Blizzard is reportedly instituting a soft ban on team player cameras and post-game interviews for Hearthstone for the time being. This comes after the collegiate bout involving American University, who held up a “Free Hong Kong, Boycott Blizz” sign during the last few seconds of the post-game footage.
E-sports consultant and reporter Rod Breslau shared the news via Twitter on October 14th, 2019.
Blizzard will once again not allow Collegiate Hearthstone teams player cams or post game interviews following American University’s sign of protest in support of blitzchung last week, sources said https://t.co/SboqxqwMEK
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) October 14, 2019
im impressed with just how many bad decisions Blizzard has made through all of this, truly special
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) October 14, 2019
If you’re unfamiliar with why Blizzard is making the decision, there’s a clip from the Hearthstone tournament where American University was taking on Worcester Poly, and following their defeat they held up the “Free Hong Kong, Boycott Blizz” sign. You can see the clip from Bryant Lurango below.
Blizzard is desperately trying hard to squash any dissent, uprising, or freedom of speech advocates within their community.
They handed out 1,000 year forum bans to Hearthstone users showing support for Hong Kong, and maintained their stance on punishing Chinese player blitzchung for having said “Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our times!” during a post-game interview.
YouTube outfit Inside Gaming recounted Blizzard’s attempts to control the message and suppress the masses from speaking out about the Hong Kong protests in China.
All of the chatter hasn’t subsided entirely yet, and Blizzard is still running damage control for their blunders, even going so far as to cancel their launch event at the Nintendo New York City store for Overwatch on the Switch.
There’s no word on how long Blizzard will keep team-cams banned from collegiate broadcasts of Hearthstone, but don’t expect the company to ease up on their censorship practices anytime soon.
(Thanks for the news tip Chris_Ceee and Guardian EvaUnit02)
