Despite some players crashing out of early runs because of glitches and bugs, it looks like hardcore Diablo 4 players will be crossing the line to be one of the first 1000 players to hit level 100 on hardcore mode later today.
At the time of writing, Wudijo – a well-known name in the Diablo community already – looks set to hit the line first, as they're currently sitting on level 82. Ben_, Carn_, and Alkaizerx are second, third, and fourth, respectively, with all three players on level 77.
Nugiyen, Zizaran, and Steelmage are next – all are level 76 – with Shroud, Maximum, and Imexile rounding out the top 10 in that order on level 73.
The latter two contestants, Maximum and Imexile, have done particularly well, as both crashed out early following in-game bugs that scuppered their first runs several hours into their inaugural attempts.
The top three players pursuing the softcore mode are Rob2628, Aristoblast, and Rengar, respectively.
For more – and to keep on top of the scoreboard – head on over to Diablobuilds on Twitch, which is monitoring the race to world first via a livestream.
The race itself has not been without controversy, however. When some fans first heard about the race, they took to the Diablo 4 subreddit to complain that even with a reset that wiped content creators' and reviewers' progress ahead of the early access period, some would have an "extreme unfair advantage" because even if their data is deleted, the player "who already know[s] everything about bosses, acts and how to gear and level will have an advantage over [a] player who never done it".
When challenged, Blizzard GM Rod Fergusson asked, "how does deleting all their progress and making them start at the same time as everyone else give them an unfair advantage?" But still, some players called for anyone with "pre-release full access [to] be ineligible" to enter the race.
Did you see that this Diablo 4 player has managed to beat the Butcher despite being incredibly underlevelled?
The Butcher is – as many of us have learned the hard way – a meat-hooking nightmare that turns up at random in dungeons and has killed off many a hardcore run.
Here, however, it seemingly became stuck behind a wall of minions who beat the Butcher whilst the player idles quietly at the bottom of the screen.
Here are some games like Diablo to play until Diablo 4 launches for all on June 6.
