People are furious after Blizzard Entertainment suspended Hearthstone player Chung “blitzchung” Ng Wai for expressing support for Hong Kong during an official tournament broadcast. Gamers are calling for a boycott of Blizzard games — and now, some are turning Overwatch hero Mei into a symbol of the Hong Kong resistance.
A post yesterday on the r/HongKong subreddit suggested people turn Mei, a Chinese Overwatch hero, into a “pro-democracy symbol” to get “Blizzard’s games banned in China.” (China already censors Winnie the Pooh after the internet began associating the character with president Xi Jinping.) The post has been upvoted more than 12,000 times, and has more than 300 comments, plenty of which are images of Mei supporting Hong Kong. The movement has spread outward into Twitter and elsewhere.
"Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!" pic.twitter.com/4VraKTrufc — spooky mommy riz (@PearlteaRizzy) October 9, 2019
My photoshops are nothing if not both lazy and fast, but still.#HongKongProtest #Blizzardboycott pic.twitter.com/nsE1VWl0e3 — Kaipo (@Kaipo_Rozwolf) October 8, 2019
Blizzard banned pro Hearthstone winner for supporting free Hong Kong and took away his prize money. It would be SUCH A SHAME if Mei became a symbol of Hong Kong democracy and got #Overwatch banned in China like Pooh did
#FreeHongKong #MeiWithHongKong #MeiSupportsHongKong pic.twitter.com/yPum1ZTQqH — Wenqing Yan (@Yuumei_Art) October 9, 2019
Mey says: Free Hong Kong pic.twitter.com/rgqTXJ0B0K — Adán (@BirdCyclops) October 9, 2019
Players have also continued to post screenshots of themselves uninstalling Blizzard games and closing their accounts. The #BoycottBlizzard hashtag remains active, with new tweets generated nearly every second.
On Oct. 8, Blizzard suspended Chung for using his post-game interview on Oct. 6 to support protesters engaging in ongoing protests in Hong Kong. Chung has been banned from Hearthstone esports for a year, and will not earn the $10,000 in prize money he won during the season. Two Taiwanese casters who appeared on the broadcast have also been fired.
Blizzard said Chung’s statement violated a tournament rule forbidding players from doing anything that “brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard’s image.”
Blizzard’s decision to ban Chung comes after the NBA distanced itself from Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, who tweeted (and then deleted) support for the Hong Kong protesters. Media companies in China, including Tencent (which has a 4.9 percent stake in Activision Blizzard), said they will temporarily suspend NBA preseason broadcasts following Morey’s tweets.
Dual-Screen on October 9th, 2019 at 16:58 UTC »
In the scenario that Overwatch does get banned in China, would the Spark, Hunters, Dragons and Charge be moved to other markets?
CalcProgrammer1 on October 9th, 2019 at 16:45 UTC »
"Our world is worth fighting for"
Benedict_Indestructo on October 9th, 2019 at 16:32 UTC »
Pat Pat Pat - I put democracy in this one