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 Kripparrian too tweeted out that he has withdrawn and "saw a chance to speak through actions."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.
If they want to give up their slot that is fine, this is the kind of feminism that isn't irrelevant and serves zero purpose. Good for them, good for their PR, good for everybody.
UNLIKE changing the art in the game for SJWs in the social media circus that don't even play the game, then trying to blame China - Blizzard...looking at you here.
did u just assume my gender BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
did you just assume my gender?
Lol, all of these feelings and all of this overwhelming assumption that everyone who disagrees with you is a white male.. but no, again you’re wrong in your groupthink assumptions. Tough lives you live, keep hammering your heads into keyboards for change lol
The nature of virtue signaling is that it's an offshoot of privilege in many senses is a natural reaction to the automatic privilege that already existed. Unfortunately it may not be the best reaction but there does need to be adjustment. If you want to complain about virtue signaling you first have to offer valid alternatives to the free pass that the incumbency has.
How do you know the race and gender of every member? Thats some messed up feelings you got. You embarrassed yourself.
I’ve been playing since open beta and I mainly watch Kripp and Trump because they are original players and pioneers. That’s it. I’ll mostly watch Trump now.
Baffling take but sure. I stopped watch Kripp years ago because he's a pretentious dickhead.
Looking at the Like/Dislike ratio,
At least logic is still a thing in this Thread, not like on the other site...
They should have fired Chris the community manager months ago, not communicating about the reward track, and his horrible way of setting up these competitions. I think a lot of players need to keep in perspective that Hearthstone, is a game you can lose to anyone of any race/color/sex etc. out there in the world. Same goes with most games you play online, or offline, that do not involve physical activity(the only advantage men generally have over women)
it's called shooting yourself in the foot in order to appease one of the smallest percent of your audience. seems like the "new normal" these days.
I don't want stupid politics and wokeness in games! I want to enjoy the game to escape a while from this nonsense! This just divides the playerbase.
Doing an advertising stream without the higher audience pull seems foolish, but whatever floats the optical boat I guess
I love you.
Well...not your genitals apparently.
LOL. The suffocating density of assumption and self righteousness that you just virtue dropped is astounding. While I’m sure that you feel strongly that your perception of my comments and the subsequent judgements on my interactions in the real world are 100% accurate, fortunately reality doesn’t lend itself to the convenience and comfort of your ideals.
I don’t have a problem with any of the cohorts you mentioned, so take the time to re-read and realign your accusations to an appropriate target.
Then again anyone accusing people of "virtue signaling" doesn't really have anything of value to add
Lots of butthurt white men on here crying that kripp and regis got FORCED OUT. They freely chose to and i respect them for it. How can u get so offended over this? I cant believe i am saying this, but this is not the end of the world. feminism is not gonna take away your videogames, calm down, you are embarassing yourself.
the hearthstone community is embarrassing unfortunately, the HS reddit proves that with their excessive and endless toxicity. Shouldn't be surprising there's that kind of thing here, gamers don't want their little boys club challenged, and will bring up a number of dubious point just to keep gatekeeping women.