Kibler's informed Blizzard that he will no longer be associated with Grandmasters in any way until something changes. Respect.
Yeah, I found his position a lot more reasonable than like 99% of the takes.
Kibler's informed Blizzard that he will no longer be associated with Grandmasters in any way until something changes. Respect.
I actually do not disagree with the ban. But maybe the length but most certainly find the taking of prize away to be too far. In pro sports, players are subject to fines all the time for behavior not even in the game (afaik). But they certainly do not lose all their earnings and a one time offense I would imagine does not lead to an entire year ban.
far lower ban, some games at most, no money penalty and certainly not fire the casters, the last 2 were too far and showed a really different intent.
in the optimal escenario he would just be asked politely to not do it again because of the policies in place without a punishment, after all it was a few words at the end of the interview, may be reminding everyone to not get political on streams or there would be further consequences.
I still find this whole situation so stupidly bad. Even more stupidly bad when blizzard HQs hasn't said a word to address the fire they have in their hands.
I actually agree with the casters being fired, based on my understanding of the events. They work for Blizzard. They should be judged harsher than the players imo. And I am told they knew it was coming and not only failed to discourage it, actually encouraged it. The caveat is my opinion is based on what I understand. I have seen the clip. They knew it was coming. They knew it was bad. But I of course do not know what they knew, what they believed at the time.
I would agree with your optimal scenario if he did what he did not knowing it was against the rules, or in like an innocent state of mind. But I think he knew. Based on his statements, he pretty much admitted it. Do not get me wrong, I respect the guy for doing what he did. Unprofessional? Hell yes. But worthy of respect, even more of a hell yes. Overkill on the punishment? Definitely.
yeah I see your point, as I understood, they knew he was going to say something controversial, tried to discurage but the player insisted and later they just opted to let it happend but them ignoring the situation, I'm not sure myself, but may be they thought it would be far less harmful than what they throught it would be. Somewhere I saw they didn't expect this to happen, they were crying their careers as casters were over and c'mon... I think it's a bit harsh to outright fire them. As kibler said on his statement, he has the option to opt out of the job, but there are other casters which their life depend on the job they have, I consider the same for the casters involved.
I'm not sure if the player knew because what he said after all the events was more on the line of just accepting the punishment and the consequence. which again, I think it's too harsh, may be he thought it would be controversial and out of place, but even if he knew, this was a first in the HS eSports, which is another reason why the punishment felt so out of place to me.
You guys know me for a decade now. You know I generally don't get into serious non-gaming issues on stream, YouTube, or socials. This isn't because I don't have opinions, it is because I try to create chill and entertaining content, and give you guys a place to relax and feel comfortable. With that said, I want to be clear that I support those protesting in Hong Kong. With such a large part of their country pushing for change, they are, and deserve to be on the right side of history.
I haven't been involved with competitive esports Hearthstone for years now, but Hearthstone for me is much more than their esports division and their recent poor decision making. I invite Blizzard to reconsider their position. Sure, they are in the entertainment space, so they want to keep anything that isn't about Hearthstone out of their official broadcast, but the penalty on Blitzchung and the casters seems just too over the top. All of us who have spent the best part of our lives on Battlenet expect better out of Blizzard.
We can speculate all we want about how blizz politics have aligned with the CCP, like how they renamed the taiwan overwatch team from Team Taiwan to China Taipei, but for this issue speculation isn't going to get us anywere, the fact we can work with is the penalty is drastic, we can protest that because it is a tangible issue we can see changed or not, simple.You can't leave out the context of all the other ways China trying to control the speech about Hong Kong and US corporations going along with it. Especially right in the middle of NBA going through the exact same controversy.
And Blizzard already is playing pro-China politics by renaming the hong kong team in overwatch and putting chat filters about it in their game, so they don't exactly have much luxury to say it's just trying to be apolitical on this issue. Blizzard's Chinese language statement even outright said it was about China's pride.
I think it's understandable people seeing this through the eyes of a hearthstone player and not a international news follower would think it's important to note that yelling out unrelated political statements should be discouraged, but that's very obviously not what this is about. The harshness of the penality shouldn't be looked at as the primary problem, but instead as the clue to there being something more behind it than keeping interviews orderly.
