“We are troubled by the way the announcement was made; namely the impolitic choice to use social media to share such a message that effectively ended the careers of hundreds of players, content creators, casters, production crews overnight - and broke the hearts of countless fans,” wrote Darrie, the general manager of an Esports team called Method, on Twitter this morning , echoing the thoughts of many other former Heroes of the Storm players and managers.

“As someone who’s commentated Heroes of the Storm since 2015, I mostly really feel for the 200+ pro players who have lost their jobs via a blog post today,” wrote caster Wolf Schröder on Twitter late last night .

“I feel like this is unacceptable by any company to kick so many people in the arse using a blog option, after being constantly asked (since Blizzcon was over) about plans,” wrote former player Maksym “Mopsio” Szczypa on Twitter this morning.

On November 2, 2018, Blizzard closed its annual BlizzCon keynote by announcing, to scattered applause, a Diablo game for phones.

It was a baffling marketing decision that immediately set off controversy, as fans of Blizzard’s iconic action-role-playing game franchise loudly accused the company of neglecting its PC players.

“Imagine moving region, self-funded, and investing everything into HOTS then 1 year later @blizzheroes gives the cold shoulder to HGC 2019,” he wrote on Monday.