Can you hear it? The ground shakes. The earth creaks. The very spirit of the land trembles. The pink tide is coming for Azeroth, and it is adorable. At 7pm EST, the 8th annual Running of The Gnomes kicks off, a charity event held in World of Warcraft to raise money for breast cancer treatment, research and potential vaccination against, and you can be part of it, too.
Let us know in the comments below if you’ve been part of a fundraiser or charity event in one of these major MMOs
Last year’s marathon raised $5,500 for theCleveland Clinic and the creators of the Tuohy Vaccine, with a counted 2,860+ gnomes involved in the festivities. I’d like to imagine the actual head-count was higher, given how hard it is to pick out individual pink puffballs from a sea of fuschia.
This year, they’re aiming to start out at a minimum raised of $4000 and go from there, a goal well within reach, although it could be just a little easier if you join in too.
If you want to join the run (last year’s seen above), you just have to create a pink-haired gnome character on the Scarlet Crusade US server. You can read a full breakdown of the event and its requirements on the Magical Warlock Girl blog here.
Blizzard have noticed this event as well, and while their version doesn’t have any official involvement with the Running Of The Gnomes fundraiser, there will be an official race held on all servers in parallel named The Great Gnomeregan Run, using the exact same route as the fundraiser, and with additional decorations and NPCs to help keep people on track.
Once the race is over, the Gnomes are unleashed, and so begins the grand (and most likely bloody) exodus to Orgrimmar for the after-party. I can only hope that the Orcs have got snacks and drinks laid out for their soon to be arriving guests.
No need to worry about level or stats. Any Gnome, no matter how squishy is invited to take part, just so long as they’re pink and can keep up with the crowd. This means that even free trial players can get in on the good times, too. Keep up with the event via the #GnomeRun2k17 hashtag on Twitter, and be sure to share your stories and pictures with us!