Blizzard‘s latest micro-holiday has begun! If you’re a glutton for punishment, the Great Gnomeregan Run has begun in World of Warcraft!
As the name suggests, the Great Gnomeregan Run is a massive marathon that begins at the Gnomish capital of Gnomeregan in the Eastern Kingdoms, resting near Ironforge in Dun Morogh. From there, players are tasked with running all the way to the bottom tip of the Eastern Kingdoms, Stranglethorn’s Booty Bay.
This is a time-honored tradition, and it’s typical for players to create a level 1 Gnome of any class to complete this task. While there aren’t rules to the micro-holiday, there are a few things that players tend to implement to keep the tradition alive.
Players shouldn’t level their Gnomes past the experience they gain from the exploration of their run, since the run itself is the task and grinding on the way down defeats the purpose. It’s also a good idea to keep time in case you want to set a few records.
Some players like to run in a mass, and some prefer to go solo. As this is a Gnomeregan and Gnome-centric event, this is primarily an Alliance event, though some Horde players choose to hop on in.
If you’re Horde, make sure you aren’t bringing a level 1 character, because you’ll have no chance of making it through all of the Alliance NPCs. However, PvP and ganks aren’t much of a threat, as level 1 is too soon to have War Mode active!
The Running of the Gnomes 2020 starts later today on Scarlet Crusade (US)! https://t.co/MYCA8VxNUF #Warcraft pic.twitter.com/GrYeoBgoDr
— Icy Veins (@icyveins) October 10, 2020
Of course, players are welcome to implement whatever rules they choose – if you feel like getting on your Mythic-geared 120 and doing the run, feel free! It removes much of the threat and turns into a walk, but if you just feel like walking from Gnomeregan to Booty Bay, what’s stopping you?
And there’s more at work than just a bunch of players hitting auto-run through a couple zones. The Great Gnomeregan Run is a charity event with proceeds benefitting the Tuohy Vaccine, a vaccine being created to prevent Triple Negative Breast Cancer.
This event began as a community-centric charity event, focused on the Scarlet Crusade US server. It became so popular that Blizzard chose to honor it with the official Great Gnomeregan Run micro-holiday to help bring more attention to the cause.
Players are encouraged to donate to charity, but the event itself has no sort of purchases or retail products that raise funds directly. With awareness and charity the primary cause of the run, October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month is a fantastic fit for the event, so make sure that you’re keeping this in mind while you’re ducking through the bushes of Stranglethorn Vale!