Especially the veterans among you might remember the name Kungen. The Swede is the most well-known player from “back in the day.” Now, with the new hardcore servers of WoW Classic, the experienced warrior is playing WoW again and is live on Twitch.
Who is the player?
- Thomas Bengtsson “Kungen” (translated: “the king”) Amèdèo was considered the best warrior in the world during Vanilla and The Burning Crusade. Blizzard even brought a card to the collectible card game in his honor.
- With his guild Nihilum, Kungen achieved the World First Kills on bosses like Kel’thuzad and C’Thun. Nihilum needed 113 days just for C’Thun.
- In 2016, both Nihilum and Kungen disappeared from the scene. Occasionally, Kungen was seen in WildStar, which also did not last long.
This is how active Kungen is now: With the start of the hardcore servers for WoW Classic on August 24, Kungen has become active again. On his Twitch channel, he is live daily and streams exclusively WoW for several thousand viewers on average (via sullygnome).
Currently (as of August 29), Kungen is playing his Tauren warrior at level 37 – almost like back then. However, how long he will remain active is uncertain. Already with the launch of WotLK Classic, Kungen wanted to return, but he disappeared again a few days later.
It is stated on his channel that he currently has no other source of income than Twitch. This suggests that he might be taking it more seriously this time. However, Kungen has previously talked about serious health issues that could interfere with a “stable life and stream”.
However, it is possible that the challenge of the hardcore servers is exactly what Kungen needs. Because these are significantly harder than the already somewhat tedious WoW Classic.
Hardcore servers excite fans, offer a unique challenge
If your character dies on a hardcore server, you can no longer resurrect them. They are permanently dead, so you only have a single life.
This challenge has been self-imposed by many fans before. Meanwhile, the servers are officially set up for this. There are even real duels to the death, rooted in the lore as Mak’gora.
Since every mistake can cost the character, players are correspondingly more cautious. Achieving the maximum level of 60 is therefore an even greater achievement. The first player to reach level 60 took many risks for it.
The thrill of hardcore characters has already been immensely popular in action RPGs like Diablo and is now finding its way as part of WoW. The developers even want to take it a step further and introduce a mode that makes hardcore even harder:
WoW is bringing a new game mode, removing the “MMO” from MMORPG
