Esports player given prize money back after Hong Kong statements

Last week, a very well-known and successful game company, Activision Blizzard, disqualified professional Hearthstone player Ng “Blitzchung” Wai Chung because of comments he made supporting the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Ng was originally suspended for a year and Blizzard took his prize money because it was a violation of competition rules. Anything that offends the public or tarnishes Blizzard’s image would result in a ban and loss of prize money. 

Of course, everyone in the gaming community was mad about the actions that Blizzard took because they thought it was censorship (This is becoming a trend now). Players aren't allowed to say what they want because of this corporate entity that is governing over them and people think it is unfair, myself included. I get the business side of things but at some point, people have to realize that the players’ opinions don’t represent the opinions of the company.   

After the outrage and response from members in the community, Blizzard decided to shorten Ng’s ban from a year to six months and to return his lost prize money. I guess Blizzard realize they may have overreacted and release a statement saying, "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." I feel it’s a step in the right direction, but I still think it is unfair that us regular people are allowed to say whatever we want but just because the esports players are associated with this company that they cannot. 

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