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.
I'm trying to figure out how they justified his "earned" spot when he used those previous techniques in order to get into the tournaments in the first place. Sure he won there and moved on up the ladder to a seasonal finals but in order to even get that process moving he manipulated the system. Pretty much invalidates the work any honest players put into get into those early events from placing so high on ladder.
Way too late with the ban, but at least he finally got punished. Hopefully he doesn't win Worlds, or this will get super awkward.
He should have lost his spot in the worlds too as far as I am concerned, but determining his replacement would be controversial too, you would have to organise a mini tournament for it or choose someone from last championship.
As far as I understand, Grand Master tournaments are equivalent to previous year's Worlds, so not being able to participate will at least hurt him financially.
Given some of the comments I heard regarding this topic, I would not try to meet the "standards" of this community, but aim higher.
roger is laughing all the way to the bank, gets to keep the title and will be back in a year. seems like a really good deal for him.
He doesn't even have to wait a year. He can play in all the regular HS tournaments this year except the so far unannounced Grandmaster tournament. In effect he will be barred form play 2 maybe 3 tournaments tops while simultaneously playing in all the lesser events for prizes. He should have been banned from all sanctioned HS events for a year.
agreed. well looks like more bad press for activision. i can hear their stock plummeting more.
Seems fair to me. The most important thing, I think, is that Blizzard remains consistent moving forward. If someone does this sort of thing again, Blizzard should mete out the same punishment. If they decide that it is too soft, they should make it clear before they start ramping up the punishment. Same for deciding it is too harsh. Consistency is key.
*Awaits jokes about consistency and Blizzard*
Do you know what was the winning prize of the HCT? $ 50,000 + sponsors. Only one year of ban seems very very kind. This is fraud guys.
Agreed. The key point here is he did not cheat once. He is a repeat offender.
His original win trading offense should have been enough to carry a one year ban, which would have kept him out of the HCT. But then stream sniping during a big tournament, like HGG?! He should have a multi-year ban.
This is too little, too late. Blizzard messed up big time and now we have to watch a cheat playing in the finals. What a joke.
He should've had his account terminated and banned from ever playing Blizzard games competitively again.
Nobody will be missing them this year. A year... of the Dragon!
From what I read he just won’t get invited at the inaugurational ones but still able to qualify for the upcoming events, is that correct?
Almost, he isn't going to be invited to the inaugurational Grandmasters. He can still compete in the Masters events, but the Grandmasters events are the 'more prestigious' of the two types of events.
Im 38 years old. These are kids. He and his team made a big mistake. 1 year ban is acceptable. He will learn and be better for it.
You are not old, you are not even 40! You are just an 80s guy that he is still kid in his heart.
Seriously now, I think this wasnt the first time that Roger was stream-snipping!
You can be banned for life with steroid, or you can have the jail for the steroids. If you are an Athlete and you received 3 years of jail (like you can receive for the steroids) you will be practically forever out of the games.
The laws in video games tournament are not evolved enough, but this is a thing that in the future might fairly involve jail, at the end it is fraud, with money gain.
So, 1 year of ban is not fair, for me the ban should be much higher. His result, at the end, is the same for the use of steroids (win easy) but the punishment is much more softly. Blizzard should hit hard on this kid in order to prevent other cases like this. 1 year of Ban when there are involved a lot of money for the winner and a lot of money from the sponsors is not a sufficient deterrent. A lot of other people, might do the same thing, knowing that the consequence will be only 1 year of ban.
So, Blizzard hit hard the stupid kid.
So our champion is a convicted cheater who can keep his tittle. What a great ideal to follow for the rest of esport community!
A year is not too soft, you guys are clowns. Not being able to compete in the grandmasters is bad for him for sure.
This is a fair punishment. Especially because they're only doing it to satisfy QQ from the community.
I hope Roger wins worlds then can't compete for a year like Jon Jones.
Well atleast he gave me 4 packs so I don't really care whether or not he cheated
I know that everyone and everything in life have price, but it makes me sad, when I see so "cheap" people.