The first 1,000 Diablo IV players to Hardcore level 100 get their name on a statue

The first 1,000 people to reach level 100 in Diablo IV, and then tweet to @Diablo with proof, will get their usernames "immortalized on a statue of Lilith." Hardcore being, of course, the mode where if you die then your character is straight-up deleted and gone forever. There are going to be so, so many salty highlights of people losing a hardcore character while trying for this challenge—which will stay open until September or until 1,000 people claim it.

Where will the statue be? What will they do with the statue? These are not important questions to the contest. The contest does not care. The contest knows that you will sacrifice and scrimp and fight like a trapped rat to get your name on that statue. Actually when I put it that way this contest sounds kind of fun.

For the record, Blizzard will be voiding offer claims from "individuals who have inappropriate or offensive BattleTags."

"The first 1,000 individuals who meet all of the eligibility requirements herein and send a public Tweet to @Diablo containing (i) the hashtag #Diablo4Hardcore, (ii) their full Battle.net BattleTag, and (iii) picture or video proof that the individual has reached a character level of 100 in “hardcore mode” on Diablo IV and have earned the “Tempered Champion” title in-game using the same Battle.net account will have their BattleTag engraved into a physical statue of Blizzard’s choice," read the Terms and Conditions. Ah, clears that right up, don't it.

This is of course part of the monstrous marketing push leading up to the release of Diablo 4. For example, demoness LIlith is opening up a chocolate shop in London where you can eat chocolate human skulls, for whatever reason. There's also the horrific Demon Meat Shake that the PC Gamer staff made Jorge try. (They didn't actually make him try it, he volunteers for this stuff.)

There's also this live action trailer from Eternals director Chloe Zhao that is extremely serious and has way, way too much focus on eye contact. That followed up the launch trailer, which was actually not a launch trailer because it was four weeks early. It is only a launch trailer if it comes out at launch, someone please tell the Diablo marketing team.

There's also way too much Diablo-themed merch.