The well-known Twitch streamer and WoW expert Asmongold is watching BlizzCon 2023 from his attic. He captured his own reaction on video when WoW game director Ion Hazzikostas entered the stage wearing a very special shirt and trolled Asmongold.
What kind of shirt did Hazzikostas wear? WoW game director Ion Hazzikostas welcomed fans on site and in the stream to the Deep Dive feature for the new expansion World of Warcraft: The War Within.
After the first pan over the audience, he was shown in a long shot for his welcoming words. The saying on his shirt became visible: What Sword. In German: which sword.
Which sword is it about? What Sword has been a meme in the WoW community for years. At the end of the Legion expansion, first released in 2016, the leader of the Burning Legion Sargeras stabs his sword into the planet Azeroth.
However, the blade poisoned Azeroth, which was remedied at the end of the 2018 Battle for Azeroth expansion: players sacrificed their hard-earned artifact weapons to neutralize the poison. The sword, however, has remained motionless in the planet ever since and has no longer appeared in history.
Where does the saying come from and what does Asmongold have to do with it? Since the sword was no longer mentioned during the following expansions Shadowlands and Dragonflight, the community began to wonder: Did Blizzard simply forget that there was a giant sword in the middle of the planet? Should it stay there? Doesn’t that matter?
Asmongold, a Twitch streamer and WoW veteran and expert, also joined the discussion. Among other things, he talked about how nothing would happen around the sword in the overworld: Asmongold at least expected that NPCs would examine the blade or try to dismantle it.
Memes quickly gathered in the streamer’s official sub-reddit:
This is just one of the many memes that have accumulated on the sub-reddit over the years.
In fact, Hazzikostas has already been asked about the sword several times:
WoW: Did Blizzard forget the giant sword? “No,” says the game director
This is how Hazzikostas trolled Asmongold
What happened between Asmongold and Ion Hazzikostas? In April 2022, Ion Hazzikostas visited Asmongold on his live stream. The two talked for about 30 minutes about the two expansions, Shadowlands and Dragonflight.
The two also talked about the future of WoW Classic. Hazzikostas asked for feedback from the community at the time. The Cataclysm expansion for Classic was announced at BlizzCon 2023.
Lastly, Asmongold asked: At the end of Legion, there’s a cinematic where, as you know, Sargeras stabs the earth with his sword. And that was a while ago, and I’m not quite sure where… where is this going?
Ion Hazzikostas hears the question, has to suppress a laugh and answers: Wait a minute – what kind of sword? Literally in English: Wait – what sword?
Neither Asmongold nor Hazzikostas can suppress their grins at this moment. The Twitch chat also spams laughing emojis.
How did Asmongold react to Hazzikosta’s shirt? Asmongold watched BlizzCon 2023 from home. In his stream he commented on the announcements and discussed them with his chat.
He started the deep dive stream for the new expansion with a very serious expression. However, this was quickly replaced by an incredulous grin when Ion Hazzikosta’s T-shirt came into the picture with the What Sword saying: That doesn’t exist… Absolutely not! No, dude, that [Shirt] I have to get it. Oh my God! Oh damn…
You can watch the excerpt on YouTube here:
Blizzard also put up a cardboard cutout of the sword on the BlizzCon grounds. Below there are several signs with the same question What Sword. This should prove once and for all that the developers really haven’t forgotten the sword.
How do you feel about this? Did you have to laugh at the shirt like Asmongold did? Are you looking forward to the new expansions for World of Warcraft? We would be happy to receive your comments.
By the way, MyMMO demon Cortyn went through the different versions of WoW The War Within for you:
WoW The War Within: Base, Heroic or Epic – Which version should you buy?