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.
trying to get an advantage in a competitive environment. sounds human to me. if Blizzard does mistakes like that, i think it is utterly ridiculous to demand a "perma ban" on this guy. to cruzify a guy in public is just wrong.
and i'd say that most of the "ban him" and "nothing worse than a cheater" ppl in here would stream snipe every single opponent to get to top legend ranks if they could.
cheating is wrong but jesus christ. the toxic part of the community should just chill.
blizzard really messed this one up.. should be perma banned.
>Banned for Stream Sniping
The absolute state of nugames dear god.
Boom!
Where are all the trolls that cheered for Roger and didn't understand why we want him to get banned.
Still a weak response, but a lot better than nothing.
In my opinion a blanket ban should have been given. Even if he has won HCT winter champs legitimately it brings the game in to disrepute. You should have to conduct yourself professionally and be an example to those wishing to following in the footsteps of the pros. It's not right that he is still competing.
Too little too late imo. And too soft as well.
Caring about "pro" scene in HS in 2019
if anybody cheated on Bunny, it was HS RNG itself, not Roger
Also let it be known that I think there were some discrepancies with the intent behind the "win-trading." It's my understanding that at the time of the alleged win-trading, Roger and Reall were both in positions were it was not necessary to actually win-trade, and that they only participated in it on-stream to prove that it could be done and that there are inherent flaws with the current ladder system. I totally believe that this could be the case, as: 1.) Nobody with that much clout would ever cheat on stream, as they have everything to lose and little to gain; 2.) Roger has already proven his skill and thus doesn't need the competitive edge that win-trading offers (these are my OWN opinions about the subject).
Regardless of whether you believe that to be true or not, a "perma-ban" would be too harsh. I'm a firm believer that people should have the opportunity to overcome their mistakes and change for the better. I also think taking away titles is a slippery slope that none of us who participate in the competitive scene (either by competing, casting, streaming, viewing, cheering, voting, etc.) want to see.
I demand all four Choose Your Champion packs.
They can't just take his award away, people. If Blizzard failed to take action before the tournament they can't just come along and "invent" rules after the fact. Did Roger deserve to be prohibited from competing? Yes, but it's to late for that now.
Weak af response.
They lost their invitation as far as I understand, but not banned, they still can win a spot through qualifiers it seems, as long as they don't break even more rules...
Imagine this same incident happenning in the Olympics? "We think this contestant earned his medals unlawfully so we won't let him participate in the upcoming events" - FUCKING REALLY? HOW ABOUT YOU STRIP HIM OFF HIS AWARDS IF YOU KNOW HE WAS CHEATING, HUH?
he wasn't cheating in that particular tournament... and he was disqualified in those that he did cheat it...
I agree, but his participation should be compromised basing upon his previous record.
Surprised they didn't turn an overwatch character LGBT to distract from the controversy.
Am I the only one that feels that Blizzard completely screwed up their intended message by banning him AFTER the championships instead of before? If they banned him immediately, the message would be that they don't tolerate cheating, instead the message they've sent now is that they themselves don't care but will bend to public outcry.
Moreover, even if the guy cheated, trying to maximize harm to him via public embarrassment is in bad taste, and that's exactly what Blizzard did. They waited until the entire HS community saw who the person is, encouraged us to observe the championship via free pack deal, waited for us to put his face together with the name, and then announced that the winner is actually a cheater. It's almost as if they went out of the way to publicly humiliate him.
While I agree with you, they don't have a time machine. I think that they took the best option that they had left in the here and now. They should have done more sooner, but at least they didn't choose to do nothing at all and sweep it under the rug.
This sounds like some Kafkian narrative now...