World of Tanks players forced to abandon livestreams at Tankfest

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World of Tanks remains one of the world’s biggest games, and streamers of the game on Twitch are a big deal. Therefore those streamers would need a pretty decent reason to abandon their shows while playing the game live – such as what happened to World of Tanks streamer QuickyBaby, and other players at Tankfest 2019 today.

Word is reaching us – mostly thanks to QuickyBaby himself and the viewers who caught his stream – of a “fire or explosion” at the Tankfest event at the Tank Museum in Dorset, UK. According to World of Tanks player Eekeeboo on Discord, who was there, “there was a real explosion and a fire. We don’t know more details but we were evacuated for safety. As far as I know no one was hurt, but there was a large explosion and they’re getting it under control now.”

As for QuickyBaby, his viewers soon realized something was up when the people behind him started being evacuated – and he himself was soon forced to abandon his PC, despite streaming live at that moment to around 7,000 viewers.

“Ladies and gents, boys and girls, there’s a fire,” QuickyBaby – real name Will Frampton – explained simply to his audience. “There’s a fire, I’ve got to leave this building, hopefully I am okay! I’m going to have to go AFK in the World of Tanks.” He then left the building with the other players at the event, although would return later.

At the moment there has been no official explanation given for the evacuation or the cause of the fire at Tankfest – although as Frampton was quickly back in the room playing and streaming World of Tanks again shortly afterwards, it would seem that it was contained fairly quickly. The most important part, of course, is that no one was hurt and everyone was evacuated safely – despite Frampton’s attempts to kill more tanks while in the middle of that evacuation.

If you’re not aware, Tankfest isn’t specifically about World of Tanks – although it is sponsored by the developers. It’s a yearly event held at the Tank Museum in Bovington in Dorset in the UK, and it’s described as “the world’s biggest display of historic moving armour” – or ‘tanks’ as they’re more commonly known.

Given that player Eekeeboo suggested that the fire was due to “a large explosion,” we’re wondering if it’s possible that someone pressed the wrong button on the World War Two Jagdpanther. Some sort of tank-type culprit, perhaps. Just a hunch.