Blizzard Releases Official Code of Conduct for Professional Players

By Kevin Reyes, Christian Post Contributor Friday, February 23, 2018

Blizzard has finally released its official Rulebook and Code of Conduct for its professional esports league, the Overwatch League, just in time for the start of Stage 2.

"The Overwatch League aspires to be the pinnacle of global, professional esports competition. As such, it is imperative that the league's rules be clear and comprehensive," Blizzard wrote on the official announcement page. "Since the league's inception, teams and players have been provided with the Overwatch League Official Rules."

"Today we are sharing a summary of those rules for the 2018 season."

The first matter that Blizzard shared is a summary of the official rulebook for the Overwatch League. All in all, it contains some fairly standard stuff such as age of consent for players, appropriate peripherals and gear used in official play, and some clarifications on the season format, and how in-house rosters will work. Nothing too out of the ordinary.

The more interesting matter is the Code of Conduct that all players must abide to if they want to remain employed within the league. Blizzard states that this code is to ensure the integrity of the game and to protect the league's public image.

Some of these rules include maintaining good sportsmanship between players, complying with any and all laws present in the local area, do not harass or discriminate anybody, do not bet on any matches within the league, and do not make any slanderous or defamatory remarks and statements.

Basically, be a good sport and a good person.

The Code of Conduct seems to have been made public in light of recent events with certain players behaving in inappropriate ways. Perhaps the most memorable is when Dallas Fuel player xQc said some homophobic statements regarding one of his opponents. More recently, Profit of the London Spitfires was caught doing an obscene gesture while on camera in between matches.

Both cases had the player in question punished appropriately. xQc received a fine and a suspension, while Profit was let off with just a fine.

Now that Blizzard has made these rules public, it will be interesting to see just how well the players are able to adhere to all of them.