UPDATE, August 16: You can no longer get banned in the ongoing DOTA 2 tournament simply for mentioning Winnie the Pooh or Tiananmen Square massacre, users have discovered. Players are now free to spam whatever phrases they want without the risk of a ban looming over their heads.
Whether Valve leaped to make change purely due to community outrage or due to some other reason, we do not know, but one thing's for sure: Winnie the Pooh deserved better, and now we can all rest easy.
DOTA 2 Winnie The Pooh
ORIGINAL: DOTA 2's The International 2019 is just a few days away and typing phrases related to Winnie the Pooh or Tiananmen Square in the official Twitch stream's chat will get you banned.
Although hosted by DOTA 2 developer Valve, The International 2019 takes place in Shanghai this year, which is why the Winnie the Pooh-related bans aren't all that surprising.
As early as 2013, people in China began using Winnie the Pooh as a way of mocking President Xi Jinping, after a picture of him and US President Barrack Obama was released, being compared to a scene in which Tigger and Winnie the Pooh are walking together.
Needless to say, the Chinese Government didn't take too kindly to the gesture, going as far as banning the release of Christopher Robin, a movie adaptation of Winnie the Pooh's story.
Tiananmen Square is another phrase that can result in you being banned from the official DOTA 2 The International 2019 stream. Again, that's not particularly surprising, as the Chinese Government is quite adamant about avoiding public mentions of the event.
As user n0stalghia pointed out on Reddit, the first time around using the phrases above, or certain variations of them, will result in a two-minute ban. We tested this out for ourselves and can confirm the claims.
The International 2019 is scheduled to take place in Shanghai between August 20 and August 25.
