The holidays have wound down, and hopefully you had as good a time hanging out (and eating and drinking) with family and friends as I did. Unfortunately, I didn't have too much time to visit Azeroth over the past week or two, but lots has been going on, especially in the battlegrounds. And from Cowmoo on Haomarush comes what might be the most heartwarming story I've ever read on the forums.

It's about a Horde PUG who rocked (Horde FTW), a little female gnome who wasn't so slick, and a Shaman (Shaman power!) who decided to make a player's day. I know it's long but it's a great story, and you should check it out-- it might even bring a little post-holiday warmth to your cold, January, Burning Crusade-awaiting hearts.

And for the benefit of those of you at work and unable to reach the forums, I've posted it after the jump.

Christmas PVP (A Story by Cowmoo from Haomarush)

I often play PUGs, and I encounter a lot of bad players on the opposite team. But, I just can't take it when they're female gnomes. I have a heart, and it just feels so bad killing those small buggers, especially around christmas times.

My story begins with me playing my shaman. I run up to a female gnome mage and slay her without her being able to do anything. Now I do this another 5-6 times and that poor female gnome mage is like the only alliance who dares to step outside their flagroom (EVERYONE DEFEND FTW!)

It is a really bad player, I don't even have to try very hard and could just autoattack kill the poor female gnome. She tries to channel fireballs, I ES and she wont even channel another fireball before my ES is ready again. She never silences and overall she's like one of the worst players I ever seen. (but at least she tries to move out from the flagroom and WIN the game!)

So, I just can't take it anymore. I see that gnome mage running up to me for like the 7-8th time and I look at the scoreboard, the mage got like 0 HKs and 10 deaths. She starts channeling a fireball and I just let it hit me. And let another fireball hit me. She doesn't have very good gear, it's noticable - still decent gear though. I hit her 2-3 times, with windfury deactivated to not get some lucky instant killing WF crits.

And I die after a time. I don't know why. Somehow in my mind I see this dad, who actually plays the character, who sits with his kid and lets him play. Because it was really THAT bad play, slow reactions and everything.

And that female gnome.. I just couldn't.

I respawn again, the score is 2-0 at this time and we're really dominating the game. The female gnome, who still is the only alliance stepping out of the flagroom, is now in our base, running VERY slowly and stopping on every corner. Which only makes me believe even more it's a someone showing a small kid the game. Move around the corner, standing still for a few seconds, move a bit further.
The only reason she managed to get this far, was because all other 9 hordes are killing the defenders in their flagroom.

I follow the gnome (looking at the female gnome around the corners by rotating my camera) slowly into our flagroom. She entered our base from the ramp, and from entering it took probably 1 minute to get into our flagroom - which for a "normal" player takes a few seconds tops.

Now she stands in front of our flag, totally still. Nothing happening for 10 seconds, and in my mind I'm so sure that it's the dad saying "Good kid, now rightclick on this flag and run fast back to our base!". I'm so sure of it, I can't believe anyone who's level 60 can play this badly and move around so slow if they level hours & days by themselves.

She picks up the flag, and I run in. Hey, can't have them capture without having to fight for it. The female gnome mage stops, looks at me for a bit and after 4-5 seconds starts channeling a fireball. After a epic battle of attempting to make it look like a epic battle, she brings me down. She slowly moves closer to my corpse, then a bit closer and then loots my corpse. She turns around, stands there 3-4 seconds before she runs the 10 yards to reach the tunnel in our flagroom. Stands still another 4 seconds then she turns facing the tunnel and after another 3 seconds she starts running forward.

I'm so sure now, but no matter - a player that bad and who's the only one who actually is trying to win the game needs to be rewarded for the fighting spirit.

"/bg Hey guys, the one who picked up our flag is a friend of mine, it's his little kid playing. He loves this game and is it ok if we let him score 1 time to make a little kid happy? It's christmas week after all."

Ok, it's a lie. I don't know the guy, and I don't know if it's a kid. It can just as well be a really bad player. But believe it or not, the brutal hordes all show a great heart. The female gnome runs through the middle to their tunnel, which takes probably a 3 minutes. The hordes are all ganking people who's defending their flagroom now, it's actually quite a slaughter. All of the hordes, including me, are in their flagroom killing everyone trying to get in there.

Then our favorite gnome comes running into the room, she almost hits the glasswindow straight ahead before he stop. Waits 3 seconds, turns 90 degrees to 3 seconds later walk straight into the middle of the room. He walks a bit to far to the west, so it takes another 3 seconds and he moves backwards a few steps with all the hordes watching. She turns around facing their flag. Moves forward, stops for a second, then moves forward again and the female gnome mage captures the horde flag!

Horde picks up the respawning flag and runs back to the base with a female gnome mage untouched shooting fireballs after them. Some people stops to /wave and /dance with the female gnome mage, and let her kill them - as she don't have the speed to keep up with the flag carrier.

Horde wins 3-1, but one little happy mage ended 4th in killing blows (among alliance) with her 8 KBs and 17 deaths.
Maybe it wasn't a kid playing, maybe it was a handicapped person, maybe it was a regular person watching TV while playing, or maybe someone who just opened a ebay account. I have no clue.

But I had a merry christmas.