A U.S. Video Game Company Banned a Player During a Tournament for Supporting the Hong Kong Protests

Blizzard Entertainment, the California-based video game company behind World of Warcraft and Overwatch, has banned a professional player from one of its esports leagues for expressing support of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong after winning a tournament match over the weekend. Hearthstone player Chung “blitzchung” Ng Wai, who is from Hong Kong, removed a gas mask and goggles to say “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!” in a postgame interview Saturday with two shoutcasters on the official Taiwanese Hearthstone livestream, according to esports news outlet Inven Global. The company issued a league ruling on Tuesday that said it found Blitzchung’s conduct to be “a competition rule violation,” prompting Blizzard to immediately remove him from the professional league, zero out his winnings for the season, and ban him from competitive Hearthstone play until Oct. 5, 2020. Blizzard’s actions come on the heels of several notable reactions from the Chinese government to perceived slights in media and culture, including the country’s complete and retroactive censorship of South Park over the recent episode “Band in China,” the NBA kerfuffle following a pro-Hong Kong tweet by the Houston Rockets’ general manager over the weekend, and news that a pulled Taiwanese horror game—which appeared to include a well-known insult against Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping—may be permanently delisted.