The streamer guild OnlyFangs from the hardcore variant of WoW Classic announces its end after several fatal wipes in the Blackwing Lair. For months, it had almost single-handedly contributed to World of Warcraft becoming one of the most popular games on Twitch again.
Why did the wipes occur? Since the start of the world-first race in the current raid instance of WoW: The War Within, the MMORPG’s servers have been suffering from regular DDoS attacks, even until today. It is unclear who is behind it. Some “trolls” (via Wikipedia) are apparently having fun ruining the enjoyment of others in WoW.
Last weekend, for example, there were again attacks, causing high latency and connection problems (via X), not only in the modern version of WoW but also in the Classic worlds – including Hardcore.
The well-known streamer guild OnlyFangs was also affected, as they were currently trying to defeat the bosses of the Blackwing Lair with their raid. For experienced players, these bosses are usually manageable. However, when there are constant lags and disconnects, players quickly find themselves hit by an immediately lethal mechanic – and the DDoS attacks have claimed many victims among the hardcore guild.
What are DDoS attacks, anyway? In a DDoS attack, an online service like a website or a game is artificially bombarded with countless requests in a short period of time. As a result, the server becomes overloaded while trying to process the massive amounts of data. It starts to slow down, eventually collapses entirely, leading to the failure of the corresponding service.
This video shows how quickly entire guilds can perish in WoW Classic Hardcore:
Trolls frighten Horde guild out of Azeroth
How does OnlyFangs react to this? On Discord, the well-known streamer and YouTuber Sodapoppin (via Reddit) explains that due to the constant DDoS attacks, it is currently impossible to play properly on the hardcore servers of WoW Classic. He requested Blizzard to reset the servers to recover the lost characters. However, he is not very optimistic about this.
Furthermore, Sodapoppin explains that while there are still members of OnlyFangs who could play, he wouldn’t feel good about sending them off for the mandatory, time-consuming preparations (for world buffs, potions, etc.) when there could be deadly lags and disconnects at any moment that would undermine all that effort.
As it stands now, the streamer announces that the OnlyFangs project is over and that all remaining members are free to look for a new guild. It’s a terrible ending, but unfortunately, it is the ending they now have to live with.
How does the community react? The related Reddit post has now received over 4,300 upvotes and more than 800 comments.
- Sterzin expresses frustration on Reddit: “The hardcore server has been in a death spiral since the start of the DDoS attacks, this was pretty much the last straw. Now, I’m really pissed off…”
- modern_Odysseus writes on Reddit: “Now anyone responsible for the DDoS attacks can just carry them out randomly whenever they get bored and do so completely unpunished. The scum got what they wanted. Now they know they have all the power. Great.”
- siderealsystem explains on Reddit: “Things like this are why I would never create a character in Hardcore.”
What do I need to know about OnlyFangs? The guild of WoW Classic included or included several well-known streamers and YouTubers such as Sodapoppin, but also Tyler1, Mizkif, PirateSoftware, TimTheTatman, or Jaythebard, who naturally mobilized their respective communities. The hardcore factor – if the character ends up with the spirit healer, it’s gone forever – added extra flavor.
Furthermore, the community imposed a set of rules on itself and engaged in role-playing with their characters. There were also recurring major personal dramas in the context of OnlyFangs – like in a big daily soap. All of this combined to make World of Warcraft extremely popular on Twitch again thanks to OnlyFangs.
