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 Kripparrian too tweeted out that he has withdrawn and "saw a chance to speak through actions."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.
Exactly this. In 1919 Dodge sued Ford and won for the concept that a corporation existed only to increase their profits to their shareholders. A corporation will only do what's profitable.
Coca Cola profits off of slave labor, operates death squads in South American countries to keep workers in line, suppress studies that their products fuel the obesity crisis, and even worked with the Nazis (that's where Fanta comes from). If anyone thinks corporations are their friends or are on your side, you're sorely mistaken.
So being the biggest HS streamer and having an average on 10k viewers is not an accomplishment? Guess Kripp is doing it wrong then, he must be so sad crying with his thousands of dollars. This stream is just a marketing strategy to bring more light to their new set, that's it, for that reason they have all the biggest streamers, it makes sense, Blizzard want to make money, and hey, the guy that averages a 10k audience probably makes them more money than someone with less than 1k viewers. It's not like Kripp's getting invited to play on GM or something like that.
Having said that I'm happy that they're trying to diversify but I would like if it was even more diverse, but not on terms of gender or race but also on terms of their viewers. As I said I get that Blizzard want to maximize their money but it's kinda dumb that Kripp AND Regis AND Kibler and Thijs AND Dog AND Trump are on every single stream. If they cared more about the small and medium-sized streamers then maybe they could also grow and represent good money for Blizzard as a company. But I do think that this whole 'let's invite girls cause they're girls and if we don't have girls people get mad' is just dumb, cause that's literally the reason that Blizzard invited 2 girls when Kripp and Regis stepped down.
All this brings is just dumber and more mysoginistic behavior to the table. Like those 'All girls' tournaments... to me they only look like 'hey they aren't good enough to play on a regular tournament so we made one just for them'. The correct way to be more inclusive should be with better marketing strategies that could encourage everyone to feel included and willing to play. Many women have proven to be on the top flight for this and many other games so they could compete at a high level, but I think just trying to include them cause they're girls and we have to be inclusive is wrong. I mean like GM is open for everyone, and yes the qualifying process is a nightmare but at the end it's all about skill. So yeah in this type of tournaments which is literally just streamers playing each other they should just be a lot more inclusive, and as I said not just with gender and race but also with their stream size.
Yes being a big streamer is an accomplishment, but what I was referring to were the people arguing that they should send invitiations based on competetive accomplishments for this promotional event, Kripp hasn’t been at top level in constructed hs in a long time if ever. I don’t understand why you’re so defensive of Kripp, I never attacked him?
What a lot of people don’t seem to consider is how these streamers got their success in the first place, most of the big ones have been around since hs was in beta and have been invited to countless official events since. Very few women even had that chance, now that’s finally starting to change. Seeing other people like oneself or who atleast share similarities makes you feel welcome and sometimes even inspiring. Feeling like you are the only girl who plays HS for example could make you less likely to keep playing, taking it more seriously or even starting in the first place.
I also generally don’t like the idea of ”all girls” tournaments or such, but there is a very good reason they exist in the first place. Women (and other marginalised groups) don’t get the same opportunities to participate in other events, so they create their own where they are in the spotlight and get to meet and get inspired by each other.
”The correct way to be more inclusive should be with better marketing strategies that could encourage everyone to feel included and willing to play” To me this is exactly that.
Inclusion is virtue signaling, it's pure cancer. Man, woman, black or white, young, old, we are all humans. So why are humans withdrawing from the event to let more humans being represented but other humans content creators ?
Inclusion means white men should only watch white men content creators, and black women should only watch black women content creators, therefore everyone needs to be represented so everyone can watch Hearthstone content.
This is so gross. In the real world, people, I mean non-leftist people, watch content creators they like based on their skill and personality, regardless of race, age and gender, and don't need to feel "represented" by similar looking humans everywhere and everytime in life, in particular in a damned hearthstone event.
Why not just say they want to invite the small content creators and not focus so much on the big ones ? That was fine, that makes sense, that is fair and benevolent. Why always bring race and gender to any discussion ?
Identity politics is killing us, all of us. In a few decades every race and gender will hate each other and feel like it's normal.
Regis and Kripp did good. Blizzard did evil from it.
Pardon me, I think we may have different definitions of "inclusion".
From my previous post, I was suggesting that inclusion is good, in the sense that they are trying to get more people involved, perhaps people with less notoriety and give them a chance to be seen.
Not "we need to have more races and genders represented". Because as you said, we shouldn't be looking at people and judging them on their appearance or status, but on their ability to perform or do what the community wants to see. (EG: play the game well, be entertaining/funny, create unique content)
Except, they DO. Representation matters. Seeing people that look like you, feel like you, talk like you matters and creates a sense that this is a space for you too and not a space only reserved for other groups.
