Blizzard Bans College Team For "Free Hong Kong Boycott Blizz" Sign

It took Blizzard less than a day to bring the banhammer down on a Hong Kong Hearthstone player for his interview in which he declared his support for the protests in Hong Kong. Three days after that, Blizzard walked back some of the punishment, which just left one more disciplinary thread to unravel.

Last Wednesday, the team from American University flashed a "FREE HONG KONG" sign during a tournament and, when no punishment was forthcoming, took it upon themselves to drop out of the tournament, calling Blizzard's lack of punishment "hypocritical."

Now that's been taken care of, according to team member Casey Chambers, who posted an email he -- and the other members of his team -- received from Blizzard to Twitter:

Happy to announce the AU Hearthstone team received a six month ban from competition. While delayed I appreciate all players being treated equally and no one being above the rules. pic.twitter.com/mZStoF0e0t

— Casey Chambers (@Xcelsior_hs) October 16, 2019

The letter states that Chambers is "prohibited from participating in any Hearhtstone tournaments ... extending to April 8th, 2020," a period of six months.

Chambers welcomed the ban, saying that he "appreciate[s] all players being treated equally and no one being above the rules." In a follow-up Tweet, he said that the team "knew what we were doing and expected the punishment."

Now this can all blow over and we can keep on going like it never happened, with no other reason to bring it all to light again occurring in the near future.