After Years of Struggle, Blizzard Has Found Itself in Uncharted Territory: Overwatch Players Are Having Fun Again

For the uninformed:

That was when Blitzchung, in his post-tournament win interview, uttered a brief sentence in support of Hong Kong (and implicitly in support of human rights). Blizzard responded by revoking his prize money, banning him from tournaments, and terminating the interviewers who happened to be on camera with him at the time.

This action took place late at night (well outside of US business hours) and was accompanied by a letter that some analysts pointed out had peculiar phrasing patterns that one might expect from native-Chinese speakers writing in English. The excuse given was a tournament rule prohibiting any act that "brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard image."

To answer your question: No.

At the subsequent BlizzCon, Blizzard president Allen Brack gave a speech in which he "apologized" for the vague act of failing to live up to the high standards they set for themselves. He didn't mention Blitzchung at all. This was a typical, predictable, corporate non-apology, allowing them to say "I'm sorry" for something other than the harm they inflicted or the position they took. Neither Brack nor Blizzard apologized for the actions taken against Blitzchung and the interview hosts. The punishments were not reversed. (I think Blizzard eventually responded to massive public pressure by somewhat reducing the duration of Blitzchung's ban, but never lifted it entirely, awarded his prize money, or restored the interview hosts' contracts.)

A few years later, Activision Blizzard was bought by Microsoft. Bobby Kotick, the CEO at the time of the Blitzchung decision, is no longer there. We don't know who else participated, so we don't know if they are are still making decisions at Blizzard.

Must have been an accident. Next patch will get right on fixing that

They are back just as a reward for playing and can't be bought in any way.

I've only played 3 games of it, but they've all been close so far. I suspect the window for fun has already passed.

Overwatch is fun every time there's a new completely game-changing shift. At its core it's an incredibly fun game, it's only because its so competitive that it loses all the joy. As soon as a new iteration is "solved" it stops being fun.