Update: Comments have been hidden on this article. I'm disappointed in some of the takes - we're better than this, Out of Cards community.
Blizzard has tweeted from the official Hearthstone Esports account stating that Paul "Zalae" Nemeth has been suspended from all Hearthstone Esports events. Zalae was due to play in the Hearthstone Grandmasters event which has its groups matches being played off-stream starting today in roughly an hour from this post.
Quote From @HSEsports Hearthstone Esports is aware of allegations made against Americas Grandmaster, Paul "Zalae" Nemeth. Upon further review, we have suspended Zalae from competing in all Hearthstone Esports events.
If you are involved in a domestic abuse situation, here is a list of hotlines that can provide you with support and resources.
For context, Rini accused Zalae of abuse during their relationship back in January of this year.
Quote From Rini I really don't think much will come of this, Zalae will likely deny or just duo stream with some friends, maybe take some time off, go visit his current girlfriend, whatever it takes to ignore discussing it. But I'm tired of keeping quiet and I really wanted his current girlfriend to see this because honestly, I can't deal with the idea of her possibly getting hurt like this or worse, and it would be on my conscience for not speaking up.
I tried to record this MANY times keeping his name out of my mouth but the editing was just too painful and I gave him multiple chances to speak to me regarding these things despite my therapist's direct orders to never speak with him again, but all have been unanswered and the more recent one has been sitting for over a month, and he's chosen not to say anything.
I'm going in order of big things > small
The last night we lived together, Zalae repeatedly was taunting/body posturing at me like he was going to hit me, closing me into small spaces, making himself appear bigger/threatening and physically grabbing my wrists tightly to hold me in the small spaces (there were about 10 - 13 occasions where I told him to back away because he was scaring me, and he would back away "oh gosh, sorry, you're right" before simply doing it again, all the meanwhile yelling at me with his face right in front of mine and refusing to sit down and compromise, which I had been trying to do the entire time
-This resulted in me giving 2 open-handed arm slaps I laid on the middle of his arm (-the biggest part- he's way bigger than me & I didn't use real force behind it, it was a warning because words were not helping and he was very scary)-
I was very clear to him about how he was scaring me and repeatedly vocalized this and kept moving my position to give myself more space so he would realize how enclosed I had been, but he continued closing me in and backing me into the counters or walls.
The second slap resulted in him physically picking me up and dragging me to the bedroom, throwing me on the bed, physically got on top of me and put a pillow over my face while holding me down, effectively suffocating me until I managed to get a breath to yell "I can't breathe!!"
He was in such a rage, he perhaps didn't even see what he was doing but I guess that snapped him out of it, so he got off of me. Woke me up early the next morning and he told me I had less than 24 hours to get out of his house and that -I- was abusive and he didn't feel safe.
I can't believe I believed him. But he also refused to listen to anything I would say about what he did, and in his mind I seriously believe he thinks because he didn't physically hit me, that somehow washes away his actions.
Zalae was incredibly emotionally abusive, telling me things like "you're not good enough" and "you're on a maternal clock, so you need to be better/what I want before you run out of time to have kids"
Oh, also - Get this.
Apparently he HAS to cum every day (which I accommodated) but when I explain I get off better with oral, he demands I apologize and says it's a big ask/time commitment because he had done it recently.
He would often argue just to be the winner of an argument (the FEW we had that were all small and insignificant) rather than usual level-headedness.
It was all about control. How dare I stand up for myself.
He needs serious help.
He needs to go to anger management.
He needs to realize he was in the wrong and that he instigated and intentionally threatened me with his body language and then eventually actual force because I wanted to compromise and he couldn't stand that he wasn't "winning the argument" instead of working with his girlfriend on an issue he was fully aware of.
The most frustrating part is, we really clicked, we really got along and I was never under the impression anything was wrong until he would come to me, frustrated that I wasn't working out enough. Like seriously, that was his reasoning even though we were going on walks/runs every day. He brought this up every 2-3 weeks for the 10 weeks I lived there despite acting like everything was perfectly fine otherwise.
He refused to help me along the way with working out for example until I really pulled his teeth about it and begrudgingly did so.
I frequently made myself available to him, but he expected me to simply do things because that's what he expected.
He's a control freak and it's really obvious he viewed us as a transactional relationship, nothing more. His lack of respect towards me has been appalling and I tried to not talk about it because I didn't want to affect his career but I'm sick of being quiet. His girlfriend deserves to know and I can't move on without this being said.
I've removed myself from the Hearthstone community because I just can't deal being around it/him despite having so many friends and people I respect in it.
I have had immense anxiety about going live because I don't know what to do anymore, or who I should be.
