Blizzard bans pro Hearthstone gamer for statement supporting Hong Kong

Enlarge / Ng "Blitzchung" Wai Chung declares his support for Hong Kong while two announcers duck behind their desks. (credit: Blizzard)

Blizzard has stripped a Hong Kong professional Hearthstone player of his tournament prize money and banned him from tournament play for a year after he expressed support for Hong Kong during the livestream of a Hearthstone game. Blizzard said that the actions of Ng "Blitzchung" Wai Chung violated Section 6.1 of the tournament's rules, which prohibits players from doing anything that "offends a portion or group of the public."

"Grandmasters is the highest tier of Hearthstone Esports and we take tournament rule violations very seriously," Blizzard wrote. "While we stand by one's right to express individual thoughts and opinions, players and other participants that elect to participate in our esports competitions must abide by the official competition rules."

Blizzard has deleted the video from its video-on-demand service. But gaming news site Inven Global posted the offending portion to Twitter. According to Inven Global, Blitzchung shouted, in Chinese, "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!" He also donned a gas mask, a symbol of the Hong Kong protestors.

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