How Hong Kong became a safe word for the gaming industry. Chronicle

Overwatch heroine, Mei, wearing a Hong Kong protester mask
It all started with the Hearthstone tournament last weekend.

On the post-match stream, esports player Chung Ng Wai (Chung Ng Wai) under the nickname blitzchung shouted: “Liberate Hong Kong!” Blizzard’s reaction to this caused a loud scandal.

Other gaming companies (Epic Games and Riot Games) and even the US Senate were involved in it. But about everything in order.

Jun Ng Wai (right)For his statement, Zhong Ng Wai was disqualified for a year and lost the prize money — $ 10 thousand, according to TNYT.

• Streamers were also punished, with whom Blizzard immediately stopped cooperating. She claims that both the presenters and the director of the broadcast knew about Ng Wai’s intentions and did not stop him.
• Blizzard recalled the rules of the Grandmasters tournament: according to them, appeals of this kind harm the reputation of the organizer. From the position of the company’s management, its reaction is justified.
• But it is worth noting that 5% of Blizzard shares belong to the Chinese giant Tencent. And in general, the Chinese market for it is one of the largest. So the public support of the protests in Hong Kong by one of the esports players, in theory, could cost Blizzard an investor.
• The players were not convinced by these arguments. The developer was accused of trying to “bend under China” for fear of losing the market and ties with Tencent.

• Forums and social networks began calling for a boycott of the company and all its products, including World of Warcraft, Overwatch and, of course, Hearthstone. Many players (including top ones) have announced that they will cancel their subscription to Blizzard titles. And some — that they want to return tickets to the upcoming BlizzCon. The slogan began to spread: “Liberate Hong Kong, boycott Blizzard!”
• At the beginning of the week, the scandalous topic appeared in the top Reddit subforums dedicated to the company itself and its hits. Once in the world news section, she scored over 50 thousand likes. Then the moderators took her out of the top, and the official Blizzard channel was transferred to private to stop the flow of angry reviews. (The subreddit is currently unblocked again.)
• American senators, in particular, Marco Rubio and Ron Wyden, joined the situation. They said Blizzard “publicly humiliated itself just to please the Chinese Communist Party.” The latter “uses access to the market to take away from people around the world the right to freely express their views,” The Verge quotes. Recall that since last year, America has been waging a trade war with China, which has already affected the gaming market.

• On Tuesday, Blizzard’s management was opposed by their own employees. According to The Daily Beast, a group of 30 developers organized a picket at the main campus. In their hands were the symbols of the protests in Hong Kong — umbrellas. Igrodeli also taped signs at the entrance to the campus. On the signs are Blizzard’s mottos: “Every voice matters” and “Think globally.”

• Other gaming companies have also spoken out in connection with the scandal. Players took to Twitter Tim Sweeney (founder of Epic Games) with the question: would “epics” punish them for expressing political views? “We will not ban or punish Fortnite players or content creators for raising such topics,” Sweeney replied, “as long as I am CEO and own a controlling stake.”*

* By the way, 40% of the shares of Epic Games belong to the same Tencent.

• Meanwhile, the League of Legends World Championship continues. And this event also became scandalous. His commentators and analysts suddenly “forgot” the word “Hong Kong”. It got to the point that the name of one of the teams — Hong Kong Attitude — was shortened to the laconic “HKA”.
• League of Legends and its authors Riot Games are wholly owned by Tencent. Therefore, the players also attacked Riot, demanding to explain the incident. A representative of the company on Twitter noted that she did not give the streamers the installation to hush up a particular topic. It was probably their own initiative,” Riot said.

• Yesterday it also became known that the dissatisfied demand an original apology from Blizzard. The company allegedly has to make one of the heroines of Overwatch, Mei (Chinese by nationality), a symbol of the protests in Hong Kong. This topic also moved to Twitter, where under the hashtag #meiwithhongkong, they began to publish May in a gas mask, like the protesters.
• And recall that Blizzard’s own conference, BlizzCon, will take place in less than a month, on November 1-2. Last year’s BlizzCon had a bad impact on the reputation of the studio (you can read more here). But this time she was unlucky enough to be at the center of a scandal on the eve of her biggest event.

Blizzard still does not comment on what is happening.

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Protests in Hong Kong have been going on since the end of March this year. First of all, the demonstrators are seeking the repeal of the extradition bill proposed by the local government. Its adoption, according to the protesters, will undermine the autonomy of Hong Kong and make it dependent on China. Hundreds of thousands of people are participating in the protests.

Also on the topic:

• Blizzard banned an esports player for supporting protests in Hong Kong. Why?Epic Games stood up for freedom of speech amid the Blizzard scandal