Blizzard's President, J. Allen Brack, has issued a statement via the official Blizzard site about the Blitzchung controversy in the Hearthstone Grandmasters APAC event this past weekend.
- The statement talks about Blizzard's core values and how they believe they were upheld.
- They understand they reacted too quickly and their process was not adequate.
- "Our relationships in China had no influence on our decision"
- Tournament events should be focused on the events themselves and not be a platform for "divisive social or political views".
- Blitzchung will receive the money he earned in Grandmasters Season 2.
- Blitzchung's suspension is being moved to 6 months, down from 1 year. The casters also received 6 month suspensions.
Quote From J. Allen Brack Hello Blizzard Community . . .
I want to take a few minutes to talk to all of you about the Hearthstone Grandmasters tournament this past weekend. On Monday, we made the decision to take action against a player named blitzchung and two shoutcasters after the player shared his views on what’s happening in Hong Kong on our official broadcast channel.
At Blizzard, our vision is “to bring the world together through epic entertainment.” And we have core values that apply here: Think Globally; Lead Responsibly; and importantly, Every Voice Matters, encouraging everybody to share their point of view. The actions that we took over the weekend are causing people to question if we are still committed to these values. We absolutely are and I will explain.
Our esports programs are an expression of our vision and our values. Esports exist to create opportunities for players from around the world, from different cultures, and from different backgrounds, to come together to compete and share their passion for gaming. It is extremely important to us to protect these channels and the purpose they serve: to bring the world together through epic entertainment, celebrate our players, and build diverse and inclusive communities.
As to how those values apply in this case:
First, our official esports tournament broadcast was used as a platform for a winner of this event to share his views with the world.
We interview competitors who are at the top of their craft to share how they feel. We want to experience that moment with them. Hearing their excitement is a powerful way to bring us together.
Over the weekend, blitzchung used his segment to make a statement about the situation in Hong Kong—in violation of rules he acknowledged and understood, and this is why we took action.
Every Voice Matters, and we strongly encourage everyone in our community to share their viewpoints in the many places available to express themselves. However, the official broadcast needs to be about the tournament and to be a place where all are welcome. In support of that, we want to keep the official channels focused on the game.
Second, what is the role of shoutcasters for these broadcasts?
We hire shoutcasters to amplify the excitement of the game. They elevate the watchability and help the esports viewing experience stay focused on the tournament and our amazing players.
Third, were our actions based on the content of the message?
Part of Thinking Globally, Leading Responsibly, and Every Voice Matters is recognizing that we have players and fans in almost every country in the world. Our goal is to help players connect in areas of commonality, like their passion for our games, and create a sense of shared community.
The specific views expressed by blitzchung were NOT a factor in the decision we made. I want to be clear: our relationships in China had no influence on our decision.
We have these rules to keep the focus on the game and on the tournament to the benefit of a global audience, and that was the only consideration in the actions we took.
If this had been the opposing viewpoint delivered in the same divisive and deliberate way, we would have felt and acted the same.
OK, what could Blizzard have done better, and where do we go from here?
Over the past few days, many players, casters, esports fans, and employees have expressed concerns about how we determined the penalties. We’ve had a chance to pause, to listen to our community, and to reflect on what we could have done better. In hindsight, our process wasn’t adequate, and we reacted too quickly.
We want to ensure that we maintain a safe and inclusive environment for all our players, and that our rules and processes are clear. All of this is in service of another important Blizzard value—Play Nice; Play Fair.
In the tournament itself blitzchung *played* fair. We now believe he should receive his prizing. We understand that for some this is not about the prize, and perhaps for others it is disrespectful to even discuss it. That is not our intention.
But playing fair also includes appropriate pre-and post-match conduct, especially when a player accepts recognition for winning in a broadcast. When we think about the suspension, six months for blitzchung is more appropriate, after which time he can compete in the Hearthstone pro circuit again if he so chooses. There is a consequence for taking the conversation away from the purpose of the event and disrupting or derailing the broadcast.
