Blizzard could have kicked him out of the tournament and said "don't use our platform for controversy" and probably nothing would have happened. Instead they stripped him of his winnings, banned him for a year, and then release two public statements one in English that was bad enough, and another in Chinese that absolutely prostrated themselves before the Mainland government. It was pathetic.

> Blizzard could have kicked him out of the tournament

The tournament was over tho?

Blizzard has since reinstated his winnings and reduced the ban to 6 months.

> Blizzard originally banned the Hong Kong-based player for a year and withheld his prize money after he said "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!" in Chinese during the livestreamed event. That penalty was later reduced to a six-month suspension, and Chung's prize money was reinstated

Second paragraph in https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/10/us-legislators-urge-b...

Yeah, after they were raked over the coals by everyone from their own fans to the US Congress. Perhaps a bit too late.

I was not making any commentary on Blizzard, I was just pointing out that they had backtracked, to an extent from what the GP was posting.

Personally, I disagree with Blizzard's stance, but it should be noted that they partially backtracked. They're letting him keep the prize money, and down to a 6 month suspension from 12 months.

Blizzard's terms about not causing offense are so broad that one could hardly wish someone a good morning without risking offending someone.

To reiterate: I am not defending Blizzard, just pointing out they had a partial mea culpa.

Blizzard is apparently giving out 24 hour band for talking about hk in hearthstone streams too. I don’t think anyone really doubts it’s to appease China