Diablo 4 fans brace themselves for official ‘hardcore racing’, but some find it unfair

The prize is your own name on a Lilith statue.

Diablo 4 is about to be released and players can compete for an honorable prize. Blizzard is launching a competition and rewarding 1,000 diligent players. But the competition caused displeasure among many fans, so Blizzard had to adjust the rules for participation.

Diablo 4 Contest rewards hardcore mode characters

What kind of competition is it? The race rewards the first 1,000 players to reach level 100 in hardcore mode. The challenge is so difficult because a character is permanently lost as soon as his life points drop to zero.

So the fans have to reach level 100 without dying once. Otherwise, the ambitious players have to start from scratch. If a character has reached the goal, this must be proven with their own Battle.net battletag and a photo or video under the hashtag #Diablo4Hardcore.

You can find the corresponding tweet from Blizzard here:

link to Twitter content

How long is the competition? The competition will run from the June 2, 2023 release, which is the Early Access release of Diablo 4, to September 2, 2023 at 08:59 in the morning. The event will end earlier if the 1000th fan manages to meet the conditions.

What’s the price? The first 1000 characters who succeed will be immortalized by name on a Esports Extrasntic statue of Lilith. The statue can already be seen as a shadow in Blizzard’s tweet.

Fans perceive competition as unfair

What is the problem? Blizzard initially received criticism for its competition. The fan community felt it was unfair that people who were able to test the game beforehand were also allowed to take part in the competition.

The pre-testers were able to get to know the game in advance and thus have an unfair advantage over those who can only enter the game at release.

Blizzard therefore draws consequences: So that players do not feel disadvantaged, all people who received a review key for the game in May are excluded. Blizzard updated its terms and conditions, excluding those who were able to preview the game.

But this step has also been criticized. In a Reddit thread, many voices are raised again:

Link to Reddit content

The players would have liked the competition to start at a later date so that the fan base could enjoy the story first. It also excludes well-known content creators who would have liked to take part in the competition.

It remains to be seen whether Blizzard will react to the criticism again and adjust its conditions of participation again.

What do you think of the fan criticism?