Blizzard is under fire for punishing a professional Hearthstone player from Hong Kong over his support for the current Hong Kong protests. While Blizzard’s English-language blog post on the matter took a neutral tone on the decision, but an official Chinese language response to the incident appears much more biased.

The Blizzard China Controversy Explained 12 IMAGES

Source: Weibo

“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].”

Loading

Earlier this week Blizzard announced it would take punitive action against Ng Wai “Blitzchung” Chung for speaking in support of the Hong Kong protests during an official Hearthstone livestream. Blizzard explained its decision as a punishment for violating official Blizzard esports rules. But on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, an official Blizzard account run by the company's Chinese publishing partner Netease took a tougher stance.IGN was able to independently translate the statement from Blizzard’s official Hearthstone Weibo account which reads:In Blizzard’s English language blog post on the Blitzchung situation, the company said it was because Chung violated Blizzard Rules section 6.1 (o) which states can punish players that 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 damages Blizzard image[.]” Blizzard announced it removed Chung from its Grandmasters tournament, banned him for 12 months, and rescinded his prize money of USD 10,000.The statement on Weibo doubles down on the decision to punish Chung. Especially the last line regarding the protection of “national dignity.” Which presumably refers to mainland China. The statement was published around the same time as the English language statement but was recently discovered online. And even though Blizzard doesn't operate the account directly, the timing is unfortunate and adds to the mounting criticism against the Irvine, California-based company.The online response to Blizzard's statement on Weibo has been overwhelmingly negative, and the statement made it to the front page of the r/HongKong subreddit with 1.4k upvotes IGN has reached out to Blizzard for clarification on the statement, and whether Blizzard’s North American operations has oversight on social media posts published on Weibo. For a full overview of the latest Blizzard controversy, including the community and political reactions to the controversy, check out IGN’s full Blizzard China controversy explainer

Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN. You can reach him on Twitter