anti-political rule in place, it's not something blizzard has a patent of. That rule is also in place for good reasons as politics is not the topic of a fucking gaming tournament.

[THEORACLE64]

How much is China paying you?

Crawl back to your failed Area 51 raid. I completely disagree with everything China is doing; China is a completely disgusting country generally. There’s a time and a place to voice an opinion, so when he did it in a place that has rules against anything off-topic being discussed that was clearly the wrong time. Unfortunately breaking such rules has consequences. People would rather believe Blizzard is lying and they wouldn’t enforce their rules if it was the other way around, because screw the big guys right?! Edgy against the corporate machine right!??!! Internet conspiracies right?! such typical attitudes.

[Grapefruitsnz]

good f'n joke, i doubt the biggest white knight of blizz would believe this.

It's the direct quote from the Chinese translation posted on their version of twitter, which has been accused in the past of editing western posts and statements to be more 'pro china'. Considering the last line mentions 'defending our country', I'm going to guess that was the case, and that Blizzard didn't actually say.

[buck008]

thanks for defending a dictatorship actively oppressing its citizens

Yea, maybe you should learn what words mean before you go and type something like that.

[shadowmatrix]

They didn't even have to get into the nitty gritty of the political climate they're dealing with. They just had to apologize, and they couldn't even do that. Absolutely shameful

Did Blizzard apologize or did Netease apologize?

[Kanegasi]

I've read many posts and comments across the Internet that stated this wouldn't have been a big deal if it was only a suspension and the prize money was untouched. Blizzard corrects themselves down to just that, yet people are still mad.

I accept Blizzard's statement and agree that blitzchung clearly violated a tournament rule. I also accept this change of decision as a vague apology. I'm still not convinced the casters should be punished, they didn't steer the conversation to that point and they have no control over what a player blurts out, but at least they aren't fired.

I also agree that the point of the rule is to keep non-game stuff out. It doesn't matter what it is. Literally none of you would be this loud if blitzchung blurted out anything else that would've got him punished. The Hong Kong issue is emotionally sensitive, stop and think before boarding the circlejerk train.

As a disclaimer, I support Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Tibet. You can say "fuck China" all you want and still think critically.

[Merin]

It's hard to get through people who just shrug every time someones human rights are violated. People think China violently and brutally crushing people who just want to breath free in the face of their murderous, iron fisted authoritarians regime is just politics and nothing more. The west has lost it's fucking spine, people should be ashamed of themselves.

Partially I think due to the sensationalist click bait shit show modern news has become in the US and the fact that social media is literally mind poison I would imagine a chunk of people have pretty much just thrown up their hands at following the current events and just opt out off following anything that could be even remotely interpreted as politics.

I don’t think the West has lost its spine, But half the populace is tired of being mad and the other half who is perpetually mad spend that time being mad at soulless corporations rather then looking into actual politics and officials that could make genuine change.

This is America though and if you don’t put a celebrity or a brand logo on something no one’s going to give a fuck. These companies basically wants employees to be indentured slaves, dodge taxes, etc and people are surprised they’re ignoring current events and just following the law in China to make money?

[AlmightyGerkin]

Here is picture to resemble Blizzard's actions and probably further actions http://www.heavymetal.com/wp-content.../09/grave1.jpg

[Schmeebs]

It's funny how people are continuously equating legality with morality as if they're interchangeable. There was no display of vulgarity or anything of the sort. All he did was hold up a sign. Fact of the matter is that this rule would not exist and the punishment would not be this severe if Blizzard didn't care about China's view of them.

This whole thing stinks of bootlicking.

would you be saying the same thing if someone was spewing super right wing views after winning a match?

[Logwyn]

Apologize for what, upholding the rules? He can't talk about Hong Kong, the next American who wins can't talk about the Klan, The next German who wins can't talk about Nazis, etc. What good is having rules if you keep making exceptions?

So you are staying that Blizzard's stance is that people who want to be free and allowed the right of self-determination and not be under the shackle of a communist master is the same as the Klan and the Nazis?

Man, that is a long and far stretch of things of something trying to be edgy, drunk, stoned, or just someone ignorant of the world.

[Nagawithlegs]

would you be saying the same thing if someone was spewing super right wing views after winning a match?

Of course not.

[Gadzooks]

They punished the guy for derailing the tournament/broadcast with politics. Some people were offended by what he said. The guy understood he was violating the rules, but did it anyway. Seems like a fair punishment in my book, and heck now they even lessened it.

Derailed the tournament? It happened at the end of the tournament, when it was over.