After sharing his support for Hong Kong protests in a post-game interview, Hong Kong-based Hearthstone champion Chung ‘Blitzchung’ Ng Wai has officially been removed from the Hearthstone Grandmasters, suspended from the eSports league for a year, and has lost all of his prize money.
Unfortunately, Chung has not been the only one to lose his position. Chung appeared on a Taiwanese Hearthstone broadcast and stated a slogan popular amongst the protests, “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time”. Not only was the broadcast cut short, but it was later removed from the channel altogether. Unfortunately, the two masked people running the interview were also let go.
Blizzard ruled that Chung violated a tournament rule which prohibits doing anything which “brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard’s image”.
Despite knowing the consequences, Chung felt the need to speak up during his Hearthstone interview:
Since Blizzard has made the Hearthstone suspension public, fans have been in an uproar over the decision. #BoycottBlizzard has taken Twitter by storm as fans rallied around the Hearthstone champ and the others who have been disciplined due to their political beliefs.
