On October 6, 2019, during the Hearthstone Grandmasters streaming event in Taiwan, Ng Wai Chung, a professional Hearthstone player and resident of Hong Kong known as "Blitzchung", was being interviewed following his match, during which he donned a mask similar to those worn by protesters in the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests and said "Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times". The stream was cut off shortly after. The following day, on October 7, Blizzard announced that Blitzchung had been banned from the current tournament, would forfeit any prize money (approximately by that point), and would be banned from other Grandmaster tournaments for one year. The company cited a rule that prohibits Grandmasters players from offending the public, making political speech or impugning Blizzard's image. Blizzard later said that while they respect its players' freedom of speech, they are still bound by competition rules. Blitzchung, in an interview afterwards, stated that he had done the act of protest because his effort towards the social movement over the preceding months sometimes interfered with his preparation for the tournament.
