Chinese Blizzard/Netease Social Media Account takes China’s Side

You have probably not missed that Blizzard is under heavy fire since they banned a Hearthstone pro who supported the protesters in Hong Kong earlier this week live on stream. The English Blizzard social media accounts reacted mildly on the situation, saying they are still discussing what they want to do. Their Chinese counterpart on the other hand, has reacted in a way more biased way.

On Weibo, which is the Chinese equivalent of Facebook, an official Blizzard account which is run by publishing partner Netease took a tougher stance that fans will not like. IGN was able to translate the post which you can see below.

This translates according to IGN as follows:

We express our strong indignation [or resentment] and condemnation of the events that occurred in the Hearthstone Asia Pacific competition last weekend and absolutely oppose the dissemination of personal political ideas during any events [or games]. The players involved will be banned, and the commentators involved will be immediately terminated from any official business. Also, we will protect [or safeguard] our national dignity [or honor].

Blizzard told the public in their English post that they had to ban Chung since he violated a rule, which states that players can’t engage in any act that, in Blizzard’s sole discretion, brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damage Blizzards image. This sounds all fair, and Chung accepted the ban for 12 months from the competitive scene and withholding his prize money of 10.000 USD.

The Chinese post was released at around the same time as the English one, and is very unfortunate for the company, as fans will not be happy with this.