This is also a large reason I've been in search of community management/social media management positions, because honestly this has really ruined a lot about streaming as a whole for me.
I don't really have variety friends who I think want to play games with me, and I just feel like this break up has taken so much from me. But I needed to say this so you can all understand my hiatus and why I've felt so trapped and confused lately.
I don't know what else to say, but I'm open to answer more questions, because I definitely missed things between these two.
Oh, also if you want to continue supporting him, that's your prerogative, and I'm not suggesting you stop. But I also want you to know he's kind of shitty.
Thanks for listening/reading.
FWD: Thank you to those who encouraged me to speak up. I couldn't have done this without each of you.
Comments
This is really absurd to be considered in the same spectrum as domestic abuse. From my point of view, Zalae (or whatever his name is) is definitely the bigger asshole in the situation and he deserves the hate but his girlfriend also seemed to be extremely pushy with continuing the relationship after being repeatedly told that they should break up. It is one of those moments where 2 humans that are not compatible are forced to comply with one another and both snap at the same time. I don't know why this is considered to be big news, the guy is obviously not a nice person but he did not really do anything that should warrant a huge mob or ban either.
Don't know the guy personally, but his cocky online persona doesn't make me doubt Rini's story in the slightest.
I was not aware of his attitude toward the Reward Track controversy. FWIW I would have been 100 percent on his side on that, and he absolutely does not deserve any backlash for not falling in line with the hivemind on such an overblown issue.
He does, however, deserve some backlash if Rini's account has any truth to it. He should have realized he needed to learn some anger management skills long before it got to this point.
I've watched the video a few months ago but honestly, this is one thing that apparently has been keeping on a low profile until yesterday when I saw it resurface itself in Blizz's hearthstone twitter. I do mean low profile; I literally can't find anything else other than Rini's statement on it and the usual community outrage for stuff like this has been surprisingly small. Apparently Zalae has been keeping himself from commenting on the subject, even though Rini left plenty of space and time for him to come out and deny or at least put out his version of the events.
In any case, the fact that blizz has opted to only suspend him means that they don't actually even know what is going on and the decision was forced upon them since behaviors like these are (rightfully) intolerable in what is supposedly a modern human society.
Just speculating; I'd expect Zalae himself to either retire (because let's be honest why hasn't he) or get himself unceremoniously booted out of grandmasters because there's absolutely no way blizz can leave this hanging. Knowing him, its unlikely he'll ever come out and explain what really happened because whatever he says is unlikely to change anything and would likely even get worse.
Personally, I dont like the guy and I'm happy to see him lose his privilege. He mocked the hearthstone community when the battle pass first launched, why should the community go to bat for him? Also, Blizzard is a company, not a government body. They are not beholden to anyone. They have a right to not welcome him to any more events going forward and can even ban his account. They are not judge jury and executioner here.
The running defense is "let the courts decide", they already did and the U. S. Government decided it's within Blizzard's rights to deny zalae service for any reason they see fit. Guilty in the eyes of the law or not.
It's not the community's place to "go to bat" for anyone in a case like this, one way or the other, and Zalae's opinion on an unrelated matter should have no bearing on this decision. The fact that you even bring it up shows why the community has no business getting involved.
These type of situations are always difficult - one persons word against another (assuming he is denying it).
Historically there are plenty of times where a partner is abused physically or mentally and not believed, and conversely a malicious false allegation made against someone innocent. (I am speaking in general here not implying anything about this specific instance).
It's not my place to cast a verdict of guilty/not guilty - I don't personally know the individuals involved.
All that said, solely based on personality traits I've observed when streaming and interactions with the community, if it were all to be true I would find myself experiencing a lack of surprise.
I hope whatever the case the truth is revealed and proportionate fair justice enacted. The same goes for any allegation of abuse regardless of gender, race or religion.
This is a credible statement from a woman who has absolutely nothing to gain other than healing from a hard traumatic relationship. Large sports organizations would put a player on suspension while they conducted an independent investigation. Blizzard doesn't have the power or resources to launch this sort of setup. It's in their best interest to suspend, because it's history of suspensions for criticizing China not doing so for serious domestic abuse allegations is not a good look. They attempted to ignore it but realized that it was a controversy that could only end poorly for them.