With regard to the casters, remember their purpose is to keep the event focused on the tournament. That didn’t happen here, and we are setting their suspension to six months as well.
Moving forward, we will continue to apply tournament rules to ensure our official broadcasts remain focused on the game and are not a platform for divisive social or political views.
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.
At Blizzard, we are always listening and finding ways to improve—it is part of our culture. Thank you for your patience with us as we continue to learn.
Sincerely,
J. Allen Brack
President of Blizzard Entertainment
Comments
By the way - Blizzard claimed China did not influenced the decission. Yet, this was published on official Blizzard Weibo channel
source: https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/dfkmp1/blizzards_official_weibo_account_just_posted_an/
By claiming China had no influence on their decision they are just claiming that Blizzard itself finds Democracy in Hong Kong to be severely offensive.
That’s so much better..
Just to be clear, repeating the same statement - ''(...) our relationships in China had no influence on our decision. '' - doesn't make it any more genuine...
to be completely fair, those card art changes were probably not because of China....most likely something about ratings or marketing and definitely not "bringing card art up to standards"
either way it's just another case of them trying to get away with an obvious lie
That's false. The changes were obviously made with chinese censorship standards in mind (no overt sexuality, blood and bodyparts). They tried to pass it off as 'making the game more child-friendly' because telling western audiences that their card game was changed to comply with chinese diktats would've gone over as well as a lead balloon.
The sad thing is that people fell for this obvious lie, as it goes to show how far the west has gone down the slippery slope of censorship and puritanism.
but then why do they have china-only card art version for stuff like Skeletons?
If it was only a chinese issue they would have just given the chinese versions different artwork.
Probably because commissioning alternate art for china is extremely overt and obvious. Changing it for all regions gives them some plausible deniability that they're not just doing it to impress Winnie the Pooh, which would have resulted in a wave of criticism similar to what we're seeing now with Blitzchung.
Acting like the US hasn't fought against censorship hard in regards to sexuality and violence in children's entertainment doesn't dismiss the fact that there are also obvious factors other than #somethingsomethingbuzzwordschinesecensorship
Or would you like me to direct you towards Yu-Gi-Oh? Although I'm sure I'll be told China caused that as well right?
So your argument is whataboutism then. That's spiffy. Clearly one instance of misguided western censorship twenty years ago completely negates decades of chinese pressure to alter games, which continues unabated to this day. Bra-vo. This isn't the first time chinese censorship has affected game art. It isn't even the first time it has affected blizzard game art: WoW is famous for having had to alter undead designs considerably for their chinese servers.
But sure, chinese censorship is a buzzword.
Care to provide solid evidence then that China is exactly what is causing such a censorship then? I ask because all too often people on the internet tend to like saying something causes another thing without evidence and just assume everyone else won't challenge their claims
List of chinese cennsored magic cards: http://squt.tripod.com/error8.html
Various altered WoW models on CN servers: https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/49x7m0/chinese_wow_censorship_comparisonlots_of/
Skeleton Knight art in china:
If you want a signed confession from Blizzard that they did what they did because of Chinese censorship, then no, you're probably not going to find it, for the same reason Blizzard lied to us and said the decision to ban Blitzchung had nothing to do with china (while telling Chinese players that it was done to defend the honour of m'lady China). Unfortunately developers and designers aren't nearly as candid about it as they used to be a decade or more ago. I remember when "Chinese alternate card art" was a recurring article type over at Magic: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/alternate-chinese-art-guildpact-part-1-2006-02-23
I invite you to scroll down.
This sentiment is enough for me. It outlines a lot of issues that Brian Kibler had brought up in his own discussion of the mattes, mainly how the punishment was way too harsh.
I think the main issue with the action blizzard took, was the lack of clarity behind their actions. It is important to be clear when invoking punishment and blizzard's initial response failed tremendously at this. Unfortunately because of their poorly handled response, the company's image was seriously damaged.
