Hearthstone Esports bans Jay from competitive play for stream sniping. Before the ban, Jay mocked the accusations giving them a retweet. The story behind the ban of this problematic Hearthstone player
Blizzard banned Jay Huang from Hearthstone Esports after proofs of stream sniping. Jesse Alexander posted a recording of Jay’s stream in which the player openly says he was stream sniping. The Hearthstone Esports team decided to ban Jay from competitive play for four months after seeing the evidence. Jay’s behavior has been the focus of many complaints during past years, including sexist comments. Let’s go over what happened.
Jay banned from competitive Hearthstone
Jesse Alexander, aka JAlexander, was going for #1 Legend in the leaderboards when he faced Jay Huang. Jay has a history of stream sniping openly, sometimes even while he also was on stream. After the game, JAlexander reviewed Jay’s stream, and, unsurprisingly, he found Jay confessing to stream sniping during the game. As early as turn 3, Jay says: “Let me open his stream for this”, and shortly after reading out loud his opponent’s cards. Immediately after, JAlexander posted the evidence on Twitter.
What is astonishing is that Jay himself retweeted the accusation video. Was this a display of the impunity he felt after years of getting away with it?
After seeing the evidence posted by JAlexander, the Hearthstone Esports team quickly reacted, giving Jay a 4-month ban from competitive play. The ban was issued less than 3 hours after the incident.
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Jay’s problematic history
This is not the first time the Hearthstone community asked Jay to be banned. Accusations of stream sniping go way back, and as we have seen this time, he didn’t even care about hiding it. This might seem merit enough to deserve a ban according to Hearthstone rules and policies. However, this wasn’t the only thing the community complained about.
Jay has a history of sexist comments and behavior in the Hearthstone competitive scene. Two years ago, Jay mentioned that he wanted to commit suicide because he lost to a girl.
No ban was issued at the time, and Jay continued competing in Hearthstone esports. Many felt some justice was delivered when Nayara Sylvestre, a Brazilian caster, content creator, and pro-player, defeated Jay in Masters Tour Arlington in early 2020.
People may ask how Jay went with no consequences for such a long time. Well, that is something hard to answer, but there are some things worth mentioning. Hearthstone Esports team is now under new management. For some months ago, the team has been listening to the community and taking action to improve players’ experience.
No one wishes the Ineligible Players list to grow, but if more banned players are what it takes to have a healthier Hearthstone competitive community, so be it. At least, that seems to be the thought of the Esports team.
What’s next?
Hearthstone esports resumes January 7, with Masters Tour One Qualifiers. Jay has to purge his ban until May, which means he will miss qualifiers for at least 3 Masters Tour events, the first one happening on February 18th.
If you want to check all the plans Blizzard has for Hearthstone Esports in 2022, check our full coverage of the announcement at the following links
Stay tuned to Esports.gg for more Hearthstone news and updates. See you next time in the tavern.
