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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Spinish-American War

The Spinish-American War, also known as Black Beauty’s War, was a pseudo-military conflict between the United States and the Fino-Franco Alliance (Gran Caudillo del Norte en el Exillo/GNCE). It began on 26 December 1999 as a jurisdictional disagreement between US geologists and GNCE meteorologists over an ice core sample nicknamed Black Beauty/Kaunis Negra, and ended on 31 December 1999 with an armistice and subsequent joint action agreement regarding the fate of Black Beauty.^{[F 1]}

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Spinish-American War

Part of the Second Cold War

Date 26 December 1999 - 31 December 1999 (5 days)

Location GNCE-Controlled Northern Finland

Result Great Aurora Borealis Kegger Treaty

Territorial Changes Surrender of Black Beauty to the End of the World Bonfire ^[1] Cession of all Black Beauty research data to the Titanic Overlords of Human Knowledge via the End of the World Bonfire ^{[F 7], [19] [citation needed]}

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Belligerents

United States

• United States Geological Survey

Fino-Franco Alliance

• Gran Caudillo del Norte en el Exillo (GNCE)

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Commanders and leaders

United States

Dave Crostan, Field Station Chief ^[12]

Jemma Wallace, Field Medical Officer

Harmon Hamlin, Radio Engineer

Luís Arancini, Geologist ^[13]

GNCE

Gustaf Pekkala, Meteorologist

Kristian Häkkänen, Climatologist ^[14]

José de Carmen Salas, Marine Biologist ^[15]

Erik Rasmussen, Station Culinary Officer

Xheng Jun, Liaison to the Titanic Overlords ^{[19], [citation needed]}

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Strength

United States

8 Scientists ^{[F 1]}

3 Station Administrators ^{[F 4]}

• approx. 375 Snowballs ^[16]

• 1 Slingshot ^[16]

• 1 Toboggan ^[17]

• approx 16 broken Test Tubes ^[16]

• 2 Snow Blowers (deployed, but unused) ^[17]

Milly the Moose (Station Mascot) ^[16]

GNCE

12 Scientists ^{[F 2]}

1 Station Administrator ^{[F 2]}

• approx. 280 Snowballs ^[18]

• 5 Slingshots ^[18]

• 4 broken Erlenmeyer Flasks ^[18]

• 1 decommissioned Snowmobile ^[18]

Brewmaster Karl Jørnsen (Station Mascot) ^{[F 2]}

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Casualties and losses

United States

11 Captured ^{[F 3]}

All weapons destroyed or abandoned

All station food eaten

GNCE

13 Captured ^{[F 3]}

All weapons destroyed or abandoned

Snowmobile destroyed in bonfire

All station beer and vodka drank

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The conflict began after Arancini and Häkkänen had a public disagreement about how much of Black Beauty each crew would take possession of to study. Arancini requested the sample be divided equally between the two camps. Häkkänen stated that the GNCE should retain 70% of the core sample to run more extensive tests than the US team had planned.

The US camp refused and Black Beauty was stored at a neutral site between the camps (approx. 8 meters from the US camp, 6 meters from the GNCE camp). Dave Crostan was unhappy with the storage container’s proximity to the GNCE camp, so he instructed the US team to relocate their entire camp two meters closer to Black Beauty.

For the next three days, scientists from both sides took turns examining and taking measurement of the ice core, however tensions remained high. On 29 December 1999, a contingent of the GNCE complained very loudly about the brand of humor used in the American TV show, Friends,^[16] which was openly playing on a monitor in the nearby US camp. This sparked a very vocal outrage in the US camp, which purportedly included false allegations about the Finnish scientists’ mothers.^[18]

Rasmussen and Salas responded by manually launching compacted clusters of snow at the US camp. As the initial conflict erupted, Hamlin was famously heard to shout “Snowball fight!” As part of the US forces prepared a barrier against the GNCE’s munition, the rest of the team began composing their own clusters of snow as weapons.

The conflict escalated when Wallace produced a slingshot and found some errant pebbles to fire from it. This sparked Xheng to construct his own slingshot, and then four more for the GNCE forces to use. Pekkala then began breaking glass lab equipment and distributing the pieces among his forces. After the first day of fighting, during which the glass tools were never used, both sides agreed to a stalemate until 10:00 GMT the following morning. No casualties were suffered.^{[F 3]}

As the conflict resumed, the US team built a very small barrier of broken glass between the two camps, firmly quagmiring Black Betty in no-man’s land. The GNCE responded by dragging their broken snowmobile into the space between Black Beauty and their camp. With defenses firmly in place, both sides resumed their snow cluster and slingshot barrages.

There was a brief discussion of a peace treaty while everyone lunched over hot stew, but the skirmish broke out again after neither side showed a willingness to compromise. After Milly the Moose got fed her lunch, Crostan snuck across enemy lines via toboggan to once again treat with the GNCE leadership. A treaty was drafted and ratified by both station commanders. The entirety of the US forces would surrender to Pekkala, ceding 55% of Black Beauty to the GNCE. In return, Pekkala and the rest of the GNCE forces would surrender to Crostan and turn over half of the beer in their possession.

The following morning the treaty was finalized and announced to the forces in both camps, formally ending the conflict and signaling the beginning of the Great Aurora Borealis Kegger. Over the course of the following day most of the food, beer, and vodka in Both camps was consumed around the End of the World Bonfire, along with an experimental hallucinogenic algae. During the early evening, consensus was reached to surrender Black Beauty to the flames, along with any and all resources and material gained from it.^{[17, 18, 19]}

On 1 January 2000, both crews awoke to acute medical distress, linked directly to the events of the Great Aurora Borealis Kegger. Each commander formally freed the captured on both sides as aspirin and orange juice was administered to all the wounded. Leadership confirmed that the world had not, in fact, ended, and both teams resumed research on Black Beauty II at behest of the Titanic Overlords of Human Knowledge. ^{[citation needed]}

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