Blizzard's justification makes sense however, the interview platform was not intended for political expression, and Blitzchung probably knew this when entering the interview. As a matter of fact I wouldn't be surprised if Blitzchung was anticipating some form of repercussions, although the harshness of Blizzards response was probably surprising. Regardless of whether the views expressed were in support of basic human rights, Blizzard does not want there platform to be something that players can use to promote political views, no matter how morally right or wrong they are. Brian Kibler also mentions his understanding of this in his own statement, saying how when he is officially on the job and commenting, he will refrain from speaking about politics save for a minor joke.
Whether or not blizzard should do more to help the people of Hong Kong, I am uncertain. I personally do not believe it is the place of businesses to meddle in political affairs, however it seems this tends to happen anyway. Whatever action Blizzard chooses to take, I hope they'll be able to take the right steps forward while retaining their neutrality.
Why does this reminds me of that?
Blizz is very sorry... but it`s not.
That's a strange... apology...
Well I'm glad they've at least tried to explain, reduce the punishments and not simply just hoped it would all blow over (which I don't think it would).
I still think 6 months is too harsh, surely just one would have been enough and if not then 2-3 for the player.
I'm skeptical about their claim China relationship was not a factor as was expressing an opposing view would have had the same level of penalties.
That said I should disclose that I fell out with Blizzard CS during my WoW days and politely promised them I'd never give them any money ever again (and hence why I am f2p in HS) - so perhaps I am biased here though I always try not to let that influence me too much.
This is what happens when sport becomes a show, or show becomes a sport...
"You think you want human rights but you don't"
I know part of this is meant as a meme post, but in the end something important really needs to be emphasized here. Important issues in other parts of real life does not grant the privilege to break rules everywhere else in support of more weightier issues (at least not all of the time anyway). This is just one of countless examples of this.
This is one reason I have a problem with ThatsAdmirable throwing out the word "right" multiple times at the end of his statement. Yes, many of us do believe it is right to stand up for other human beings. It is in our nature to not want to cause or allow suffering to others BUT that still doesn't mean it was right of Blitzchung to hijack an entertainment company's event that everyone was invested in to enjoy a game's tournament, nor was it right to force a company not directly invested in battling the many vices of human rights on an international level. Blitz doing what he did forced their hand to react in a situation that they did not create by bringing up intense human rights battles themselves. Regardless of how you felt about the severity of the response one way or another it would take anybody with common sense to predict that if Blizzard didn't do some form of temporary sizable response that future mic-drop political/sociocultural comments would be used in future tournament events at some point. You don't get people to follow the rules for events by not responding to questionable tournament actions nor do you get people to follow rules by not assigning consequences at all.
I'll end with a hypothetical to further illustrate this issue of free speech, human rights, and the need for order in everyday life despite intense battles over human rights violations. Say you owned your own music radio channel and one of your hosts just decided to cut the top 10 hits or whatever to give a 5 minute speech about something related to human rights (a speech not related to your schedule on the station for that day or related to any talk-show portion of your station's program). The topic on human rights could be related to anything really (whether the events in China, the mistreatment and abuse of children, individuals, and/or families at the US Mexican border, etc). In this hypothetical what would you do? Your employee clearly violated rules associated with their job and also brought your specific station into question by wildly departing from the entire purpose of your radio station. It isn't to say that what said employee talked about was not important, quite the opposite, but you can't just hijack what isn't yours and break rules for other parts of daily life (entertainment, work, etc) just to stop the daily routine and promote what is passionate for you. There are plenty of APPROPRIATE MEDIUMS for that very thing. It is not appropriate to turn a medium into something it is not.
Guys, c`mon Blizzard is a publicly traded company...its a business and as any business the main purpose of it is earnings.
I`m surprised to see all those child like comments and actions, from casters and players alike, considering that the average age of HS players is above 27.
I saw a post from a player that spent 10K on HS and after this he decided to walk away from it "without any problems or second thoughts" - in my opinion its ridiculous.