Yeah, the issue with abuse as a crime (especially nonphysical abuse) is that it can't ever be really proven or disproven. In terms of this specific case, I don't think Rini really has any motive to lie (her allegations are not as extreme as they could be, and she specifically asks for him not to be punished), so I'm inclined to believe her even without proof. There almost definitely isn't any proof out there (unless someone installs a security camera in Zalae's apartment or he's recorded admitting to it) and Rini isn't pressing charges, so the full extent of this seems to just be a temporary ban on Zalae (which hopefully motivates him to seek help, though it's unlikely) and now future women that Zalae dates will be more watchful of abusive behavior, so I think it turned out fairly well. I'm not sure if temporarily banning Zalae is exactly the best solution (Rini explicitly stated that she didn't want vengeance), but given that Blizzard can't really force him to go into therapy there's nothing else they can do except punish the alleged bad behavior.
EDIT: Why am I being downvoted? Did I say anything offensive or harmful? I'm earnestly trying to understand because it seems very strange to me that everyone hates this specific comment and I don't know what I did wrong.
EDIT 2: Is it because I said "I believe Rini without proof"? Because I meant that in a casual way of me thinking that her story makes sense (I generally expect most people to not lie), not in the sense that I think it has been proven.
I watched the video, the mannerisms, body language and listened to the language used and the way in which things were recounted and how emotions were conveyed/displayed. I personally found it convincing.
I have not changed my earlier view that if the allegations were to be true I would not be surprised.
I agree with someone earlier who said these things are very sad.
I don't agree with sentiments that appear to characterize the entire male gender as a danger to women (I am male), but I also agree abuse/harm is unacceptable and far too many people are subjected to it. It's my hope things improve.
Regardless of what the full context is, I don't understand why this exact situation happens as often as it does. Quite frankly, it's just sad.
Dumb Zalae never mess with people with power.
Women can get any man arrested,
Current rape statistics in the US show about 57 arrests for every 1,000 rapes. Furthermore only about 7 of those will face jail time. No, a woman can not just get any man arrested.
Good.
but false
You're a moron. Don't come back.
What? She didn't get him arrested and she specifically said that she didn't want any negative career consequences for him. The ban is entirely a PR move by Blizzard, not part of Rini's "evil scheme."
I know but it can lead to an arrest. I was also generally speaking.
It seems very unlikely that this would lead to an arrest, Rini seems like she wants to avoid the situation as much as possible (going to trial for something like this is very stressful and I don't think she'd want it). Also, I looked it up and domestic abuse for a first-time offender only carries a jail time of 1 year or a $5,000 dollar fine, so it's not like it would ruin his life. Also generally speaking false accusations don't happen that often so it's not worth worrying too much about (most people aren't cruel and sadistic enough to falsely accuse someone of rape and maintain the facade through a full trial. At that point I'd be more worried about someone murdering me for revenge than them accusing me of rape). Overall, although "believe women" is definitely an abusable social norm, most people are moral enough to not do that and statistics show it's not a widespread issue. If you're really scared about it, just don't piss anyone off so much that they would do that to you.
I remember when people were having issues with the initial rewards track. Someone in chat brought up the subject, and Zelae very disdainfully said that he didn't care and wasn't going to talk about it. My response was that he was surprisingly selfish and unempathetic. Instead of being empathetic towards the community he was a part of, a community that is understandably concerned about the unreasonable cost of the game they enjoy, he basically didn't give a shit because he was making a living and getting what he wanted. It left me with an uncomfortable feeling, and I never watched him stream again after that.
This current news just seems to fit in perfectly with that type of attitude, selfishness, and lack of empathy. I'm an adult, don't gossip about people, and never weigh-in on things like this, but I don't like judging people harshly, and all of this makes me feel as if I wasn't very far off the mark getting put off enough to avoid watching him. There's the saying that, if someone shows you who they are, believe them. My support goes out to Rani. I'm not trying to be hyper-woke or anything, just human.
It's understandable to be turned off by his reaction, but - and I'm assuming you didn't, which may be wrong here - try to consider it from his perspective. How many times may he have been asked about the issue before you saw that particular response? Sure, streamers get paid to answer stupid questions all day, but everyone has a point where they say, "I'm done talking about it." I will say that even if he was exasperated, there are better ways to handle it; one way would be a chatbot command (something like !battlepass) that posts a premade response. Then, mods or other chatters can jump in and respond to people who ask about the streamer's opinion while the streamer focuses on being entertaining and answering other, less repetitive questions. I haven't personally watched him in years, so I don't know if he had something like that set up.
Looking at other comments here, it seems like his stance was as you described from the start. I just wanted to offer another factor in the judgements you might make about streamers.
Got quite mad about him not caring about people back then on the reward system outrage, I am still not playing (I actually quit unlike 99.999% of hpwn users who claimed to quit), he was one of the driving factors for me to quit he showed me how little Blizzard or the community symbols actually cared about the community.
Not surprised if he is guilty, he can be quite a douche to people, he was quite a fan of his collab with Firebat back then.