A former employee of Blizzard makes serious allegations. His boss in the Hearthstone team discriminated against him because he is Mexican. This almost led to his suicide. Now, the outing of an Overwatch hero fuels his anger to come forward.
It’s about him: It concerns Julian Murillo-Cuellar:
- He worked as a GameMaster and in Customer Support at Blizzard in November 2013.
- In February 2016, he switched to the eSports team at Hearthstone. Initially, he was only there temporarily, but then he started full-time.
- In February 2018, he submitted his resignation at Blizzard.
The critical phase was his time with the Hearthstone team.
These were the difficulties: Murillo-Cuellar is Mexican. According to his description, he was often teased by his colleague Gemma that Mexicans are sexists and macho due to their culture. Gemma had been an exchange student in Mexico and formed this assumption.
Murillo-Cuellar did not feel like a sexist at all. He only switched to Blizzard and moved because his partner found her dream job there. A macho would never do that.
What was apparently meant as a joke turned into bullying over the years. When he was directly accused by Gemma and she became his boss, it all went downhill.
Murillo-Cuellar felt like he became the scapegoat in the team, only receiving menial tasks and being systematically undermined. He worked many hours, feeling high pressure and stress.
Attempts to complain to superiors only caused more trouble.
This led to health problems, including suicidal thoughts. He apparently wanted to deliberately crash his car on the way home from Blizzard by ramming a heavy garbage truck.
In a compelling post on Twitlonger, the former employee describes the story of years of torment that nearly killed him.
Why is this coming out only now: Murillo-Cuellar explains that he is only now going public after Blizzard spread the message with the outing of Soldier:76: “Every voice counts.”
This “triggered” him.
This is what Blizzard says: Blizzard does not comment specifically on the allegations but emphasizes how important an inclusive and respectful work environment is to the company. They have rules against harassment and discrimination and take reports very seriously.
Similar allegations to those currently against Blizzard were made against Riot Games, the makers of LoL:
