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

[Easo]

So breaking contract (both the player and the casters) should just go completely unpunished.

Yes in this case. I am not sure why that is a problem? There are other things and values in the world outside of written contracts, especially when the company itself supposedly promotes those values... xD

[oplawlz]

Okay but what exactly is blizzard it any company supposed to do about this? The only way this actually ends is with war. China doesn't give a shit about protests from the West.

Don't tacitly support a tyrannical dictatorship - it's really not that hard to understand. Activision-blizzard literally turns billions in profits every year. They by no means *need* the Chinese market.

[Onikaroshi]

Yes in this case. I am not sure why that is a problem? There are other things and values in the world outside of written contracts, especially when the company itself supposedly promotes those values... xD

It's still breach of contract, contracts are legally binding. They HAVE to follow it or all other contracts can be seen as null. Contract law is very fickle

[Thetruth1400]

"J. Allen Brack;

One of our goals at Blizzard is to make sure that every player, everywhere in the world, regardless of political views, religious beliefs, race, gender, or any other consideration always feels safe and welcome both competing in and playing our games.

Harvesting prisoners organs? Acceptable.
Police misconduct towards protesters? Acceptable.
Handing citizens over to the Chinese government with a 99.9% conviction rate? Acceptable.
Having facial recognition software and a "social credit score" system in place? Acceptable.
Religious genocide? Acceptable.

It's good to know even if your political belief is that people shouldn't have basic human rights, Blizzard apparently supports that as long as you don't speak about it on their games.

Don't tacitly support a tyrannical dictatorship - it's really not that hard to understand. Activision-blizzard literally turns billions in profits every year. They by no means *need* the Chinese market.

Especially when even the high estimates put the Chinese market in the 5-10% of Blizzard's business profits section. They'd be completely find without any of China's money; they're literally doing it for greed's sake.

[oplawlz]

So breaking contract (both the player and the casters) should just go completely unpunished.

Did you even read the wording of the rule being invoked? It states that the punishment is "solely by Blizzards discretion". Google that if you don't understand the issue.

[Onikaroshi]

Did you even read the wording of the rule being invoked? It states that the punishment is "solely by Blizzards discretion". Google that if you don't understand the issue.

It's a catch all. People don't want to see that type of thing when they tune in to watch a competition broadcast, therefore it negatively impacts Blizzards image.

Also it sets precedence for others using blizzard broadcasts as a political platform. Don't come crying when they let Blitz off with nothing and the next guy uses it to talk about the Alt-Right or some other nonsense. All that person would need to do is get a contract lawyer and he could use that as a case study to say that Blizzard breached the contract because the let Blitz off.

[Fawnix]

Blizzcons gonna be interesting.

[Spotnick]

It's funny how people react to this, considering they most likely doing it on electronics made in China surrounded by many items that are made in China doing by people in factories for 1$/h.

And I'm not even touching the Saudi.. You know, friendly people you buy oil from that killed an american journalist at their embassy in Turkey because he expresses his views about them and they dismantled him to get his body out of there?

A bit worst than losing a job if you ask me, for clearly voicing a political opinion on a corporate channel instead of the public space.

[Onikaroshi]

Blizzcons gonna be interesting.

You mean awesome, new expansion announcement, probably some huge non-mobile diablo news, hopefully some big overwatch stuff.

People going to blizzcon aren't going to be worried about this crap, all that money on tickets and plane rides and hotels to get tossed out if they start shit? yea, no.

[Confucius]

they say that Bobby Kotick came five times whilst reading this statement prepared by corporate lawyers

[Agrias2x]

Seems like a load of BS. They though they could get away with it but they were wrong. They realized they screwed up badly and now they doing damage control. I will never trust Acrivision Blizzard, they are not what they used to be.

[Kaibel]

Stoke that fire, my popcorn is ready for Blizzcon

[TwoMana]

So now that they have the benefit of hindsight and have pondered long and deep about their Values, this is the best they came up with? Damn.

What they should have done instead is rescind everything, give blitzchung a slap on the wrist and tell him to not do it again and then put out a statement on how Blizzard actually listens to its values, apologize for the heavy handedness but still point out how tournament play needs to be about tournament play and not about politics.

Much like they do in all of their games. You don't get a 7 month ban for talking shit on Trade-chat, you get auto-silenced for a while.
But I guess this is where we are. Heavy handed, big bizniz. Fuckers.

[Muajin76]

It's pretty simple to see why Blizz did it. They would lose money..endorsements..etc by not punishing someone making a comment about the current situation over there. Not to mention how big Warcraft was in China, that made them some good earnings. Saving face and securing their financial stability in China were why the decision/punishment was made. At first, I was all for the protests until they started getting violent and most recently, destroying MTR stations. The reason things aren't being handled with seriousness from the mainland side is due to the delicate situation caused by one country 2 system thing.

[Aresk]

There seem to be a lot of people in this thread that want Blizzard to drop the entire Chinese player base because their government does some horrible things. My government does some horrible things, and one of my preferred developers then cutting availability to their games would not make my life any better.

[Muajin76]

So now that they have the benefit of hindsight and have pondered long and deep about their Values, this is the best they came up with? Damn.

What they should have done instead is rescind everything, give blitzchung a slap on the wrist and tell him to not do it again and then put out a statement how Blizzard actually listen to its values, but how tournament play needs to be about tournament play and not politics.

Much like they do in all of their games. You don't get a 7 month ban for talking shit on Trade-chat, you get auto-silenced for a while.
But I guess this is where we are. Heavy handed, big bizniz. Fuckers.

I'm sure if some big name streamer like A-gold did the same thing, they'd only get a slap on the wrist..not a ban.

[Eapoe]

Did the “okay” symbol ban get this many pages? Was there this much outcry because I honestly can’t remember.

[Playintrafic]

Sorry Blizzard, unless you plan on unbanning blitzchung, rehiring the two casters and issuing a heartfelt public apology I'm not interested.

Unless the plan on unbanning everyone they have ever banned from any game for any reason they are still just hypocrites.

blitzchung broke the rules, was very unprofessional and would have been fired from any job for doing what he did while on the clock. He shouldn't ever be allowed to compete in hearthstone again. And should be thankful he wasn't fined much less loosing the prize money for which he disqualified himself of receiving.

[Kallisto]

This is not convincing. While i agree that the player should have been fined for breaking the rules and i think this outcome is not not bad for him at all, the issue of the casters still doesn't fit. They did nothing wrong. They hid and tried to have him stop, yet they are the ones taking the brunt here. No, Brack, i cannot believe this is not politically motivated when only a regime washes away everyone in the picture. The casters did nothing wrong. It makes no sense to punish them except as a show of force and intimidation.

No the casters egged him on encouraging him to say it, giggling the entire time. That puts them up there too in the blame with Blitzchung

[dragnipur]

https://9gag.com/gag/a858r8V

Looks like last year's Diablo fiasko was not enough for Blizzard.
“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://9gag.com/gag/a7wM5Ew