The Hearthstone team that protested Blizzard hasn't been reprimanded

(Image credit: Blizzard)

Shortly after Blizzard removed a player from the Hearthstone Grandmasters for calling for Hong Kong's liberation, the American University college team held up a banner that read "Free Hong Kong, Boycott Blizz" during a match. Not only were they offered another match, there were apparently no consequences at all. 

One of the team's players took to Reddit to highlight what they consider hypocrisy on Blizzard's part, claiming that it's evidence the company treats people differently, depending on their region.

"They are hesitant to suppress free speech when it happens in America, on an English language stream, but will throw casters' and players' livelihoods under the bus if they are from Hong Kong or Taiwan. It should also dispel the idea that Blitzchung was punished for bringing politics into Hearthstone, because our message was clearly political and we weren't touched. Blitzchung was punished because China was watching."

American University's protest was different in that it specifically called out Blizzard, as well as calling for Hong Kong's freedom, so it arguably crossed two lines. The disparity in Blizzard's reaction is stark, though it's also worth noting that this happened after it was already under pressure from players, so it could also be a reaction to that. 

While the team has been offered another match, they've decided to drop out of the tournament. Blizzard has not been in touch, team member Casey Chambers told us via email, and the team won't be participating in future tournaments until changes its decision in regards to Hong Kong and Ng Wai "blitzchung" Chung's removal from the Grandmasters. 

The Blizzard boycott has been underway for several days now, though Blizzard remains silent on the matter. On the subreddit, the top posts continue to support Hong Kong while condemning the company, with Overwatch's Mei even becoming a protest symbol.

Fraser Brown
Online Editor

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog. 

Latest in Card Game
Hands pushing poker chips on a table
Winning $2.6 billion in this poker videogame has completely ruined fake poker for me
A pack of real life Balatro cards.
The official Balatro Timeline documents the history of 2024's biggest game as its developer went from 'obsessed' with making it to 'shocked' at the reception
Mage cards from Hearthstone's Into the Emerald Dream expansion.
Hearthstone card reveal: If it's wrong to love a magic blue owl, I don't want to be right
Characters in The Bazaar, a Hero-Builder game by Tempo, stand confidently with their weapons of choice raised.
Early backers of game decry 'bait and switch' after it backtracks on monetisation promises, dev chooses to stir the pot: 'Seeing Reddit lose it today lets me breathe a huge sigh of relief'
Yu-Gi-Oh! EARLY DAYS COLLECTION screenshot showing a character complaining about losing a battle
This Yu-Gi-Oh! retro collection transported me to a simpler time in TCGs, before Pot of Greed was banned and the Avengers were in Magic: The Gathering
A smudged joker face
Balatro finally escapes its silly 18+ age rating, PEGI promises 'a more granular set of classification criteria' for gambling-themed games in the future
Latest in News
Sony RGB LED panel tech
Sony's fixing the wrong panel problems while showing off its new 'RGB LED' backlight tech with outrageous colours and brightness
Super Mario World
Super Nintendo consoles appear to be running ever-so-slightly faster as they age and speedrunning detectives are hot on the case
A photo of an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor surrounded by DDR5 memory sticks from Corsair, Kingston, and Lexar
Fresh leak suggests Intel's on-again-off-again Arrow Lake CPU refresh is back on the menu (boys)
A Colorful RTX 5080 and its box
Three lucky folks in India can win the dubious honour of buying an RTX 5080 GPU at Nvidia MSRP
The Facebook 'Like' emoji logo is seen in this photo illustration on 22 August, 2023 in Warsaw, Poland. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Get ready to argue with your weird Uncle on Facebook again. Meta is rolling out its new fact checking solution to it's 190 million users in the United States
Gabe Newell in a Valve promotional video, on a yacht.
Go ahead and complain the discounts aren't as steep as they used to be, but Steam just had its biggest year ever for seasonal sales