Fortnite developer and publisher Epic Games has spoken up following Blizzard's ban of a professional Hearthstone player who supported the Hong Kong protesters, stating that it will not follow suit and will not punish its players for political speech.

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Speaking to The Verge, an Epic Games spokesperson said "Epic supports everyone’s right to express their views on politics and human rights. We wouldn’t ban or punish a Fortnite player or content creator for speaking on these topics."This comment from Epic Games is interesting because Chinese-owned Tencent owns a 40% stake in Epic Games. This, according to Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney, has no impact on the company's decisions.On Twitter, many people were bringing up the 40% stake issue, including @CherrishChoerry who responded to a tweet by Kotaku's Jason Schreier by saying to Sweeney "40% is a big cut though. They're already pulling out of the NBA League. Can you honestly say if a similar even happened you wouldn't have to, sever ties with said influential figure, i.e. the NBA coach/Hearthstone Champ." Sweeney responded by saying "Yes, absolutely. That will never happen on my watch as the founder, CEO, and controlling shareholder."As previously mentioned, this original statement by Epic Games was in response to Ng Wai "blitzchung" Chung being banned from professional Hearthstone for a year after he "expressed his support of the protests while being interviewed by the official Taiwanese Hearthstone organization following his win against South Korean player Jang “DawN” Hyun Jae on October 6."He wore a face mask, which was a reference to a government-issued ban the prevented such face masks while protesting, later saying "Liberation Hong Kong, revolution of our age!" The stream was then cut in favor of a commercial break, and the footage is no longer available online.Speaking with IGN, Chung, who will also not receive any of his prize money from Grandmasters Season 2, said "I expected the decision by Blizzard, I think it's unfair, but I do respect their decision. I'm not [regretful] of what I said."Blizzard wrote in a blog post that "We'd like to re-emphasize tournament and player conduct within the Hearthstone esports community from both players and talent. While we stand by one's right to express individual thoughts and opinions, players and other participants that elect to participate in our esports competition must abide by the official competition rules."This has caused an uproar in Blizzard's community, with many fans on the r/Hearthstone subreddit threatening to quit Hearthstone in solidarity. The r/Blizzard subreddit was even locked down for a short while, although that was not due to Blizzard but a recent mod who set the subreddit to private and then deleted his account.

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