Despite being the frontrunner, unlucky WoW Classic grinder loses the race to max level on the MMO's new Hardcore servers after disconnecting 6 levels before the finish line

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Ouch

World of Warcraft Classic 20th Anniversary Edition screenshot.
(Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

One MMO streamer determined to be the first to hit the maximum level on World of Warcraft Classic's new Hardcore Fresh servers was forcibly kicked out of the running after losing all his progress just six levels before the finish line, following a poorly timed disconnect. 

The fresh WoW Classic 20th Anniversary Edition realms went live on November 21, giving nostalgic players the chance to make the journey to level 60 all over again. You could go about this in quite a relaxing way, taking your time and making steady progress, but some MMO fans instead took it as a challenge and began racing to see who could be the first to hit max level on the Hardcore servers, where the stakes are high and death means you have to start over from the beginning. 

As Wowhead reports, one Twitch streamer, Ahmpy, appeared to have victory in his grasp in the race over the weekend. He was in first place, had climbed all the way to level 54, and had just six levels to go before he was able to take the crown. However, this would soon crumble. In a clip capturing the moment, Ahmpy's game suddenly freezes while his character is being attacked. He waits for a while, but it just doesn't spring back into action. The streamer closes some extra tabs but is soon hit with a "World of Warcraft is not responding" and eventually closes out of the game. 

When he reloads, it's already over. His character was dead, and on Hardcore, there's no coming back from that. The player in second place, Zeroji, was able to take the lead despite originally being a couple of levels behind Ahmpy, and ultimately became the winner – WoW community commentator @N_Tys26 on Twitter says it took Zeroji almost four days in total to claim the crown.

No doubt there'll be more community-driven races in the MMO later down the line for players like Ahmpy to have another chance to prove themselves. Blizzard recently announced that the MMO will be introducing Mists of Pandaria Classic servers at some point next year, which will remain pretty faithful to the originals.

After 20 years of WoW updates, will Blizzard ever need to wipe the slate clean? Maybe "at some long, distant point," but the MMO has already been totally "rebuilt."

Catherine Lewis
Catherine Lewis
Deputy News Editor

I'm GamesRadar+'s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.