Blizzard Bans Ziqo and Steps Up Its War on Gold Buying in WoW: Forever

Blizzard has decided to lead by example. According to GameSpot, Ziqo, one of the best-known streamers in World of Warcraft: Forever, has been banned after encouraging viewers, live on stream, to buy gold for them. The incident comes at a sensitive time: Forever is still in beta, with the full launch scheduled for November, and the community has spent weeks embroiled in controversy over gold buying and real-money transactions, known in gaming circles as RMT.

Why does this matter so much? Because we're not talking about some anonymous account caught red-handed, but a high-profile content creator on the verge of a PvP tournament with a $100,000 prize pool. If Blizzard is willing to go after a name like that, the message to the rest of the community is hard to ignore: the rules that were always on the books now actually seem to be enforced.

What you need to know

• Streamer Ziqo has been banned after asking viewers on stream to buy gold on the streamer's behalf.
• WoW: Forever is in beta, with its full launch arriving in November.
• Blizzard has acknowledged that it was too “lenient” about gold buying in the past and wants to crack down on it harder.
• Before the ban, Ziqo was seen receiving suspiciously large amounts of gold from strangers.
• It all happened in the run-up to a PvP tournament with $100,000 in prizes, featuring Ziqo and many other streamers.

A problem as old as WoW itself

Buying gold from third-party websites is nothing new. For as long as World of Warcraft has existed, there have been companies using bots to farm the game's main currency and resell it for real money. And from day one, that has been against the terms of service. The difference was never the rule itself, but the willingness to enforce it: for years, many players assumed the risk of buying gold was low and that, at worst, they would lose the gold or get a warning.

What's changing with Forever is Blizzard's tone. It's rare for a company to publicly admit it has been too soft, and doing so means setting a standard it will be held to. The Ziqo case is the first real test of that new stance.

What exactly happened

During their streams, Ziqo was seen accepting very large sums of gold sent by people they didn't know, right before the competition. Given the size of those amounts, much of the community suspected it was highly unlikely the gold had been earned through gameplay, and that it most likely came from third-party sellers. According to GameSpot, the ban followed the streamer's comments encouraging viewers to buy gold for them; in other words, for actively promoting a banned practice in front of thousands of people.

Our take

Here at Underworld Lordz, we're clear on this: it's about time. When $100,000 is on the line, gold stops being a cosmetic detail and becomes a direct competitive advantage. Gear, consumables, preparation: everything comes faster with deep pockets. Letting someone show up to a tournament inflated with gold of questionable origin is, quite simply, rigging the competition against those who have put in hours farming the legitimate way.

That said, we're not going to applaud without reservations. A high-profile ban on a well-known streamer is easy to publicize and grabs headlines, but gold buying is built on bot networks and thousands of quiet buyers who never appear on stream. If Blizzard only acts when the controversy goes viral, this will be little more than a publicity stunt. The real test will be what happens from November onward, with the full launch and thousands of new players flooding the servers.

And a message for content creators, including our own: your audience follows you and imitates you. Asking your community to break the rules for you isn't harmless mischief; it's using your influence to push others into risking their accounts. Credibility in the competitive scene is built by playing fair, and it's much harder to win back than it is to lose.

What do you think?

Do you think Blizzard is serious this time, or is the Ziqo case just a show of punishment for the crowd? Should a tournament with a cash prize have specific checks on where participants' gold comes from? Drop by the team chat or our Discord and let us know: is the ban fair, or does it feel like an overreaction?