Disclaimer: The Chinese Operations team genuinely has no knowledge or control over upcoming lore; this event is just for fun!
The competition features 16 characters in a single-elimination head-to-head bracket, separated into four sets of voting over the next month, beginning with eight rounds of votes between two characters, with the more-likely-to-die "winners" filtering down into four more rounds, followed by two sets of semi-finalists, and finally voting on who will ultimately not survive the expansion.
With absolutely nothing at stake, this is just a fun community event, though participants do have the chance of winning a physical Lion's Crown Ring of Stormwind, seen above. Unfortunately, you must have a NetEase account to participate, so the rest of us just get to watch and make our own predictions on who will named most likely to die in Midnight.
Already amassing several tens of thousand votes in the first day, voting takes place in four brackets, concluding on April 29th.
The Participants
Each character features a serious portrait, a tongue-in-cheek statement about the character, and a much more nervous looking chibi avatar that appears when they are voted for.
Turalyon - "I've seen dads get ganked by their kids before, but you're built different."
Khadgar - "Looks like your staff is finally on the loot table."
Alleria Windrunner - "Status MIA, which basically translates to _____"
Xal'atath - "You don't really want me dead, my dear mortal."
Arator - "Fix that yee-yee ass haircut or we're vote-kicking you."
Lor'themar - "So you really just pulled the 'retiring to my hometown to get married' death card, huh?"
Sire Denathrius - "An intriguing hypothetical."
Iridikron - "Damn bro, who even are you again?"
Grand Magister Rommath - "You two just don't have that Koltira & Thassarian chemistry. Probably 'cause you're both still breathing."
Magister Umbric - "You two just don't have that Koltira & Thassarian chemistry. Probably 'cause you're both still breathing."
Rommath and Umbric share a statement, because of course they do.
Vereesa Windrunner - "You're way too normal to live, sis. Like, dangerously normal."
Sylvanas Windrunner - "How many extra lives do you even have left, Dark Lady?"
Bubbles Jr - "Azure Staring-eye Fish, I ain't waitin' for you."
This doesn't translate particularly well, but Chinese internet culture loves altering the tones of words to make absurd puns, so this is a phonetic play on a very famous Chinese pop song, Blue and White Porcelain by Jay Chou; reversing the original poetic message into a very unromantic line about a weird-looking fish.
Loa of Zul'Aman - "Eat, sleep, can't fight trolls anymore... guess we'll just farm you guys instead."
This refers to an old Chinese meme in which players would "eat, sleep, and fight trolls again" - a major enemy throughout much of World of Warcraft's early expansions.
Thrall - "You actually gonna log on for the second half of Midnight?"
Lady Liadrin - "This whole 'becoming one with the Light' gig is starting to sound a little sus..."
Scared Portraits
These pitiful looking portraits stem from a viral text message meme in China, in which one conversationalist defiantly suggests dying in protest to something, while the other despondent avatar much more nervously asks "do I have to die too?"
Serious Portraits
