Veterans of World of Warcraft might still remember Nihilum and Kungen. The famous warrior and his guild were among the first greats in the MMORPG. Then, they suddenly disappeared from the scene. What are the former “stars” actually doing today?
Who are Kungen and Nihilum? The Swede Thomas Bengtsson “Kungen” Amèdèo was considered the best warrior in the world during Vanilla WoW and the first expansion Burning Crusade. He wrote some of the first and best class guides.
His knowledge of the game and his class was legendary. Even developers were occasionally amazed by Kungen’s profound expertise. Trivia: His name actually means “The King” in Swedish.
The warrior even received his own card in the World of Warcraft trading card game: Kungen the Thunderer:
Who is Nihilum? With the guild Nihilum he founded, Kungen entered the raids of World of Warcraft. Raids, or instances, are the “top tier” of PvE in the game. Here, (back then) up to 40 players face the toughest bosses for the best loot.
Nihilum was the first top guild in the world. They recorded “First Kills” on the final boss of Naxxramas, Kel’thuzad, as well as the old god C’Thun from Ahn’Qiraj. For C’Thun, they needed a whopping 113 days and were still the first.
Since then, they have repeatedly mixed it up in the race for World First Kills, at least until 2016. Then Nihilum announced that they would stop and no longer participate in the big raid events.
Kungen turned his back on WoW for a while, even played the now-defunct Wildstar for a while. However, he returned with the release of WoW Classic in 2019. Apparently, a permanent return was planned, but nothing came of it.
Nihilum ceases raid operations, Kungen plays New World
This is how things went with Kungen: After the guild’s withdrawal in 2016, the warrior king occasionally streamed on Twitch. However, he was so irregularly present that there was never a breakthrough. At times he was off the air for a whole year (via sullygnome).
Despite this, he had considerable potential. With roughly 2,000 viewers on average and up to 14,000 at peak, he would have had at least a good chance for a top position on Twitch. His fame apparently gave him an advantage for his reach when streaming.
When he streamed, he showed various games like World of Warcraft, Path of Exile, Fallout, or older RPGs and had roughly equal success with all. Essentially the ideal conditions for a variety streamer.
On YouTube, Kungen was also active again and uploaded videos until 2020. He initiated projects such as trying to defeat bosses in WoW Classic only with “green” gear and without the otherwise crucial buffs. This even worked up to the famous Ragnaros in Molten Core:
Kungen himself said on Twitter in 2018 that a disease has been bothering him for a long time. He also stated that he has a bipolar disorder (via Twitter). He hints in his statement that these illnesses hinder a “stable life and stream”.
For many former pro gamers, Twitch is often the next station. xQc and shroud, for instance, also come from e-sports and previously played Overwatch or Counter-Strike. Both have shown an affinity for Twitch and used their fame.
What is Kungen doing today? On his Twitter channel, he repeatedly gave updates on what he is currently doing. For instance, at the end of 2021, he showed that he was checking out the remaster of Diablo II. The new MMORPG New World has also captivated him.
His last message came on Twitter in January 2022, in which Kungen stated that New World was slowly becoming like World of Warcraft due to certain updates. His character profile reveals that he has at least played Shadowlands, albeit apparently not very actively.
By the way, we have requested an interview with Kungen, but have not yet received a response.
What happened to Nihilum? Parts of the guild had already merged earlier with the also well-known raid guild Ensidia. However, in 2010, many important members left the guild after a ban penalty for the exploit at the famous Lich King.
Kungen already made a kind of e-sports clan out of Nihilum in 2015. He teamed up with the Polish website Kinguin and gathered some of the best Hearthstone players in the world – including the German Adian “Lifecoach” Koy.
Especially Lifecoach achieved with Nihilum a first place in several Hearthstone tournaments, but the clan’s career did not last long.
Both Kungen and his guild and organization vanished from the scene around 2016. There were almost no more public appearances and status updates on social media. Nihilum eventually faded into obscurity and is something entirely different today.
WoW guild becomes a Polish e-sports clan
What is Nihilum doing today? The original website of the guild still exists. However, it now redirects to the Polish e-sports clan Devils One. The clan originally emerged from Team Kinguin, which is probably also the connection to Nihilum.
Devils One has teams for Fortnite (incorrectly listed as Rainbow Six: Siege), League of Legends, and the racing simulation DV1 TRITON Racing, according to the website. The clan was also previously active in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
At least in LoL, the team is still active today. In 2019, they secured first place in the Polish Ultraliga, specifically against the Academy team of Rogue. Since then, the successes have been rather moderate and there has been a lot of fluctuation in the roster, but Devils One still participates in tournaments.
Is Nihilum still raiding? Since 2016, Nihilum has only competed at the world level once: in Warlords of Draenor. There they reached rank 21 in the Blackrock Foundry and even 15th place in the Hellfire Citadel.
After that, it became less frequent, although Nihilum continued raiding for a long time. In fact, the guild was active up until Battle for Azeroth, the expansion before the current Shadowlands. According to wowprogress, Nihilum still defeated N’zoth, the last boss in Ny’alotha.
However, the crew did not attempt heroic or mythic mode. They only defeated all bosses on “normal” and did not even visit the raids of Shadowlands – at least not as a guild.
However, there is a successor guild called “Nihilum Reborn”. This guild has at least completed 9 out of 10 bosses in the first Shadowlands raid, Castle Nathria, on heroic mode (via raider.io), with Kungen as tank. Since then, however, nothing has been seen here either.
Perhaps the guild will return after a break. However, this can only be speculated. Shadowlands has, despite a strong start, disappointed and driven away many players. Maybe the next expansion will bring new enthusiasm to Nihilum and other veterans:
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