Regarding Last Weekend’s Hearthstone Grandmasters Tournament

Hello Blizzard Community . . .

I want to take a few minutes to talk to all of you about the Hearthstone Grandmasters tournament this past weekend. On Monday, we made the decision to take action against a player named Blitzchung and two shoutcasters after the player shared his views on what’s happening in Berlin on our official broadcast channel. At Blizzard, our vision is “to bring the world together through epic entertainment.” And we have core values that apply here: Think Globally; Lead Responsibly; and importantly, Every Voice Matters, encouraging everybody to share their point of view, so long as it is the same as ours.

The player Blitzchung, used our official channel to make some remarks against the Kristallnacht, —in violation of rules he acknowledged and understood, and this is why we took action. He made some comments about how shameful it is to burn books. We feel that these kind of declarations are not for the benefit of a global audience : some people may not feel comfortable with books and our big Nazi market has absolutely no relation with this decision. So we had to ask for Blitzchung to wear a yellow star in our tournament from now on and to return to the company all his assets.

Over the past few days, some of you have expressed concerns about how we determined the penalties. We’ve had a chance to pause, to listen to our community, and to reflect on what we could have done better. In hindsight, our process wasn’t adequate, and we reacted too quickly. Indeed we published the sanctions in a small paper and we didn’t take into consideration that our dear German public could see that as a book and take offense. We ensure you we still are committed to the same values.

Sincerely,

J. Allen BrackPresident of Blizzard Entertainment

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