On May 9th 2012, Blizzard announced that all Closed Beta testers for Diablo III will be receiving an exclusive Feat of Strength: One of the Chosen. Below is the extract from the Community Manager, Lylirra:

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"In celebration of a successful beta test, all players who were invited to participate in the Diablo III closed beta will receive the commemorative Feat of Strength, "One of the Chosen." For eligible players, this feat will appear automatically in the Feat of Strength list after logging in for the first time as well as unlock a unique sigil that can be used on character banners.

In order to be eligible for "One of the Chosen," you must have had a Diablo III closed beta license attached to your Battle.net account (it isn't necessary to have downloaded or logged into the beta itself). Please note that players who participated only in the Open Beta Weekend, but were not invited to the closed beta, will not receive this Feat of Strength.

Thank you once again to all of our beta participants. We look forward to seeing you in Sanctuary!"

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Naturally, the masses who weren't fortunate enough to be selected for the CBT were in outrage. They took to the forums to express their dissatisfaction with Blizzard's decision. The original thread from which the above quote was taken quickly reached its maximum capacity for responses. Numerous threads were then created by annoyed persons seeking to vent their anger. Blizzard was very quick to delete the vast majority of these threads.

Here are some of the arguments:

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"so people who got into closed beta get an achievement and a sigil exclusive to them because they were lucky enough to get into the beta. what about the fanbase like me that were opted in, entered into almost every contest they could find, yet never got in? they get nothing? but people who got lucky get a sigil to rub it in our faces even more?"

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"This is a slap in the face. What difference is there between the CB testers and OB testers? OB testers only had a very short time to download and play yet we did it anyway just to participate."

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"I really don't care about the feat of strength, I care more about the fact that people will have a sigil I can't get due to, for the most part, luck. I have two friends who got into the closed beta, one really didn't care much for the game and the other didn't even know he got into the closed beta until the last day. If it's any compensation to us unchosens, I hope you guys make the sigil fugly so that no one would ever bother to use it."

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Those who were 'One of the Chosen' were only too happy to troll those who weren't:

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"Oh the tears of the "Unchosen" how they nourish me."

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"It's infantile whiners like you that managed to ruin that game and now here you are; already whining before Diablo 3 is out about something absolutely meaningless.

ST*U GTFO, go back to WoW and cry there with that entitled, crybaby, terrible gamer playerbase. Stay TFO of Diablo."

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"WHEN YOU CRY THIS HARD, THE BURNING HELLS WIN."

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I played the D3 Open Beta but was not selected for the CBT, so it's hard for me to stay objective. Yes, we know that the Feat doesn't really have any value. It's just a virtual medal of sorts, which shows your participation in an event. Years from now, players will look back and say 'Wow that guy played the game before it even came out'. I think that is what annoys those who come out empty handed.

Perhaps Blizzard should make a Feat of Strength for those who weren't selected for the CBT but had opted in for selection; "One of the Rejected" or "Tears of the Rejected".

I would guess that Blizzard is going to ignore the matter until it just blows over. They don't seem to have any intention to change anything. 

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