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 Kripparrian too tweeted out that he has withdrawn and "saw a chance to speak through actions."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.
Big streamers are big because they are talented, they are fun to watch, they are very very good at the game and they worked very hard day after day to work for their position and status.
Now they are being replaced by 2 persons because one is a good looking girl and second is a transsexual person.
And was the chance given because of that? No, there are better players that didn't get a chance from blizzard yet and are both consistent and longer at the scene. This is just a case of positive discrimination and inclusion of trans for the sake of being trans honestly,
I get that it has a positive impact and pushes the issue into a spotlight, but let's not pretend it is because of the game results.
Luna is an INCREDIBLE HS player, with top finishes in plenty of high level tournaments. Your statement about her is just unfair and ignorant.
Avelline might not be top tier player, but who are you to judge the effort she puts on her career? do you know anything about her path so far creating gaming content? who are you to assume she dosen't deserve this opportunity? As a girl, she prob worked way harder, I'am a music teacher, my girls students works twice as hard than the males ones, a male student can go away with an C grade (even look cool to his buddies), a girl is tagged as dumb with an C grade.
I'am really sad for this community to watch so many upvotes on your disgraceful comment.
(Sry for grammar, english is not my mother language).
Are there players that finished higher in a few last GM tournaments and have the same or better results? Yes. Were they invited? No.
If you count is as anything else than positive discrimination you are naive.
On the other hand Kripp shouldn't had been invited either with that logic. I am just tired of the BS you are presenting "she is invited because of the results" - literally nobody gives a rat as if she is female, trans, male or a refrigerator. The community doesn't like the fact they are being presented BS.
SIMP
Wow! This is a huge step forward! Can’t wait to see even more representation of talented deserving contestants.
If you are looking to fault someone for not including/mentioning every demographic out there, you are doing a decent job. Not everything has to be about color or gender. Some people treat everyone equally and by dropping out, his intent was to get someone else in - regardless of their classification. There's no need to pinpoint a minority group like female, must have a disability like 1 eye, darker skin...preference for living in Wakanda, over the age of 60 because not enough older gamer females with 1 eye. Be realistic.
Yes, BLM and #MeToo but to nitpick a guy for not mentioning that in his explanation for dropping out? You're a gender and hair color away from being a Karen.....unless you are blonde already.
I agree with the sentiment that we need more inclusion in these events, it just seems like cutting two of the most popular creators will cut the overall amount of viewership for the event. Personally, I'm in favor of cutting more guys at events like this, and I kind of get annoyed seeing the same 10 white dudes play hearthstone with not many new people coming forward. Firebat has been in the scene forever and at one point said he'll quit, but he's still here. This stunt seems like it might be for something else other than inclusion, blizzard has been known for being shitty to work with and those two guys, in particular, are trying to get farther and farther away from the scene.
So brave...
NOT
So I guess the conclusion is we are all racists: nobody cared about not having a single black person to the tournament and nobody seems to care.
Let's make our voices reach the skies and convince Blizzard and the community that black players matter too and should get invited. And after that we can find other thing to complain about.
yeah.... i spected this to happen sooner and later, and watching the comments, is as awkward as i thougth it would be
A big thanks for Regis and Kripp.
Regis says that "Sure there's a financial downside, but I recognize there's also a social upside.", but when seeing all the comments here, it seems that it's not really a social upside. Because 2 men deciding that 4 girl on 20 is just better than of 2 girl on 20 seems intolerable.
It's not the world championchip where only the level must be taken in account, it's a fun promotionnal event where people are invited just for the fun.
I think Regis a Kripp show a lot of courage here. A lot more than... well, all people affraid to have 4 girl for 20 player instead of 2 girl for 20.
What has Kripp ever achieved? He's a mediocre player who got popular by turning himself into a meme. His only real achievement is how good he is at marketing himself.
Regardless of the gender of participants, several of these players should not have been top choices in the first place.
Kripp was at one point the player with the highest arena win rate in the world. Do you have any idea how big of an achievement that is in a game with millions of players? Stop being sour and give credit where it's due.
"Kripp was at one point the player with the highest arena win rate in the world."
Kripp was popular even in the beta, when arena win rates was introduced the game had been 4 years old.
So why do you think he became popular? When he played arena he used to have great results, his streams are at the time that doesn't have a huge competition, he was pre-popular coming to HS due to his Diablo and WoW achievements and he is really consistent with his streams, YouTube, and social media. It is a shitton of work
At what point was that? Because as far as i can remember he always hovered slightly below 7 wins when others managed 8.
Edit: but that's irrelevant anyway, because the point is not how good he was, but how good he is.
Kripp has always been a great content creator, but as a player he has been average for quite some time.
I never said he isn't a good streamer or content creator, but i replied to a comment talking about achievement in Hearthstone which is a different discussion.
Kripp got big in Hearthstone by getting in early and working hard. There was a time when Kripp, Trump and Amaz had more than double the viewers of anyone else but as a player, especially in constructed, he was never great.
I will be stunningly and bravely skipping this tournament lmao.
Common sense has lost. Getting invited based on gender rather than what people achieved in the game is inherently wrong.