Diablo 4 Hardcore Race to 100 announced

destructoid.com:

Blizzard has revealed a Diablo 4 Hardcore Race to 100 via the official Diablo Twitter. As part of the race, the first 1000 players to reach the max level of 100 on Hardcore mode—with proof—will be declared the winners. The stakes for the race are as real as they get. Winners of the race will have their Battle.net BattleTag engraved on a physical Lilith statue, immortalizing their victory forever.

This race is certainly not for the faint of heart. In Diablo 4‘s Hardcore mode, death results in the permanent deletion of the character. This means in order to win the race you will have to level up all the way to the max level without dying a single time. Permanent death occurs in both PvE and PvP, so Hardcore players looking to win the race should stay away from the Fields of Hatred PvP designated zones.

The announcement of the Diablo 4 Hardcore Race to 100 has created some controversy of its own. For starters, players have complained that the race realistically requires contestants to purchase the Deluxe or Ultimate Edition to obtain four day early access. The race itself will begin when the early access servers go live one June 2 at 7PM EST. While it’s technically possible for someone with the Standard Edition to win, they would be starting four days behind, making it highly unlikely.

But that’s not the only drama around the race. Shortly after the reveal, Diablo 4 executive producer Rod Fergusson tweeted out reminding reviewers that their access to the full version of the game was coming to an end and that their character and progress would be deleted.

To all the #DiabloIV reviewers who's play time is up, and your characters and progress deleted – sorry!

But can't wait to see you on launch day!

Only 6 days till Early