During a post-game interview at the Hearthstone Grandmasters tournament, a player from Hong Kong was interviewed by the official Taiwanese Hearthstone stream. The player, Chung "Blitzchung" Ng Wai, appeared in a gas mask similar to those worn by those participating in the ever ongoing Hong Kong protests.
Wearing these masks has recently been banned in Hong Kong. This anti-mask law was enacted in an effort to deter the protests. This law went into effect on October 4. Those found to be breaking this law can be sentenced to one year in prison or fined upwards of $25,000 (HKD; Roughly $3,200 USD). Following the approval of this law going into effect, thousands of mask wearing protesters again took to the streets.
During the interview, Blitzchung slid down his mask to say, "Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our age." The two casters that were part of the official stream quickly hid their heads so that they would not be associated with Blitzchung or his statements. Almost immediately after Blitzchung's remarks, the casters said, "OK, that's it, Blitz bro," and the stream quickly cut to a commercial.
Blitzchung has since issued a statement to Inven Global.
"As you know there are serious protests in my country now. 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."
(Image by Hf9631 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/inde...curid=79818335 )
I don't know how many are actually protesting now, versus how many are there for fun in the most disturbing way.
This is no protest. This is a civil war.
(Don't get me wrong. I'm not okay with giving more power to China, because I'm already royally fucking pissed off with Hong Kong courts as it is. I don't need Hell to handle future Hong Kong cases. Just um... This war isn't helping. It's not a revolution.)