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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lESbn_HGh4Y&feature=youtu.be&t=60
I am finding out cheating gets it faster!
Thank you for the awesome song !
Yes, his teammate cheated in the Global Games; yes he cheated with wintrading almost a year ago. Yes, he should be punished for those incidents, and he is in fact being punished (it's just delayed by a year).
How does any of that have any bearing on whether he has enough skill (WITHOUT cheating) to win a world championship? If he wins worlds, he will do it because he's better (or maybe luckier) than the other 15 players, completely unrelated to any cheating. How would that be a problem?
Help me out guys. I'm looking for a single word to complete a quote. "_______ demands retribution! "
And this word is justice
I do think it is kind of funny that Battle of the Bans is this week's brawl.
Just thought I'd point that out ;)
Most cheaters don't care that much if they get caught and penalized. They got their fame and in some cases still get their money. If they really want to they can just create new accounts not under their names and play those accounts (they just won't get to go to major events for the obvious reasons of the lack of anonymity that would create for them).
Look at WoW's arena cheaters for a good example. Regardless of use of kick bots, ddos attacks on opposing teams, etc. they have often gotten away with it to varying extents. If they they get banned, oh well, they often just make new accounts and become repeat offenders.
justice is served
feel they got off too easy, they should be banned from all events for 1 year ,
I remember watching a YouTube video of team Taipei and people commenting that one of the players was making terrible misplays to throw the game.
I don’t agree they should have a lifetime ban, but the punishment here does seem too light as they were essentially cheating.
Reall: Roger we need to cheat!
"ROGER that"
I always thought Blizzard was infamous for their zero tolerance policies. What happened to that? They enforced it on pretty much all their games, why not Hearthstone? I agree that Roger should keep his titles and what he accomplished at the HCT, but why have they gone soft on their punishments? Is it because he is a pro? If that is the case, that is unfair to the community they are trying to accomodate. Punishments for cheating should always be equal regardless of status. They enforced that rule in games like Overwatch, why do they not for Hearthstone? Their statement on this is really questionable for me.
Activision slashed staff at Blizzard, that's what happened.
Even that one year ban is not proper, he is still allowed to play in Masters Qualifiers and Tours. He should be banned from all Blizzard events for a year at the very least.
Yeah, they're way too late.
It's also pretty lame they're clearly only doing this because the community made a big outcry after Roger won the Winter Champs.
Damage has been done already - doing this NOW is just throwing the cake into the face of the clown.
They won't ban him properly because he is very popular in Taiwan. I even heard that Taiwanese commentators for HCT Winters were mocking JustSaiyan because of his tweet against Roger.
I would ask for any prize to be given back,and disqualification for life!
Honestly, I wish it were harsher. He did a lot of damage.
He's gonna wipe his crocodile tears for a year with dollars he won from Blizz itself.
small indie company