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Hangzhou Asian Games: No more Hearthstone

Blizzard Entertainment’s popular collectible card game Hearthstone will not be part of the upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games between September... Eduardo | 16. March 2023

Blizzard Entertainment’s popular collectible card game Hearthstone will not be part of the upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games between September and October 2023.

This is one of the longest-running games in esports history, having been launched as far back as 2014, and has been a presence in the competitive scene in recent times.

Hangzhou Asian Games Says to Hearthstone: Game Over

On March 16, the Asian Electronic Sports Federation released a statement on their official Twitter account announcing that Hearthstone will not be part of the Hangzhou Asian Games.

The announcement comes after the conclusion of the 19th Asian Games Coordination Committee meeting. Reportedly, both HAGOC and AESF proposed to remove this game from the Hangzhou Asian Games, and it was approved. With this, the list of games is reduced to seven:

  • PUBG Mobile (Asian Games version)
  • Dota 2
  • League of Legends
  • Dream Three Kingdoms 2
  • FIFA
  • Street Fighter V
  • Arena of Valor (Asian Games version)

Hearthstone is not part of the esports

After Hearthstone was left out of the Hangzhou Asian Games, the AESF officially announced the game’s exit from esports as such.

As we can see, the Tweet above has a link that leads to the official statement of this decision. In that statement, reference is made to the failed negotiations between NetEase and Blizzard. As a result, all Hearthstone servers in China were shut down, and the entire team managing the game in this region was disbanded.

This is why the decision has been made to exclude Hearthstone as esports in major tournaments.

So, is Blizzard’s closure of servers in China to blame?

We can’t see in the statement a concrete reason why the decision was made to remove Hearthstone from esports. However, there is no doubt that the rupture of relations between Blizzard and NetEase could be the reason.

Recall that NetEase published and managed all Blizzard games in China. But, failing to reach an agreement between the two parties, relations ended, and the servers of Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and other games closed in China last January 23, 2023.

Undoubtedly, the main people affected by this conflict were the Chinese gamers. As a result, those who dedicated many hours to their favorite Blizzard games now had to delete all their progress.

While Blizzard has not ruled out returning to China any time soon, it is improbable that this will be any time soon. This country’s regulations on publishing games are strict and tend to last a long time. So even if Blizzard gets a new partner in the next few days, players will have to wait for the games to be approved again by the Chinese government.

Header: Blizzard Entertainment