RegisKillbin & Kripparrian Withdraw From Inn-vitational This Week - Blizzard Announces Plans and Replacements
Blizzard announced 2 new contestants for the Inn-vitational event this week and RegisKillbin announced on Twitter why he is voluntarily withdrawing from the event and gives his long-view thoughts on the situation. Kripparrian too tweeted out that he has withdrawn and "saw a chance to speak through actions."
We have two new participants for the Crossroads Inn-vitational! Welcome @lunaloveee8 and @AvellineHS to the roster, and a huge thanks to Kripp and RegisKillbin for graciously offering their slots.
— Hearthstone (@PlayHearthstone) April 20, 2021
Why we’re doing this: representation and inclusion matter, and we’re committing ourselves to being better. It’s vital that our events represent the reality of the Hearthstone community made up of numerous talented and deserving women who dedicate themselves to the game every day.
— Hearthstone (@PlayHearthstone) April 20, 2021
In order to commit ourselves to doing better in the future, every community event’s invitees will have a greater representation of women moving forward. This is only one piece of our future plans around diversity and inclusion.
— Hearthstone (@PlayHearthstone) April 20, 2021
To the women of the Hearthstone community: thank you, and know that we will live up to this through our actions.
— Hearthstone (@PlayHearthstone) April 20, 2021
.@underflowR and I saw a chance to speak through actions, good luck to everyone https://t.co/4zrkW8g5vK
— Kripparrian (@Kripparrian) April 20, 2021
Regis' Message, in full:
Quote from RegisKillbinTo get right into it: I want more creators to get a spotlight in Hearthstone, so I volunteered to withdraw from the upcoming Inn-vitational event, and will be reducing my involvement in future events that have more competitive elements.
Now for the context: I want gaming to be a joyful experience that brings us all together, yet so many in our community use it as a weapon to tear people down and tear people apart. I’ve been appalled by the comments I see from people playing our game. Some seem to think the tavern is only big enough for them, using bigotry and malice to turn people away. I want to help open the tavern doors even wider and encourage more people to come have a drink and play a game of cards.
So this week when all the conversations about representation started, I realized I had already taken too long to act. There are a diverse array of creators working to grow their communities and establish stable careers, and I don’t want to get in their way, especially for events that have prize pools based on performance in the game.
For a while now, I’ve been feeling guilty about being involved in seemingly everything in Hearthstone. When you’re growing your audience and still finding a footing financially as a creator, it feels impossible to turn down opportunities, so of course I welcomed all the cool stuff I got to do at first. I’m super thankful to have had those chances to grow. But after the career side of it begins to stabilize, suddenly it feels like you’re taking opportunities from others when you don’t really need them.
So there are a few reasons I’m giving up my spot:There are some people saying I and others “deserve” to be invited to these events due to our marketing value and audiences we bring. I certainly acknowledge I have one of the larger YouTube viewer counts in our game, and sure, those numbers do probably warrant invitations based on promotional value alone. So perhaps it is understandable, but I’m not sure it is ideal. If we spread the love and get more people involved, won’t that help the game find fresh and bigger audiences? Won’t I benefit if the game grows? In other words, it’s not much of a sacrifice to make if the game and community are better for it.
- I want more people to get opportunities and spotlights.
- I am not trying to showcase my skills or build my audience off being great at the game. These events are a great springboard for people who are trying to do that.
- I am lucky enough to have super supportive viewers and a stable financial situation. Prize pools in these events are enormous and can provide smaller creators with tons of time and resources to reinvest into their content.
- I’m not that good at the game and worry I will embarrass myself on the biggest stages. (this is only sort of a joke)
All of that said, please don't put any pressure on other creators who are not able to do the same, nor send any hate to those taking my place. I'm no hero here, just stupidly lucky enough to have such a supportive community that I can afford to do this, both financially and from a growth and content standpoint. So please don't celebrate this gesture, instead celebrate the creators getting their time.
Thanks much for reading, and I look forward to seeing you in the tavern!
-Regis
A few follow-up thoughts I couldn't squeeze into a single page.
Originally I just wanted other people to be involved, I can't claim that I had the foresight to think about it as a representation issue. That conversation this week just made me think about it in new ways and kick-started this decision.
I will still do events, but I will aim to limit myself to those that are less competitive and more promotional (tournaments vs theorycrafting, for instance) because that's where I think I best serve the game and my audience.
For how this worked, I made an offer to Blizzard to withdraw last week on April 15th. I didn't want to force their hand, as I had made an agreement to participate. After some discussion on their end, they decided to accept the offer.
I don't want people to celebrate this action. I always get nervous for these events anyway, in some ways it's a relief. Sure there's a financial downside, but I recognize there's also a social upside. This is a case where the right thing and a self-serving thing aligned perfectly.
There may be those who wonder why I'd ever give an advantage to "competition" when I'm running a business. It has crossed my mind. But at the end of the day, I think a rising tide raises all ships. And I welcome the challenge to float.
My God, the Hearthstone sites have turned into Twitter!!
Lunaloveee should have been amongst the first people invited to the event. Her play at hearthstone grandmasters despite not winning the first 2 weeks of the season was the least flawed of anyone playing the event. The weakest part of her play was her line up selection she did make the best overall plays of any of the players playing in grandmasters thus far this season and definately deserved the spot and regardless her overall play she should recieve more invitations as players who perform well should get more invites if there were 2 female streamers / players who i think should have been invited to more invitationals it would have been pathra and luna as they both play extremely well. They deserve more chances to show just how good they really are.
