Roger and Reall Banned From Hearthstone's Grandmaster League for One Year
Blizzard Esports has issued a statement on Roger's win of the HCT Winter Championships and their future attitude towards rule violations. Here's what you need to know.
- Roger was previously caught stream-sniping and win-trading
- The stream-sniping causing his team to be disqualified from the Global Games.
- There was no action about the win-trading.
- Blizzard messed up. They acknowledge they didn't properly enforce their own rules.
- Blizzard has stated Roger still earned his championship title.
- Roger and his Taiwanese teammate, Reall, will not be allowed to participate in Grandmaster events for one year.
Quote from Sam BraithwaiteHi all – Sam Braithwaite, Senior Global Franchise Lead for Hearthstone esports here. As we prepare for the 2019 HCT World Championship, I wanted to take the opportunity to address the community’s feedback about one of our professional players, Luo "Roger" Shengyuan, who recently won the HCT Winter Championship.
In Oct. 2018, during the Hearthstone Global Games, we discovered that team Chinese Taipei, which included Roger, tom60229, Shaxy, and Reall had violated the rules to gain a competitive advantage. In response, we administered the penalty outlined in the rules at the time, and disqualified team Chinese Taipei from the competition.
But previously, in April 2018, allegations of Roger and Reall participating in win-trading had surfaced. After an investigation, we discovered their involvement in the incident but did not issue any official warning in response to their rule violation due to an internal miscommunication.
We now realize that our previous rules around these scenarios and our enforcement of them did not meet the standards of our community. We take full responsibility for this. Moving forward, we will be reevaluating our rules for the 2019 season and are committed not only to improving, but also to being more transparent about the way we administer warnings, penalties, and rulings.
Our failure should not diminish Roger’s accomplishments. He earned his championship at HCT Winter and his spot at the upcoming HCT 2019 World Championship on his own merit and in compliance with the official HCT competition ruleset.
While Roger and Reall may still compete in Hearthstone Masters Qualifiers and Masters Tour events, due to having two rule violations last year, they will not be invited to the inaugural year of Hearthstone Grandmasters. Grandmasters will be the highest level of competitive Hearthstone, and its competitors will be held to higher standards, not just in performance, but also in conduct.
Thank you for all your feedback, your support, your patience, and understanding. Hearthstone esports wouldn’t be what it is without you, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts as we prepare to embark on a new chapter of Hearthstone esports in just a few short months.
Lance Armstrong was banned for life.
Tonya Harding was banned for life.
In both cases, the offenses were a lot more serious than what happened here, but to say athletes don't get permanently banned is false.
So our current champion at the moment is a known an continuous cheater at several occasions (most likely all and where ever he can).
Perfect image for the competitive scene!
Are professional athletes permanently banned if they break the rules ? For example the use of steroids. Nope they aren't.
1 year ban is fair IMO.
maybe if it was his first time cheating.. but hes been busted twice.. he will just find a better way to cheat next time.
did blizzard enforce the rules the first time ? I wasn't aware there was a first incident.
In my opinion the ban was too much and they should be allowed to play... with their hand face up ;)
some deluded roger fan boys up in here.. SAD!
Amen.
Whoever gets caught cheating should be permabanned from all competitions.
while I cant exactly disagree with this, but I need to mention that everybody needs a second chance. Plus its not like he cheated during the competition, only for the qualification. he proved to be good at the game, its not like he was using an aimbot or wallhack. in this case true cheating and not deserving the title would be if he could secretly have a way to known opponents hands during the competition matches
I can imagine how a random player win-trading on ladder might slip through the cracks. I'm a fairly casual HS player though, and I remember hearing about the stream-sniping incident at the time that it occurred. And in case someone hadn't heard about it or had forgotten, all he or she would have had to do was tune in to the World Championship stream and look at chat for 20 seconds to be reminded. It was the biggest story of the tournament (even before the tournament began). How did no one involved with organizing/managing the tournament realize that this would cause such a controversy?
slap on the wrist
Good on Blizzard. They recognized that they messed up and did something about it.
Seriously, twice in a month I feel like someone has been watching Omni/Stone and been like "yeah, those dudes have a good point!".
How is it toxic to say this guy should be perma banned for cheating in a professional tournament?? I can't imagine too many fellow HS professionals being too happy this guy still gets to play.
well i guess they should‘ve expelled the NE Patriots from the NFL years ago then.
he will get punished but a permanent ban aka ending his career? its just so stupid and wrong to demand that..
lol the patriots are a team of 52 players.. roger is just 1 person.. the comparison is very weak.. and yes he should have his career ended on the HCT circuit.. but permabanned from other HS tournaments is up to those organizations.
dude, the Pats taped the signals of the opposing teams. it‘s as close to stream sniping as it gets. and the coach is 1 person, not 52. i think the comparison is pretty spot on.
he gets banned for 1 year. thats fine. a permanent ban would be wrong imo
Are you dense? the patriots coach did not tape signals it was a employee on the team who did it and last I checked the patriots are a TEAM.. roger is just 1 person who cheated.. why are you bending over backwards for this guy?
Any action against cheats is good action. You can all have your opinions, that's fine, but if you feel this is too weak, imagine yourself not being able to properly perform your profession for a year... It hurts. Don't understand that? Read a book.
Pro player catched at stream sniping.
Noob Plays