Following the punishment imposed on Blitzchung, several well-known faces from the professional Hearthstone community have been giving their opinions on the issue — just as Brian Kibler did a few days ago.
While some have expressed restraint in their views, others have also decided to step down from their positions in competitive Hearthstone.
Blizzard have reacted by seemingly changing the process for deleting Battle.net accounts, while some people have uncovered connections between CEO Bobby Kotick and convicted financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Response from the competitive Hearthstone scene
After Kibler announced his resignation from the BlizzCon casting desk, colleague Nathan "Admirable" Zamora decided to do the same. The other members of the casting team — Simon "Sottle" Welch, Alex "Raven" Baguley and Darroch Brown — also stated their disagreement with Blizzard but will continue to fulfill their obligations. Only Dan "Frodan" Chu and TJ Sanders are yet to comment on social networks at the time of writing.
Some influential players and/or streamers have also made their opinions heard — Octavian "Kripparrian" Morosan, William "Amnesiac" Barton, and Jeremy "Disguised Toast" Wang are all asking Blizzard to reconsider their position.
Battle.net Launcher Changes
New steps to delete a Battle.net account appear to have been added in the last few hours. The process could now require players to upload an official identity document — something which may discourage many people from completing the process. It also specifies the list of everything that will result from the deletion, such as the loss of all data inherent to the account, and the fact that any money invested in the account will be lost.
Blizzard CEO caught up in the turmoil
Bobby Kotick — CEO of Activision Blizzard — is said to have had ties with Jeffrey Epstein. The multimillionaire financier was incarcerated earlier this year and died in prison on August 10, 2019, pending trial for trafficking in minors. Kotick is one of the people apparently listed in Epstein's "Little Black Book" — a directory in which his entire network of acquaintances — alongside the likes of Donald Trump, Courteney Love and more.
This has just served to increase pressure on Kotick, already under fire for several decisions taken recently at Activision Blizzard — such as the laying off of more than 800 employees in February.
Following events that transpired during Grandmasters at the weekend, Blitzchung has been banned from the circuit. The Chinese player showed his support for Hong Kong during the official Blizzard broadcast.
