China Wants a Top 3 Race to World First Finish - And They're Willing to Pay For It

Posted 2025/08/11 at 12:39 PM by Archimtiros

WoW's return to ChinaHuoguo HeroJiTianHongIdentityveterans of Skylinevarying levels of supportculturaldifferencesto significantly increase the rewards for the World First race.we will award a bonus of 500,000 RMB to each Chinese team that finishes top three in the World First leaderboard

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Comments

Comment by Tharuca

Blizzard works with NetEase.
NetEase offers Money for World First Race.
So... Blizzard pays China Players for a World First Race?(##RESPBREAK##)258##DELIM##Archimtiros##DELIM##Bit of a stretch. Blizzard works with NetEase, but they do not run operations there, nor do they foot the bill.

Comment by Souledk

Blizzard works with NetEase.
NetEase offers Money for World First Race.
So... Blizzard pays China Players for a World First Race?

You pay Blizzard
Blizzard Pays Netease (realistically NetEase pays Blizzard, but semantics)
so...You pay for China Players for a World First Race?

Comment by elky83

So what's stopping the chinese team buying out key players in the rest of the world to pay badly and let them win top 3?(##RESPBREAK##)258##DELIM##Archimtiros##DELIM##A whole lot more than ¥500,000! LOL

Comment by glassleo

Blizzard works with NetEase.
NetEase offers Money for World First Race.
So... Blizzard pays China Players for a World First Race?

No, that's not how it works. NetEase has licensed the game and are running it entirely on their own in China.

Comment by Williamkel

china wants nr1 everywhere even in video games to show dominance :D

Comment by Williamkel

So what's stopping the chinese team buying out key players in the rest of the world to pay badly and let them win top 3?

china play fairly and ban botters can't say the same about in blizzard maintained servers

Comment by Tastelikelemon

Good , bring some pressure to the old-standing guilds , want to see them sweat for it :D

Comment by Archimtiros

So what's stopping the chinese team buying out key players in the rest of the world to pay badly and let them win top 3?

china play fairly and ban botters can't say the same about in blizzard maintained servers

Some may claim its ineffectual, but if yall only knew the absolute meltdown top sales groups are having over this. They've already lost a great deal of money over it too - far more than the prizes offered here.(##RESPBREAK##)

Comment by cokeboyswag

First the mass banwave for RMT/cheating/wintrading, and now this?

China WoW taking their game integrity more seriously than NA/EU WoW. So sad to see.

Comment by PlusTech

First the mass banwave for RMT/cheating/wintrading, and now this?

China WoW taking their game integrity more seriously than NA/EU WoW. So sad to see.

Chinese culture only views cheating as wrong if you get caught. It's sort of a "getting an advantage no matter what" type of thing. That's why pay2win / RMT stuff is so common over there.

Comment by Tharuca

Blizzard works with NetEase.
NetEase offers Money for World First Race.
So... Blizzard pays China Players for a World First Race?

You pay Blizzard
Blizzard Pays Netease (realistically NetEase pays Blizzard, but semantics)
so...You pay for China Players for a World First Race?

Good point! in this case i can say i'm a RWF #3 winner :D

Comment by tmptfate

Considering how many top end guilds on Chinese servers cheat/break rules, this seems like Blizz would need to be extra careful(##RESPBREAK##)258##DELIM##Archimtiros##DELIM##In the sense of boost/sales, perhaps, though CN has already taken major steps against that, and it's not really relevant here besides. Obviously they're not going to pay out for an exploited victory, though strictly speaking the west is far more guilty of that anyway.

Comment by SlimTimDoWork

It'll never happen. The distance between the top 2/3 and the top 4-10 is an abyss.

Comment by Futo

This can go so incredibly wrong. Enough chinese kids die in internet cafes. Theres going to be a guild that doesnt sleep to try to win.(##RESPBREAK##)258##DELIM##Archimtiros##DELIM##On an individual level yes, that's possible and has happened (though it's extremely rare, with ~24 recorded cases worldwide since 1982). On a team level, it's even rarer still, if for no other reason than the increased liability.

Either way, you shouldn't try to pin it exclusively on the Chinese or kids, as it is something that happens to people of all ages and ethnicities. Western guilds raiding 12+ hours a day certainly aren't setting any health standards either. Once you split it up among a team, this really isn't enough money to encourage that kind of behavior either, which reduces the concern even further.

Comment by Neurox

Why is the NetEase announcement being displayed in a Blizzard blue text box in this article? It’s not Blizzard offering the prize money.(##RESPBREAK##)258##DELIM##Archimtiros##DELIM##Because we don't have a special graphic for China, but it is an official communication from the World of Warcraft Operations Team.

Comment by Shinbaki

if I said what i really wanted to say Id probably get banned....so good luck with that dream.

Comment by Sonaedrok

Doesn't China have like 2 reset / week or is it over ? Wouldn't it be pointless if that's the case ?(##RESPBREAK##)258##DELIM##Archimtiros##DELIM##No, they've been playing on the same version of modern WoW as the rest of us for more than a decade. They get more leeway to make changes in Classic, in part due to purposefully trying to speed through in order to catch up to the rest of the world (they're just now at the end of Wrath, due to the year-long shutdown), but not in Retail.

Comment by lovelywaz

Oh the HORRORS if/when they get to even at # 3 will be interesting to see on social media. Can't wait for all the salty comments about how RMTs (used to) work in China, their gaming culture and everything else in between.

I am actually hoping 🤞🤞 they do end up in Top 3 or perhaps even win the RWF this time, just to see Internet explodes! 😈

Comment by Corpselance

If one were to win ¥500,000 in communist China, what's stopping the government from redistributing your earnings? I don't see the point.(##RESPBREAK##)258##DELIM##Archimtiros##DELIM##I don't really have an answer for this other than...

Comment by Shinbaki

If one were to win ¥500,000 in communist China, what's stopping the government from redistributing your earnings? I don't see the point.

careful you get banned for those words lol Wowhead dont like when you bring up the CCP

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