Jeff Kaplan, the director of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Blizzard’s team-based FPS 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Overwatch, is the most recent and perhaps highest-ranking employee at the company to speak out about the way in which 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Hearthstone Grandmaster Chung "Blitzchung" Ng Wai was disci𒀰plined.
The initial punishment was decided extremely fast by Blizzard’s usual standards and saw Blitzchung receive a full year ban from competitive play, the forfeiture of his competitive earnings from the entire season of the Grandmasters Tour and resulted in the termination of t🦹wo casters interviewing the player. The response from players, fellow players and casters🍃, and international media and US lawmakers was equally as swift and critical of the situation.
Speaking to the Washington Post, Kaplan spoke on the entire process as it has unfolded, stating, “I'm obviously a huge supporter of free speech; it’s something that’s very imp🎉ortant to me. It got to me personally. I think the punishment was too harsh and I was greatly relieved when they gave his money back. I think that was extremely important."
By contrast, in the past Blizzard has taken months to dish out even the most basic of disciplinary action against players caught cheating a𒐪t competitive events, while the matter of Blitzchung’s statement was dealt with in no time at all.
The Overwatch team was apparently completely unaware that the situation had occurred until the backlash and controversy appeared online and on various news sites. The Overwatch team operates differently in its disciplin🐈ary procedure, Kaplan went on to describe, saying that the determining of bans and suspensions often takes roughly four or five days.
Kaplan went on to affirm that he spoke only for himself and that others at Blizzard may feel completely differently, “I think as individuals, we all have very different feelings about what happened in regards to the Hearthstone tournꦦament and Blitzchung. There is a lot of very different reaction among all of us.”
The statement made by Kaplan is fascinating in its own right. In the weeks that followed the controversy, the Chinese Overwatch character of Mei was appropriated by artists online and re-imagined as a pro-Hong Kong demonstrator. With the announcement of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Overwatch 2 and Blizzard’s all-or-nothing gamble to invest in the Chinese market and placate the demands of the Chinese government over all else, one would imagine that above all others the director for Overwatch would need to be careful with their words.
Then again, Blizzard president J. Allen Brack was perfectly clear in his statement that Blizzard employees have the right to express themselve🎐s in any way they choose in their free time. Whether or not this is true is yet to be seen, though there is little reason to be optimistic.
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