Blizzard has once again put itself in a precarious position: For a Hearthstone–tournament, they invited 18 men and only 2 women. This did not sit well with some users on Twitter. Blizzard had to apologize, while 2 Twitch streamers resolved the issue and withdrew from the event so that Blizzard could nominate more women.
This was the problem: About a week ago, Blizzard announced the participant list for the tournament “Hearthstone Crossroads Inn-vitational”:
- This is an invitation-only tournament, where Blizzard invites well-known content creators for Hearthstone, primarily YouTubers and Twitch streamers.
- The event takes place today, on April 21st.
- It features a delicious prize pool of $100,000.
Blizzard invited 20 streamers and formed two teams from them: But among the participants, only 2 women were competing for the $100,000, all the rest were men.
- This was recently criticized on Twitter with the tweet: “Only 2 women? You can do better!” (via twitter)
- A second Twitter user added that, alongside women, People of Color were also missing from the list.
- A third complained that no Latin American streamers were invited.
- A fourth criticized: These are always the same 20 streamers who are put in the spotlight. There are many more people who deserve to be featured like this. Streamers like Kripparian are also invited, who have nothing to do with the “Constructed” mode anymore.
The event was already under a bad star, as Blizzard had previously promised Twitch Drops for viewers, which they had to retract.
2 Streamers withdraw so Blizzard can invite women
This is how the streamers reacted: The problem was resolved by two of the invited streamers themselves.
For two of the streamers who were already invited, they gave up their spots so that Blizzard could invite two women in their place:
- Kripparian (Twitch, 1.4 million followers) and RegisKillbin (Twitch, 87k followers) withdrew – Killbin explained that he voluntarily stepped down to allow more creators to shine
- Blizzard nominated Avelline (29.5k followers) and lunaloveee (6.8k followers) as replacements
Blizzard promises improvement
This is how Blizzard reacts now: For the 2 individuals who stepped back themselves, Blizzard has now nominated two more women for the tournament and practically renewed the images immediately.
In a statement, Blizzard expresses gratitude to Kripparian and RegisKillbin for generously offering their spots.
It further states: Representation and inclusion are important, and they want to hold themselves accountable to improve in this regard.
It is essential that events reflect the Hearthstone community and showcase the many talented women who dedicate themselves to Hearthstone every day.
They now want to invite more women in the future.
Blizzard has been struggling to “read the room” for two years
This is the background: It is noticeable how often Blizzard has gotten it wrong in such decisions over the past 2-3 years, misreading the mood in the room, making wrong decisions, and later having to apologize, correct, and promise improvement. The scandal involving the Hearthstone player “Blitzchung” clearly illustrates how difficult Blizzard finds itself with these issues.
Another good example of how they miscalculated was the “Diablo Trauma” at Blizzcon 2018.
It may be related to Activision significantly reducing staff in all areas not directly related to game development. Perhaps some experienced people were let go who previously would have pointed out in meetings: “We can’t invite only 10% women to Hearthstone; that will blow up in our faces.”
In 2019, we addressed this new phenomenon where Blizzard suddenly does not make a good impression:
A year full of shitstorms – Blizzard is running headlong into the next one
