Blizzard lost one of its esports sponsors, Mitsubishi Motors. The company decided to pull its dollars in response to how Blizzard treated Chung ‘blitzchung’ Ng Wai, who openly supported Hong Kong protestors during an official Hearthstone livestream.
Mitsubishi’s Taiwanese division used to sponsor all of Blizzard’s esports events. However, as spotted by Reddit users, the Mitsubishi Motors logo has recently disappeared from an official tournament stream.
Now you see it…
…Now you don’t!
Erica Rasch, a Mitsubishi spokesperson, confirmed that Mitsubishi Motors Taiwan ceased its sponsorship of Blizzard’s esports events. It happened two days after Blizzard announced blitzchung’s ban. Beyond that, the company declined to comment.
Mitsubishi’s departure became the latest touch to the PR nightmare that Blizzard got itself into. Players are cancelling their subscriptions. Blizzard employees are staging walkouts. Politicians decry the ban as a concession to China (which makes sense as Tencent owns around a five percent stake at Blizzard).
With bad press piling up, Blizzard will have a tough time handling it at BlizzCon, which starts this Friday (November 2). Perhaps, the appointment of Microsoft veteran Mike Ybarra will help, but he is technically only stepping in as EVP and GM at Blizzard Entertainment on November 4.