The banning of a Hearthstone player due to a political statement is currently causing a lot of discussion in the gaming community. Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games, has now spoken out. He states that he would not ban any player or content creator from Fortnite for such changes.
How does the founder of Epic Games react? Sweeney notes that Epic Games would not take such a drastic step as Blizzard. He said to the website The Verge:
Epic supports everyone’s right to express their opinions about politics and human rights. We would not ban or punish any Fortnite player or content creator for speaking about such topics.
“Such a thing will never happen as long as I am in charge”
On Twitter, Tim Sweeney reiterated his statement, adding that such a ban would never happen as long as he is “founder, CEO, and majority stockholder”.
This point is particularly important, as Sweeney is not the only one who owns a significant part of Epic Games. Almost 40% also belongs to the large Chinese company Tencent.
Nevertheless, Epic Games is an American company, as the founder clearly emphasized. Sweeney is the stakeholder who holds the control.
Problems between China and Hong Kong expressed in gaming
What triggered Epic’s statement? Chung “Blitzchung” Ng Wai was among the top 48 Hearthstone players worldwide, holding Grandmaster status.
In an interview during a Grandmaster livestream, he shouted: “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!”. He addressed the protests in Hong Kong against an extradition law to China and for more independence for Hong Kong.
However, Blizzard did not appreciate this statement. They enforced a competition rule stating that a player must not bring the game or Blizzard itself into disrepute. Ng Wai was punished by:
- Revoking his Grandmaster status.
- Not receiving any prize money for Season 2.
- Being banned from participating in Hearthstone tournaments for one year.
The two shoutcasters were also dismissed for their behavior.
What is happening in China? Already in June, the problems between the two countries were manifested in World of Warcraft. At that time, a patch was implemented in the Chinese version of the MMORPG that contained a revision of the profanity filter.
This banned terms such as:
- “Hong Kong Strike”
- “Hong Kong parade”
- or “FreeHongKong”
In addition.
There also seems to be absurd censorship occurring in the western League of Legends, where a team apparently cannot be named fully. Riot Games has been completely owned by the Chinese company Tencent for several years.
Solidarity with the Hearthstone player? Many Blizzard fans and some developers from the company have rallied in support of player Chung Ng Wai.
They find the ban disproportionate and are calling for a boycott. The champion Mei from Overwatch is currently being made a symbol of resistance:
