Blizzard Esports has issued a statement on Roger's win of the HCT Winter Championships and their future attitude towards rule violations. Here's what you need to know.
- Roger was previously caught stream-sniping and win-trading
- The stream-sniping causing his team to be disqualified from the Global Games.
- There was no action about the win-trading.
- Blizzard messed up. They acknowledge they didn't properly enforce their own rules.
- Blizzard has stated Roger still earned his championship title.
- Roger and his Taiwanese teammate, Reall, will not be allowed to participate in Grandmaster events for one year.
Quote From Sam Braithwaite Hi all – Sam Braithwaite, Senior Global Franchise Lead for Hearthstone esports here. As we prepare for the 2019 HCT World Championship, I wanted to take the opportunity to address the community’s feedback about one of our professional players, Luo "Roger" Shengyuan, who recently won the HCT Winter Championship.
In Oct. 2018, during the Hearthstone Global Games, we discovered that team Chinese Taipei, which included Roger, tom60229, Shaxy, and Reall had violated the rules to gain a competitive advantage. In response, we administered the penalty outlined in the rules at the time, and disqualified team Chinese Taipei from the competition.
But previously, in April 2018, allegations of Roger and Reall participating in win-trading had surfaced. After an investigation, we discovered their involvement in the incident but did not issue any official warning in response to their rule violation due to an internal miscommunication.
We now realize that our previous rules around these scenarios and our enforcement of them did not meet the standards of our community. We take full responsibility for this. Moving forward, we will be reevaluating our rules for the 2019 season and are committed not only to improving, but also to being more transparent about the way we administer warnings, penalties, and rulings.
Our failure should not diminish Roger’s accomplishments. He earned his championship at HCT Winter and his spot at the upcoming HCT 2019 World Championship on his own merit and in compliance with the official HCT competition ruleset.
While Roger and Reall may still compete in Hearthstone Masters Qualifiers and Masters Tour events, due to having two rule violations last year, they will not be invited to the inaugural year of Hearthstone Grandmasters. Grandmasters will be the highest level of competitive Hearthstone, and its competitors will be held to higher standards, not just in performance, but also in conduct.
Thank you for all your feedback, your support, your patience, and understanding. Hearthstone esports wouldn’t be what it is without you, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts as we prepare to embark on a new chapter of Hearthstone esports in just a few short months.
Comments
Let's appreciate the fact that Blizzard has admitted they messed up and take full responsibility for it. I think they are right to let Roger hold his title, but I hope they will act more adequately next time something like this happens.
I Linked this article on hearthpwn earlier and some pointed out to me they weren’t “banned” just not invited. So while they aren’t invited does this mean they can still somehow qualify?
I’m impressed by their response regarding this issue
I don't think they can qualify either, I think it's just a matter of choice of word. Especially since the sentence is about the events through which you could qualify there.
Def props to Blizzard for being more transparent and for admitting their mistake. We waited years for this attitude, lets hope it lasts.
Is Hearthstone doing enough though to discourage players from cheating going forward?
no
If you have the ability to win a tournament but you have to resort to win trading... I don't really think its that bad tbh
All this doom and gloom about Blizzard lately, yet the Hearthstone team seems to be improving by admitting and learning from their mistakes - both e-sports-wise and design-wise (i.e. latest Hall of Fame). Hope to see more of this!
Delayed justice is better than no justice. I hope next time, Blizzard would act in a timely manner regarding similar situations.
To those people who think that win trading isn't that bad. The person Roger helped out took the spot of another person who could've qualified. There's a victim.