At League of Legends the LoL Worlds 2019 are currently taking place. The team “Hong Kong Attitude” has reached the main round of the League of Legends World Championships. But casters are not even mentioning the word Hong Kong anymore – probably due to the charged political climate. They are now improving live. It feels like self-censorship.
Which team is it about? The team “Hong Kong Attitude” qualified through the “Play Ins” of the League of Legends World Championships. They won the decisive series of the group stage against Isurus Gaming, a team from Argentina.
Hong Kong Attitude achieved one of their victories with a “Backdoor” play. The LoL team attacks the enemy base while the opponents are far away. It looks like an “Oops” moment when the opponents arrive too late to their own funeral.
The team “Hong Kong Attitude” has been around since 2017 under this name.
Casters censor themselves: Hong Kong … eh HK A
This is now noticeable: Apparently there is a directive from Riot Games to the casters and analysts that the name “Hong Kong” should no longer be mentioned.
There are three instances where a caster says the name “Hong Kong Attitude,” but then corrects themselves and refers to it as “HKA” or “HK Attitude.”
These instances have been listed by a user on reddit:
In one scene (the Twitch clip above), it seems the caster even smiles slightly after their “slip” but then the production quickly cuts away.
Here it is at 3:55.
Here it is at 8:53:
What is the reason for this? This is being discussed on reddit. It is believed that the directive to no longer say “Hong Kong” comes from Tencent, the Chinese mega-corporation behind Riot.
Reddit users also believe that the US stream is being broadcast with a delay. Interviews are said to be “pre-recorded.” They probably want to keep the option of cutting out political statements.
What is going on with Hong Kong right now? At the moment, the residents of Hong Kong are protesting against the increasing influence of mainland China. This has immense political ramifications, and China seems to want to keep the issue out of the public eye.
The protesters in Hong Kong want the world’s attention on their concerns.
People who are protesting are using gaming channels as a forum for their political beliefs and to draw attention to Hong Kong and the situation there.
Because a Hearthstone pro expressed his protest in a live stream, Hong Kong is currently a big and uncomfortable topic for Blizzard.
Update 10.10, 10:44 PM: There is now a statement from Riot regarding the noticeable handling of the word “Hong Kong.”
