WoW Classic Hardcore world-first race is won by MMO gambler who nearly threw their 70-hour run

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This World of Warcraft fan took the riskier path, and it worked

One of WoW Dragonflight's characters holds out their hand
(Image credit: Blizzard)

A WoW Classic player has won the race to boost a character to the maximum level cap on the MMO's newly introduced Hardcore servers. 

Streamer VitochieR1 has achieved the feat as of August 28 with a run that clocks in around 70 hours, which is four days after the perma-death server launched. 

As Wowhead notes, the dedicated combatant used a Gnome Mage with a dedicated frost area-of-effect build. While most runners opted for a single-target frost build as it's the safer choice, Vitochie took a gamble on something more dangerous, and it's paid off nicely. 

As ever with races to the level cap, we've soon oodles of bumps along the way. One popular figure in the World of Warcraft community returned after a two-year hiatus from the MMO only to perish to a swarm of Troggs at level 14. To be fair to them, they're far from the only person in the public eye to fall at a hurdle before getting back up and giving it another whirl.

As Blizzard explained back when Hardcore servers for WoW Classic were announced, these punishing realms are World of Warcraft as you know it with a few twists. Death turns your character into a ghost, free to remain to "facilitate communication with in-game friends and resolve logistical matters such as handing over guild leadership", but not a lot else. PvP is still very much a thing, though measures have been taken to make fighting people more pronounced so as to not accidentally send a poor soul to their grave. 

WoW Classic's hardcore servers are out now.

This MMO streamer is letting their chat play World of Warcraft for them, and they've hit level 60 in just over a week.

Iain Harris
Iain Harris
News Editor, Games

I joined GamesRadar+ in May 2022 following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When I'm not running the news team on the games side, you'll find me putting News Editor duties to one side to play the hottest JRPG of 20 years ago or pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new cloak – the more colourful, the better.