YouTuber Maximilian “HandOfBlood” Knabe (30) describes himself as a “gamer through and through”. In addition to League of Legends, one game in particular accompanied him: the tank game World of Tanks. Now the 30-year-old has been immortalized in the game.
What kind of game is this? World of Tanks is an MMO by Belarusian developer Wargaming.net. In it you control a tank in battles against other players. The game is free-to-play but features microtransactions.
How does HandOfBlood come into play? The YouTuber is a long-standing partner of Wargaming.net. Even as a schoolboy, he played the game that was released in 2010 from his father’s attic. In the meantime he has published countless videos about WoT.
On Twitter, HandOfBlood announced on March 26 that he’s now been immortalized with a character of his own in the game that’s been with him for so long (via Twitter).
If you want to blast through the area with the tank on the PlayStation, take a look at our video:
World of Tanks PS4 Gameplay Trailer
HandOfBlood yells at itself and fans love it
What does HandOfBlood do in WoT? The YouTuber can be purchased for real money as “Commandant Boy” in the World of Tanks shop. The cheapest bundle also includes XP bonuses and 7 days of Premium for €23.99, more expensive bundles cost up to €59.30 (via wargaming.net).
This is what you get for just under €60:
The YouTuber gets a share of the income with his agency Instinct3.
What is a commander anyway? HandOfBlood can best explain that itself. In a YouTube video, he sums it up as follows:
When you go into the game in World of Tanks, you have a battlefield there, you drive your tank and you are constantly being bullied by the so-called commander who is sitting in the tank. Now imagine, this commander who drools the whole battle, every battle, some chop on your cheek, that would be me, in character.
In over 500 takes, the 30-year-old recorded almost 300 voice lines in order to be able to provide games with the right slogan in every situation. He strikes an authoritarian tone of command, but doesn’t take himself too seriously, as we know from HandOfBlood.
In the video, HandOfBlood also gambles with his virtual counterpart and let himself be yelled at. We have included it for you here:
How is that received? The viewers are happy for their favorite YouTuber. With his passion and commitment to the game, he more than earned his own commander. The implementation also seems to have been successful: the sayings are “a thousand times better than the boring, boring, mumbled CC voices that we have been given before,” writes the viewer “Juan Zulu”.
Exactly this mix was probably also intended by HandOfBlood. On Twitter he describes the result as a “real fever dream.”
HandOfBlood is practically a method actor among German YouTubers and is known for slipping into the craziest roles in his gameplay videos. He really gets involved: For his video for the cat game Stray, he slurped milk from a bowl and snacked on cat food, but that caused trouble:
HandOfBlood gambles Stray and gets in trouble with animal rights activists: “New low point in my life has been reached”