After promising to create a Hardcore character if Blizzard announced Classic+, Asmongold finally relented and almost shut down an entire server in the process.
Blizzcon was a pretty significant success for the developer, with all of their major titles receiving announcements of some kind. Though Diablo and Overwatch did get some love, it was World of Warcraft in all its forms that stole the show.
The retail version of the game changed direction massively, confirming three expansions covering a single story in one colossal saga. Additionally, the current Classic offering is being expanded to include the controversial Cataclysm era. The last significant confirmation was the Season of Discovery, a surprise announcement that will essentially function as the Classic+ players have been calling for.
As a result of the latter, incredibly popular WoW streamer Asmongold has finally bitten the bullet and made a Hardcore character, almost shutting down an entire server when he did.
Asmongold and his community break the Menkar Hardcore Server
After accepting that Season of Discovery was confirmation of Classic+ in all but name, Asmongold logged into the Menkar US server for the first time.
After logging into a character, it immediately became clear that it would draw much attention. In the starting zone alone, around 100 people were already waiting for his arrival. By the time he got to Stormwind, that number had quickly exploded beyond 1000.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
In news that will surprise very few WoW players, this began to cause the servers to lag tremendously. Characters could be seen walking on the spot, spells continued infinitely, and opening trade windows took 15 seconds or more.
As a result, the streamer was unable to play the game at all, and after around 40 minutes, he eventually gave up, vowing to log in the following day to play properly.
Many were also quick to point out the other major issue with a gathering of this size on the server. The lag would not have been localized to the Stormwind area, and, for those who had no idea what was going on, it likely caused the deaths of many characters. This becomes far more tragic on a Hardcore server like this one, where players are subject to permadeath.
Whether Asmongold will be successful the next time he tries to log into Hardcore servers remains to be seen. His significant fan base and community will be waiting for him when he does, and it’s likely similar issues will arise unless Blizzard can prepare for it specifically.