Saying she got the invite just because shes a girl just labels anyone doing so a moron because shes one of the best players in the world. As for pathra get beaten in grandmasters your talking of someone who had 1 shot at it and had half the population ragging on her just having a spot because she was a female player. Men or women if you play well regardless you deserve a spot. The spots should go to people who deserve them and yes if you have a player who is female and is a grandmaster because they are good enough to be at that point they should be given the shot. Allistraza and Sylyssa who are both good players dont get me wrong they are in the areas of Kripp and regis where they are more token spots given because the players are good but not because they are amongst the best players in the world where pathra earned a spot in grandmasters and luna is currently a grand master. If they are good enough for that they deserve it.
I would not be suprised at all to see Luna win the world championships if she can make better line up choices its highly likely she could. Having made the least mistakes of any players during first 2 weeks of the grandmasters tournament play wise. There was no way she could have won the matchs that cost her 1st place due to line up selection outside that play wise she played better than anyone else at the event.
That being said if its 20% female players 0% ect it should be based on whos doing well. If you do have female players who have earned the fight to be in consideration they should be invited.
The 4 Token players blizzard almost always invites are Sylyssa, Alli, Kripp and Regis and the 5th is usually Brian Kibbler. They are like the promo players for blizzard.
Dog and Thijs are your token grandmasters with the most consistant performance of any grandmasters despite dog being retired. They generally have had the most consistant performance year after year period and there for earned there spots.
After that your looking at grandmasters who represent each region most likely the current world champion gets an invite. So you have around 12 spots of which 6 are used for 2 apac, europe and Americas and 6 open spots who blizzard fills with who they want. I personally would have liked to see.
Kripp, Brian, Regis Dog, Allistraza, Sylyssa, Pathra, Lunaloveee, Thijs, Bunnyhopper, Hunterace, Tom, Glory, Language Hacker, NohandsGamer, Tincho, Jarla, Alutemu, and GivePlz are the invites so you had good representation all around and you had the top players given spots. Id probably have preferred deadeye to GivePlz but overall those are the players performing the best and that would have made the most sense to get invites to play at that lnvitational events. You also end up with 4 apac and 4 Eu players at the event as well as 4 female players at the event. If there were more female players who were or had reached grandmasters I could see more invited but there are not. Kripp and Regis did the right thing giving up spots to players who deserved a chance and should have been invited out the gate honestly.
This is where we're at 🙃
Hats of to Regis and Krip. Gentlemen are worthy of acknowledgment.
They really are troopers, you know, offering their slots...
Blizzard is basicaly telling the world that your genitals matter more than talent or skill or hard work
Honestly I truly hope humanity dies on this little rock,we dont deserve to infect other parts of the cosmos
Luna is bloodyface i.e. 2nd place at the global finals as of 2019 so obviously she’s got a bit more skill/talent that Kripp or Regis and put in the work to earn that spot.
thats great,but why didnt they do that from the start?are these invites based on popularity or some form of qualifications?
Making oppressing voting rights bad for business sounds pretty good to me!
Oh yes, "oppressive" laws that increase accessibility and have fewer restrictions than Colorado and New York. The United Nations election observers frequently express bafflement that our integrity protections are so subpar compared to Europe or even many non-Western nations. You're obviously extremely ignorant and just parrot talking points.
blizzard is so dumb and ****** for focusing ON THE SAME god damn players to give publicity to their games.
they need to bring new blood..new faces...people that NO ONE KNOWS....im tired of watching the same ***** over and over and worst..they dont even play ranked...just BG..so lame lol
Wow. The disgusting unintelligent d-baggery found in this comment thread is astounding. The idiocy being produced by the slimy man-children here makes the actions above seem even more important.
I made the point in another comment yesterday, but yeah, this is exactly the stuff female players have been calling out not just the past few days but for a long time, in Hearthstone and many other game communities.
The pinnacle for me was comparing inclusiveness to racism. I couldn't think of a bigger slap to the face for both people affected by racism AND sexism.
Not to downplay the, admittedly above-averagely large slap to the face for people affected by racism AND sexism that comparing inclusiveness to racism is, I think I probably could think of a bigger one.
At least they're making progress, I would have preferred that blizzard includes all of our favorite big streamers as well as smaller streamers that also deserve attention, but it's nice to see them giving other people opportunities.
I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised by Kripp and Regis their action.
Especially after I found out how toxic the community has been towards women and even Blizzard was being actively sexist.
I am against any form of quota's or pushing any minority but this had to be done to make things right and start moving in a new direction.
And people keep saying that this is good for the less known female creators cause they can get more popular and improve. Bullshit. If you get invited just because you're a woman anyway, why bother trying to improve to get invited in the future?
What's the point of continuing to appear in events if they just hand you spots because you're already famous?
I do agree. Its basically a form of affirmative action. I never believed in anyone being pushed for a specific reason. To be honest I never enjoy clicking my ethnicity because I don't see how that determines if I'm a good worker or not. I don't want to get or not get a job because of something I can't work on. So to just automatically put people in not because they are the best but because it checks off some "feel good, look at us we're not hateful" list truly makes me upset. If wether they be man, woman, non-binary, old, young, etc I want a tournament that displays the best players period. Not chosen for unrelated to their actual gaming.
Unless being a Tri-Gender Pyro Fox grants me 20% bonus RNG I'll gladly use it. But remember that people are people. Congrats and good luck on rhe tournament!
Pathetic and disgusting. I have no opinion regarding trans/gay/etc people. Live and let live. But this is simply insulting towards quite literally everyone. Typical way of making sure the company is ''woke'' enough but doing it in a way that makes it hilarious obvious that it is indeed only about that, being woke. FORCING people into this simply BECAUSE they are trans or a woman, is beyond idiotic. It should all be based on merits, on the individual, not what fucking group they belong to.