Activision Blizzard has a lot on its plate at the moment. With the UK's CMA blocking the company's acquisition by Microsoft, all hands are probably working on appealing the decision. You can imagine that everybody at the company is on edge, as, should the appeal fail, the deal could be blocked for the next ten years.
While it's the lawyers and the top brass that are primarily working on the deal and the appeal, the stress and anxiety will no doubt be felt within the rank and file. So, when World of Warcraft: Classic players started giving streamer Asmongold a hard time, Blizzard's moderation team didn't hesitate to dole out some harsh punishments.
WoW Classic Hardcore is a community-created challenge, where players must permanently delete their character, should they die in-game. The challenge isn't official yet, so the whole thing is based on the honour system. But the community has been using Bloodsail Buccaneers in North America and Hydraxian Waterlords in Europe as servers for this challenge (thanks, PCGamesN).
So, when Asmongold decided to attempt the WoW Classic Hardcore challenge, he was obviously met with other players griefing him. As you'd expect, dozens of players followed the streamer around for the entire run. Many even sniped enemies from under him to deny him the experience. Others changed their names to something untasteful.
However, Asmongold's hardcore run finally came to an end when a player summoned an enemy too strong for the streamer, whose character was killed in one shot. He was relatively calm about it, but spoke about how Blizzard needs to improve its moderation. He himself used to be a griefer and got away with it many times.
It seems Blizzard has been listening. WoW streamer Savix later put up a video featuring screenshots which they claim were sent by some of the players that were griefing Asmongold. According to these screenshots, the players have been permanently banned for harassing Asmongold. It looks like Blizzard doesn't want anyone messing with its prized streamers.
“Wow, all of his accounts,” said Asmongold while watching Savix's video. “Well, maybe we should give Blizzard another chance then,” he continues, “If the griefers are gonna get banned, then maybe I should keep playing.”
It's unclear whether these players have been perma-banned for griefing in general, or griefing Asmongold in particular. The developer's moderation has been criticised on occasion; perhaps someone at Blizzard watched his stream and decided to take drastic steps to send a message. It remains to be seen if the moderators would have dished out the same punishment if it wasn't a popular streamer.
Speaking of griefing, Microsoft fans have been spamming the CMA's social media ever since it blocked Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.