World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer

Last night the EU guild Ensidia claimed the title of world first Lich King kill on 25 player, securing their right to attempt hardmode content next week. Or so they thought.

Apparently Ensidia used an exploit that involved using Saronite Bombs to 'rebuild' platforms destroyed by the Lich King, thereby trivializing a significant mechanic in the fight. Blizzard responded by issuing a 72 hour suspension to all players involved in the kill, and removed all achievements and items that they recieved.

Date of Violation: 03/02/2010
Type of violation: Exploitation – Abuse of in-game mechanics or glitches with intent to exploit or cheat in World of Warcraft.
Details: Use of Saronite Bombs to bypass The Lich King fight mechanics Consequences for Account: Account suspended for 72 hours, all items and achievements gained removed 

Few in the community are shocked by this, as Ensidia has a long history of 'creative use of in-game mechanics.' Those of us who remember Ulduar will recall the drama over the so-called "flower power" exploit for the world first kill of Hodir hardmode. Ensidia claimed that they discovered and used the exploit by accident:

Yes it seems this bug does relate to our kill. We had no idea that our Rogues using Saronite Bombs in their rotation (as they always do) was causing it and thusly it occured every try we did. Short version, we're not going to stop trying the boss when all we are doing is playing our normal game. It would be nice if these kinds of things, much the same as Holy Wrath on Anub, were tested before release.

Many players on the World of Warcraft forums subsequently discovered that nearly a dozen members of Ensidia had leveled engineering to around 410 in the past few days, so the validity of this claim is questionable at best.