Today, Blizzard Entertainment kicked off its yearly Blizzcon expo at the Anaheim Convention Centre, amid the reports of huge number of protestors gathering outside the venue to protest against company’s much debated and controversial stand against the Hong Kong Hearthstone esports pro player Chung “Blitzchung” Ng Wai; who used an official post-game stream to protest against Chinese government.
The controversy had engulfed the company for the past month with many players going out of their way to boycott all the products and games that Blizzard Entertainment produces or are associated with.
Today the event started with a direct apology from Blizzard’s President J. Allen Brack himself. On the stage J. Allen Brack addressing the attendees said :
Blizzard had the opportunity to bring the world together in a tough Hearthstone e-sports moment about a month ago. We did not. We moved too quickly in our decision-making and then to make matters worse, we were too slow to talk to all ofyou. When I think about how most unhappy I am, I think about two things. We didn’t live up to the higher standards we set for ourselves. Second, we failed in our purpose. For that, I am sorry, and I accept accountability.
Since the event was livestreamed on Twitch, the Twitch users throughout his statement were filling up the live stream chat with “FREE HK” spam messages and other supporting statements.
Even though the event started with a direct apology from the President himself many people weren’t happy with the response from Blizzard and went on with their protest against Blizzard.
Protestors were dressed as “Winnie The Pooh” (a banned cartoon character in China) and were also distributing free Mei T-shirts with “#MeiWithHongKong” written on it. Mei is a character from Overwatch who originates from Hong Kong locality, so protestors picked her as a mascot for their protest.
