During a livestream on May 27, 2023, Twitch streamer Quintin "Quin69" commented on Diablo 4's game producer Rod Fergusson's controversial comment about the hardcore race to 100. It all started when the latter took to Twitter to announce that the reviewers' characters and progression would be deleted:
Twitter user @TheSagaYouTube then went on to say that people who got early access to the content would have an "extremely unfair advantage" if they competed in the Diablo 4 hardcore race to 100:
Rod Fergusson asked in response how erasing all progress and making everyone start at the same time would give them an unfair advantage:
Streamer Quin69 was upset about the situation and said that the community should be "mad." He said:
"They gave, like, the sweatiest tryhards two weeks to f**king theory-craft the s**t out of the game, before everyone else. I don't know what to f**king tell you, bro. As a theory-crafting Andy, that's cringe. Because I want to start... the thing about that, how do they not tell you? How do they not tell you?!"
Quin69 voices concern about Rod Fergusson's response amidst the Diablo 4 hardcore race to 100 controversy
Quin69 was three hours into his broadcast when fans urged him to check out Fergusson's tweet, which was shared on the official Diablo 4 subreddit. He read it out loud for his audience and said:
"'Rod Fergusson doesn't believe that playing the full game before everyone is an advantage in a leveling race. (sighs deeply) Wait, what is this? This got posted an hour ago. What a silly thing to say. Especially on hardcore, it's a big advantage. Glad I don't care about this race.'"
A few moments later, the New Zealander came across a Reddit user's comment about streamers complaining about the situation. It read:
"All the streamers complaining is what's ridiculous to me. Talking about an unfair advantage, while not having to leave their house for work eight plus hours a day, 40 plus (hours) a week. Advantages will always exist, race will never be fair. They just care because this one may affect them."
Timestamp: 03:05:20
Quin69 was taken aback after reading this and claimed that even if one ignores the Diablo 4 hardcore race to 100, the situation called for gamers to be "mad." The content creator explained:
"Not even the race. Even if you completely ignore the race... this is still complete dog s**t and you should be mad. If you are not mad, okay? That the mystery and the fun of the... quickly, rapidly changing meta, that whole thing has been, effectively... just destroyed."
Fans react to the streamer's take
Quin69's take on the Diablo 4 controversy was amongst the top posts on the r/LivestreamFail subreddit. Here's what the streaming community had to say:
Fellow MMORG streamer Zack "Asmongold" also reacted to the Diablo 4 drama on the same day. The Texas native was flabbergasted after reading Rod Fergusson's tweet and wondered when Blizzard Entertainment had gone more than five days without fostering a game-related controversy.