Algonquin Hearthstone gamers play on despite broader boycott

Algonquin College’s esports club will not be joining some North American participants in boycotting video games made by an American company in response to accusations regarding censorship.

“We have no plans to make any changes to our programming,” said Wilfred Warren, managing member of the Algonquin esports club. “Or plans on removing anything from our programming.”

The U.S. based gaming tycoon, Activision Blizzard is under much criticism globally for their actions regarding censorship.

Blizzard made Hearthstone player Ng “Blitzchung” Wai Chung forfeit $10,000 in winnings and banned him from the game for one year after he spoke out of support for the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

Critics did not hold back to accuse the company of making their business in China a priority over supporting free speech.

“This isn’t going to make me stop playing their games, but I still can’t believe how big it got,” said Taha Shayzaad, an environmental studies student at the college.

“They shouldn’t have banned him from the game,” he said. “People watched him stream because of the way he played. He’s not coming back. In a year it will be a completely different game.”

After the controversy Chung addressed the situation while streaming on Twitch.

“Today, what I have lost in Hearthstone is four years of time, but if Hong Kong loses, it would be the matter of a lifetime,” Chung said.

Since the remarks, North American participants of Activision Blizzard have voiced to the internet in hopes of a global boycott. On the internet forum Reddit, all subreddits of blizzard games were flooded with posts supporting the Hong Kong protests. Other posts illustrated Chinese president Xi Jinping as Winnie the Pooh.