Blizzard president opens BlizzCon 2019 with Hong Kong scandal apology Blizzard kicked off the opening ceremony for Blizzcon 2019 with an apology for the Hong Kong scandal that broke out in October, after they banned Hearthstone pro Chung \u2018Blitzchung\u2019 Ng Wai for protesting against China during a tournament. BlizzCon is currently underway and runs until November 2 in Anaheim, California. However, fans were unsure how the event would go as the American developer was mired in controversy after banning pro Hearthstone player Blitzchung for showing support for the Hong Kong protests during a tournament in October. Blizzard President J. Allen Brack began the convention\u2019s opening ceremony by addressing the scandal \u2013 which angered many in the community \u2013 and gave a speech to fans, apologizing for how the company had handled the incident, while admitting they \u201cfailed\u201d to live up to expectations. Blizzard apologizes for Hong Kong scandal Addressing the elephant in the room, the Blizzard executive said, \u201cBefore we start the opening ceremony I want to say a few words. Blizzard had the opportunity to bring the world together during a tough Hearthstone esports moment about a month ago and we did not.\u201d He then explained that the company \u201cmoved too quickly\u201d on their initial punishments for the player, and \u201cwere too slow\u201d to communicate with their community about the decisions they had made. The developer then outlined why he was not happy with how things were handled. \u201cWhen I think about what I am most unhappy about, there is really two things. The first one is we didn\u2019t live up to the high standards we really set for ourselves,\u201d he said. He then stated the second point, and apologized to the crowd. \u201cAnd our second is that we failed to live up to our purpose. And for that, I am sorry. And I accept accountability,\u201d he said, which got a round of applause from the audience. The President for the company then shifted towards the power and positivity that gaming can achieve, by bringing players from around the world to play together and \u201ctranscend divisions that surround us.\u201d \u201cWe will do better moving forward. Our actions are going to mean more than these words\u201d, Brack finished. The controversy first kicked off on October 6 when Hearthstone pro Blitzchung showed support for the Hong Kong protests in a post-tournament interview. The player was swiftly banned for a year, and had all prize winnings withheld. While Blizzard reduced his suspension to six months and gave the prize money back, many were still angered. It remains to be seen if the President\u2019s speech at Blizzcon will heal the wounds of those upset by the scandal, but the developer was quick to address it before the annual convention kicked off this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Blizzard president opens BlizzCon 2019 with Hong Kong scandal apology Blizzard kicked off the opening ceremony for Blizzcon 2019 with an apology for the Hong Kong scandal that broke out in October, after they banned Hearthstone pro Chung \u2018Blitzchung\u2019 Ng Wai for protesting against China during a tournament. BlizzCon is currently underway and runs until […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}