Yeah, I'm not telling anyone they have to boycott and am not promising I'll boycott it either. After Kiblers statement I'm not finding Hearthstone very fun to play right now, but I may get over it.We can speculate all we want about how blizz politics have aligned with the CCP, like how they renamed the taiwan overwatch team from Team Taiwan to China Taipei, but for this issue speculation isn't going to get us anywere, the fact we can work with is the penalty is drastic, we can protest that because it is a tangible issue we can see changed or not, simple.
Because the problem about the specualtion is that half or more of the companies we love cater to whatever the CCP does, and going by that we wouldn't be consuming a lot of products. We have to draw a line about how much we tolerate, for example this issue clearly went over it, which I also agree, each one has to see how much want to be involved in it.
Certainly not the way I hope HS would become relevant in the gaming discussion again, that's for sure.Yeah, I'm not telling anyone they have to boycott and am not promising I'll boycott it either. After Kiblers statement I'm not finding Hearthstone very fun to play right now, but I may get over it.
Also, disregarding all that heavy stuff, can we appreciate how damn wierd it is that in the year 2019, multiple US senators made statements about a Hearthstone esport tournament ruling.
I'm thinking of returning to this game but haven't played in 3 years maybe longer.
Is it still viable? When I stopped playing I didn't buy any of the expansions or spent any real money on it.
Can I actually return to this and play or am I wasting my time? I'm looking for a game like this to play on my phone.
Hmm, back to back games where the opponent conceded before any cards were played
I do that sometimes, particularly if the opponent is playing warrior. Life's too short.
I think it's been reported already. I read about it on twitter earlier today.
Well 90% of that chat is spam of one thing or the other anywayCensoring *ong in twitch chat clears most of the spam in Grandmaster playoffs.
Riot Games will announce a new digital card game titled 'Legends of Runeterra' during the League of Legends 10th Anniversary event today, sources tell me
being riot I would say it's something worth noting, just because they are quite good at what they do. I dunno, may be it can finally challenge HS in the design level? HS has been unmatched in its production values.
I'm really curious. I don't think this will be another artifact, I think it will be a serious competitor.
Question: do you think Gwent on mobile affects Hearthstone?
Also, would MtG:A on mobile affect HS?
I've stopped several OTK paladins in their tracks with the 20 armor from them... I usually evil laugh at them
it can dump a lot from hand on the turn they are played, that's for sure one of the strongest turns ever in the game, you get 20 life, potentially 30 mana and more than 10/11 on stats on boardBut it is more than that lol, you get your first kun for free, but then floop only costs 4 mana and refreshes instead of 10 so you basically get to play 30 mana in 1 turn. 10 on first kun, 6 mana on anything, 4 mana on second kun, which gives you another 10 mana. Just insane.
That's why people play it.
He still streams HS every day, so no.Did Thijs leave Hearthstone, or is he just prepping for the MTG Mythic tourney?
Ah, was weird seeing Magic. Anyway, thanks.
JUST IN: @AOC, Senator @marcorubio, Senator @RonWyden, congressman Gallagher and Malinowski have signed a joint letter directed to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick denouncing and condemning Blizzard's punishment of Blitzchung https://t.co/kIaWriif7m
@AOC @marcorubio @RonWyden "Activision Blizzard benefits from China's growing market for esports with an investment from Tencent...Gamers around the world have taken notice of your company's actions, understandably calling for boycotting of Activision Blizzard gaming sites" they're going in
@AOC @marcorubio @RonWyden note that it looks as if the letter was either written prior to Activision Blizzard reducing the punishment for blitzchung, or everyone missed it and was sent as is
I think governments are just... slow, very slow.They already decided to give the prize winnings and reduce his suspension to 6 months. Shows how much those senators are invested in the situation when they are this far behind in the facts.
I don't understand if the hatred towards Blizzard is about their alleged China bias, or if it's more about not caring about their fans, or just people who want chaos.
I don't think it's about the China bias because Blitzchung has already said he's fine-ish with the adjusted punishment and yet there's still people angry at Blizzard.