The 20-year-old Frenchman Zakarya “xBlyzes” Halil intentionally ended his game in Hearthstone on the biggest stage when he was losing. This is known as “rage quitting” and is considered frowned upon. The Hearthstone Grandmaster was disappointed with his defeat and let it out. On Twitter, many users express disappointment at his behavior, calling it “unsportsmanlike.”
This is a Grandmaster in Hearthstone: They are the 48 best Hearthstone players in the world – there can never be more. The 48 Grandmasters are spread across 3 regions.
It is considered incredibly difficult to rise to this rank of Grandmaster. Only a few positions are contested each year.
It has been strongly criticized that really only these 48 individuals can earn money in the esports of Hearthstone: There is little money to be made with other tournaments when Blizzard operates such a “Champions League”. Blizzard has thereby created Hearthstone as an “elite esports,” it was said.
Frenchman rage quits in hopeless position after 40 minutes
This is what the Grandmaster did: The 20-year-old Frenchman xBlyzes was in the final of the European Hearthstone Grandmaster tournament and played against the Spaniard David “Frenetic” Neila. The series against the Spaniard went to the deciding match 5: It was a mirror match Rogue against Rogue.
However, in the last seconds of the nearly 40-minute series, xBlyzes was clearly defeated: It was clear that he would die on the opponent’s next turn. He simply had no useful cards left in hand and his opponent had so many creatures on the board that the Frenchman was sure to lose.
So he put on a blank expression and simply disconnected from the server: The Grandmaster pulled off a rage quit.
He did not give his opponent the satisfaction of defeating him, but made him wait for him to be officially declared the winner due to “opponent’s timeout”.
This is how the casters reacted: The casters said it was “typical for Blyzes” – his rage quitting was a type of surrender that still made the opponent suffer.
It is “cruel” to make the opponent wait until the referee declares him the champion.
Users find behavior simply “unsportsmanlike”
This is how others reacted: On Twitter, one user said, “Apparently there is no word in French for unsportsmanlike behavior. You had a great tournament. But how you finished it was just trash.”
The Grandmaster then said, “I’m sorry I was angry because I lost the most important match of my life.”
At the moment, it is still unclear whether Blizzard will punish this behavior.
Another Grandmaster drew Blizzard’s ire in 2019 because he had more important things to attend to during a Hearthstone match:
Hearthstone: Blizzard reacts irritably to distracted Grandmaster
