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Pro Hearthstone Player Calls for Liberation of Hong Kong, Blizzard Deletes Video Archive in Response - Niche Gamer
A profession Hearthstone player has recently sounded off on the controversial topic of Hong Kong’s ongoing protests and demands for independence from China. A native of Hong Kong himself, Chung “blitzchung” Ng Wai said (via InvenGlobal) to “liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!” in a...
nichegamer.com
A native of Hong Kong himself, Chung “blitzchung” Ng Wai said (via InvenGlobal) to “liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!” in a post-game interview after winning his Hearthstone GrandMasters match, on October 6th. The player also wore a gas mask, further symbolizing the protests.
The phrase said by Ng Wai is a slogan heavily associated with the ongoing protests in the city state, which China had been granted authority over when Britain relinquished sovereignty back in 1997.
In a response to Ng Wai’s comments, Blizzard Taiwan (the branch of the publisher hosting the event) has deleted (via Rod Breslau) the video archive of the match and interview from their official Twitch channel. It’s worth mentioning Chinese media giant Tencent owns a 5% stake in Activision Blizzard.
Ng Wai provided a statement clarifying his support of the protests to Inven Global, “As you know, there are serious protests in my country now.”
He added, “My call on stream was just another form of participation of the protest that I wish to grab more attention. I put so much effort in that social movement in the past few months that I sometimes couldn’t focus on preparing my Grandmaster match. I know what my action on stream means. It could cause me lot of trouble, even my personal safety in real life. But I think it’s my duty to say something about the issue.”
For those not caught up with the Hong Kong protests, the nation has been heavily protesting their provincial Chinese rulers since June of this year after “proposed amendments to Hong Kong’s extradition law” were put forth to law. Said amendments would allow China to extradite Hong Kong citizens to China, further solidifying China’s sovereignty over the state.