If you don't believe that's true for Hearthstone, go and look through the social media explosion over the weekend, about how women often have a "family tree" in games they play and watch, where one woman leads to another being interested and choosing to become part of that space.
So, you are just flat out wrong in your assumption that it doesn't matter for anyone.
What you should have said is that it hasn't affected YOU this way.
For many people it has.
Pherosizm :
Well inclusion is kinda like racism, I guess everyone has their own definition and opinion about it.
Regis for example withdrawed because he wanted more inclusion for smaller content creators, but never said a word about race and gender.
I definitely agree with what you said here. But that isn't the definition of inclusion that is being pushed by the media and corporates (as we can see in the Blizzard response), and that isn't what they are actually trying to do, they only needed a woman and a transgender for their agenda, they didn't care about how involved or notorious they are or how many people will feel represented by these 2 creators. All they ever care about is virtue signaling about race and gender, deliberately ignoring any other relevant and significant factor. Because virtue signaling is the only way to not get canceled by the mob, and being canceled means less money.
We don't exist as individuals anymore, we are just numbers for our respective community color. For example, an under represented white man wouldn't matter to Blizzard, it wouldn't even make sense to them, because the white men community is well represented already. But what is the difference for this particular white man content creator with 30 viewers ? A white woman who is watching a black man content creator wouldn't matter either, both of them wouldn't matter actually, cause she needs to be represented by a white woman.
This is all just massive bullshit, people don't matter. Women and POC are being used and exploited. "Representation" is just a way to cancel everyone. When everyone is equaly represented among races and genders, nobody will be able to speak up about other issues.
xskarma :
It only matters to leftist racist people. That is the sad reality. It never mattered to me or any of my non-leftist hearthstone friend.
I watch Regis and Alliestrasza and they look or talk nothing like me, I'm a skinny french boy.
I never felt like I was in a space for tall and fat american people when I was watching Regis. I never felt I was in a girls space when I was watching Allie.
I didn't say that though, I did say it matters for leftist (read : racist) people.
Yes, women like to stay betwen women to feel safe. This is not about representation. This is about being in a video game group that cares about the game more than it cares about seducing the girls in the group.
Edit : I guess I don't need to be offensive to all leftist people, there are good ones too. But everyone knows who I am referring to.
I agree 200%, its boring.
if youre only watching someone cause theyre similar to you, then you have a lot of growing the fuck up to do, i watch people cause i enjoy them as THEY are not cause they reaffirm how i am
Holy crap, this comment section is proof as to why inculsivity matters. I don’t understand so many saying: ”they should invite based of skill and accomplishments”, if they did Regis and Kripp wouldn’t have been there in the first place.
This is giving opportunities to a group who are underrepresented at events like these and at the top level in general because they haven’t been given the same opportunities before. How is it a bad thing that they are giving these women opportunities to make it at top level and show other women that it’s possible?
I have huge respect for Kripp, and for all his insane accomplishments he did to get to the top. That's why he is a big and succesfull streamer. Not because someone invited him to some boring corporate event.
Kripparrian has been invited to Hearthstone PR events since its inception. He was part of the very first official "competitive" event Blizzard ever held.
He's been getting invites and exposure at the corporate events for almost as long as the game exists.
It's EXACTLY that kind of disparity between the streamers they usually have for these events and the streamers they now intend to start inviting that is part of the problem.
It's a circular problem, where people don't get invited cause they are not popular enough according to a part of the community and they don't get to be popular enough due to the community never seeing them at these events. It's a catch 22 that many underrepresented groups suffer from and that props up old, unjust systems.
And for this particular, purely PR event, that makes no sense at all. It should be used to showcase talented people that can grow the Hearthstone brand to new markets, not the same old tired faces we have seen a billion times before.
And this isn't even something new.
Blizzard have been tweaking these invite lists for a while now, bringing in streamers from different languages to help promote these events in those markets.
It;s just that they have ALWAYS underrepresented women at these events, and that is finally about to change.
One can only hope that other groups that are under represented but make up a significant part of the player base get their chances too.
It's about damn time.
In this World, everything must be correct. Its all about Politics, dont get me wrong i am fine with this
Inclusion is good. "But they're doing it for the wrong reason!"
Diversity is good. "But they don't deserve it!"
People doing something for a reason that should never be misconstrued as malicious or greedy: "But I just want to be angry at things!"
This perfectly sums up all the comments on this thread.
From now on, people should have to read this post, then tick a box saying "I have read and understood" before they get to post anything on the Internet.
Diversity is good.
Inclusion is cancer.
That is BS and you know it - there are players that are more consistent and have longer list of achievements and yet they didn't get a spot. it is positive discrimination to appear inclusive and Blizzard doesn't care that other players are getting screwed because of that. It is great for their PR.
wow, so stunning, so brave, so courageous, wow