By Makena Kelly, a journalist covering the politics and influences shaping the tech industry. Before joining The Verge in 2018, she covered Congress and breaking news.
Riot Games said Friday that League of Legends broadcasters should “avoid” discussing “sensitive topics” on live streams after Blizzard took the controversial step of banning a Hearthstone player who expressed support for Hong Kong protesters over the weekend.
“Fundamentally speaking, we want our broadcasts to be focused on the tournament, the sport and the players,” John Needham, global head of esports for League of Legends, said in a statement. “We serve fans from a wide variety of countries and cultures. , we believe that this capability means that we have an obligation to keep personal views on sensitive issues (political, religious or other) separate.”
On Monday, Blizzard banned professional Hearthstone player Ngu “Blitzchung” Wai Chung from competitive play for a full year after he expressed support for Hong Kong protesters. In Sunday’s Masters post-match interview, Blitzkrieg said: “Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our time!”, which was the impetus for the company’s decision. In addition to the tournament ban, Blizzard kept all winnings Blitzchung received during the weekend’s tournaments.
Lawmakers, angry fans and other game publishers issued statements and forum posts condemning Blizzard’s decision to ban the player for comments unfavorable to the Chinese government. Fortnite developer Epic Games told The Verge that it will never ban players or content creators for political speech. “Epic supports everyone’s right to express their views on politics and human rights,” an Epic Games spokesperson said in a statement.
Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney took to Twitter late Tuesday to support his company’s position. Critics are quick to point out that Chinese holding company Tencent owns 40% of Epic Games, but Sweeney said the company does not influence Epic’s stance on political speech.
“This will never happen during my tenure as founder, CEO and controlling shareholder,” Sweeney said.
Riot Games was forced to make its first statement on Hong Kong and censorship on Wednesday after it was accused of censoring the name of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region during its broadcast of the League of Legends World Championship. Esports fans noticed that during the live broadcast, the commentator shortened the name of the League of Legends team “Hong Kong Attitude” to HKA. To clarify this, Riot Games stated: “We refer to teams alternately by their full name and three-code abbreviation… as is our normal practice for all teams in the ecosystem.”
League of Legends currently hosts its annual high-level World Championship, where the world’s top professional teams compete in a World Cup-style tournament. The event, which features renowned brands such as Louis Vuitton, will take place across Europe with the finale taking place in Paris on November 10th. The game is especially popular in China, where the League of Legends Pro League is one of the largest professional esports leagues in the world. Nike even recently signed a deal to produce the team’s jerseys.
Dozens of Activision Blizzard employees also walked out on Tuesday to protest the company’s decision. Employees gathered in front of a giant statue depicting an orc warrior on the company’s campus, and the crowd of people swayed throughout the day.
The r/Blizzard subreddit was shut down for several hours after users flooded the forum with anti-Blizzard posts and calls to unsubscribe from the company’s services and boycott its entire portfolio of games, such as Overwatch and World of Warcraft.
Post time: Sep-10-2023
