The explanation given in the US version was very legalistic and basically stated that he had broken a tournament rule, namely
https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/blog/23179289/2019 HEARTHSTONE® GRANDMASTERS OFFICIAL COMPETITION RULES v1.4 p.12, Section 6.1 (o)
Engaging 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 will result in removal from Grandmasters and reduction of the player’s prize total to $0 USD, in addition to other remedies which may be provided for under the Handbook and Blizzard’s Website Terms.
The explanation released in China however had very different and stated
translated here https://twitter.com/Slasher/status/1181 ... in-chineseWe are very angered and disappointed at what happened at the event and do not condone it in any way. We also highly object the spreading of personal political beliefs in this manner...We will always respect and defend the pride of our country.
Two interesting things to note, first China has one of the biggest markets for gaming in the world, if not the biggest (if it is not the biggest it will soon become so), meaning that gaming companies have very large interest not only in catering to Chinese citizens, but also to the Chinese government who controls whether a game can be released in their country. In addition, Blizzard is a US based publicly traded company, with about 5% of its shares being controlled by Tencent, a massive Chinese company.
The suspension of blitzchung has resulted in a massive backlash against Blizzard. Among this backlash was an American team in a separate tournament coming up with a similar protest (they held up a sign during the tournament saying support Hong Kong). This team was not suspended, and was even given their next tournament game after this incident.
This situation brings up some interesting questions of censorship, capitalism, and international trade. How do we respond to an American company censoring political commentary in interviews with players? How do we deal with companies that censor speech in order to grow into authoritarian areas? How do we deal with a censor happy place like China having such a large share of the market that it is effecting Western countries, where Western countries have to decide between not having access to a massive market, or censoring stuff happening in the US?
I honestly have no answer to these things, but I thought it would be interesting to discuss, so thoughts?