Next week, Valve will host the 2019 Dota 2 International Tournament in Shanghai. Valve set the event location a year ago, but in the wake of Hong Kong’s political protests, fans have taken to spamming the event’s Twitch chat (note: China banned Twitch last year) with support for the protestors in Hong Kong.
Since June, protestors have taken to the streets of Hong Kong to push back against a proposed bill that would allow the government of Hong King to deport residents and foreigners to China. Hong Kong, while technically part of China, has its own separate, less restrictive government from China’s mainland. Hong Kong residents fear the bill could send them to China and that they would suffer unfair legal prosecution.
The police in Hong Kong have responded to protests with extreme violence and aggression. The Chinese government has referred to the protests as “terrorism” and reports have claimed that the military might soon get involved.
All of this has made fans of Dota 2 who support the Hong Kong protesters very upset that Valve has decided to move forward with the competition in Shanghai. In order to show solidarity with the protestors, people have flooded the Twitch chat for the streams leading into the Dota 2 event with messages and memes that rally against China’s government. The non-stop barrage has completely taken over any discussion about the events.
As reported by Kotaku, Dota 2 has a huge presence in China, and Valve, like Bethesda did with Fallout, has made some big moves recently to support the Chinese community. When the company announced the Shanghai location last year, the city government said they felt “honored” and that they would offer their “full support.” The protests had not yet started at that time.
Now, it seems fans would have preferred that Valve take a political stand against China in the wake of this new bill. Instead, according to comments on Reddit, the moderators for the event have taken to banning certain phrases and words from the event chat in order to discourage the barrage of political messages. Users have gotten banned for using the phrases "Tiananmen Square” (which references the famous historical event in Chinese history) and “Winnie the Pooh” (a nickname used to mock China’s president Xi Jinping).
This whole mess has escalated quickly and the event hasn’t even begun yet. It seems as if online protestors will continue pushing up to and throughout the tournament for Valve to cancel the event and host it elsewhere. It remains to be seen if the main event will go on as scheduled on August 20th. Valve has taken a stance on Dota 2 tournaments before, so look for an official response soon.
Dota 2 is available now on PC.
Source: Kotaku