On July 28, World of Warcraft Classic players will relive the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj world event. In this event, thousands of players will compete to be the first to open the gates and unleash a horde of angry monsters upon Azeroth.

On that day in July, "World of Warcraft Classic" will enter Phase 5 of its release schedule. This update will add the "Scepter of the Shifting Sands" quest line and launch the war effort in Ahn'Qiraj. These two key elements are global events that require the cooperation of hardcore guilds and the entire server community.

The Ahn'Qiraj war effort will charge players to donate crafting materials in preparation for the eventual war against the Qiraji, a race of evil insects trapped in the Silithus zone. The gathering of this stockpile is essentially a competition between server communities to see who can complete the world event first.

The second element of the event is for Classic's most hardcore players. Raid guilds will embark on a long and winding quest to create the Scepter of the Shifting Sands, a very rare item that can only be wielded by a few players per server. Interestingly, Destiny 2 director Luke Smith was one of those lucky players when the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj event was first held in 2006.

Once these two quests are completed, the scepter wielder can ring the gong, which opens the gates of Ahn'Qiraj and begins a 10-hour war in which the entire server can participate. [This is one of the most ambitious events in World of Warcraft history, and we are very excited that Classic will be able to relive this moment. When the gates of Ahn'Qiraj first opened, the resulting chaos was unbearable for the server, leading to all sorts of nasty connection issues and lag. But it was a conflict on a scale unprecedented in online gaming, and it would be fascinating to relive that moment again.

The Ahn'Qiraj's Gate questline will be available on July 28; for more information on World of Warcraft Classic, see our comprehensive guide.