History of the Race to World First in World of Warcraft

[00:00] Let's [ __ ] go. WE

[00:03] GO.

[00:04] COME ON.

[00:05] COME ON.

[00:07] >> [screaming]

[00:10] >> LET'S [ __ ] GO. LIQUID

[00:14] HAS DONE IT. THIS IS THE RACE TO world

[00:15] first, an event that garners hundreds of

[00:17] thousands of concurrent viewers each and

[00:20] every single season to watch top guilds

[00:21] in the world progress the brand new raid

[00:24] and the newest patch inside of World of

[00:26] Warcraft. But it always wasn't like this

[00:28] though. The analysts, outside raid

[00:30] leaders, theory crafters, add-on

[00:32] developers, casters, organizations with

[00:34] their private chefs, those are all brand

[00:36] new additions. Race to world first, it's

[00:39] always been about the glory of downing

[00:40] the boss before competition. Weeks and

[00:43] days of 16 hours a day of non-stop

[00:45] gameplay.

[00:47] How do we get here though? Well, this is

[00:49] the history of the race to world first.

[00:52] And so for this video, we're going to be

[00:53] talking about the race to world first

[00:55] event, not just all of world first

[00:58] rating inside of World of Warcraft. And

[01:00] with that being the case, we need to

[01:01] start by talking about how the race to

[01:03] world first even got started. So to get

[01:05] context about how it was formed, we have

[01:07] to go back to the pre-race to world

[01:09] first era. And as long as there have

[01:11] been raid bosses, there has been world

[01:13] first rating. From vanilla all the way

[01:15] up through Legion, there was world first

[01:17] rating, but there wasn't really eyes on

[01:19] the event itself. And if anything, it

[01:21] was more like taboo to even stream raid

[01:24] progression. Very infrequently

[01:26] did you even have guilds within the top

[01:28] 50 streaming raid progression at all. Uh

[01:31] this kind of ended up changing very late

[01:32] in the Legion through two guilds. The

[01:34] first one, they were Future. After the

[01:36] world second guild Serenity blew up in

[01:38] Nighthold, basically a lot of the

[01:39] players from this guild ended up forming

[01:41] Future. Some of the most well-known

[01:42] players that you probably know are like

[01:44] Nagura Sloot Naowh Wolfdisco Kush

[01:47] DoctorJ, Viklund, just to kind of name a

[01:49] few.

[01:50] And the plan for Future, it was fairly

[01:52] simple. They wanted to stream

[01:54] progression on an evening raid schedule

[01:56] and I kind of enjoy it for what it was.

[01:58] And for a lot of high-end content

[02:00] creators, this was, you know, a pretty

[02:02] good opportunity for them because they

[02:04] had previously been locked away into

[02:06] higher ranking guilds, but now they have

[02:08] an opportunity to stream. And this

[02:09] guild, they ended up having a pretty

[02:10] good performance in Tomb of Sargeras, uh

[02:12] getting world 12th Fallen Avatar. They

[02:14] ended up taking a break on KJ, letting

[02:16] their rank slide a little bit, and ToS

[02:18] they ended up getting world 23rd. So,

[02:19] this guild, they're very good. And like

[02:21] I said earlier, no guild within like

[02:23] really the top 50 had actually been

[02:25] streaming progression up until this

[02:27] point. The other guild that ended up

[02:28] kind of breaking away from this mold

[02:31] ended up being the world fourth guild,

[02:33] Alpha. So, they really busted down the

[02:35] barriers for top-end raiding, showing

[02:36] the secret phase on Argus where he gets

[02:38] really big and red and glows, and this

[02:40] kind of changed everybody's perspective

[02:41] for what high-end raiding could be.

[02:44] And historically, you know, raiding had

[02:46] a lot of old-school norms holding it

[02:47] back. Similar to the no streaming thing,

[02:49] there was norms where guilds wouldn't

[02:51] release the first kill video until five

[02:53] guilds had killed a boss. I also

[02:54] remember when the term video guild

[02:55] actually became popular in Legion where

[02:57] basically if you progged a boss with

[02:59] ample amounts of world first videos out,

[03:01] you were a video guild. Needless to say,

[03:03] there were a lot of norms in 2017 and

[03:05] prior to that, that kind of made the

[03:06] world first scene what it was, but at

[03:08] the same time it set us up for the race

[03:10] to world first era.

[03:13] So, Battle for Azeroth. We move into

[03:15] Battle for Azeroth and we have some

[03:16] pretty exciting news. The defending race

[03:18] world first champions, Method, have

[03:19] decided that they are going to stream

[03:20] progression during Battle for Azeroth's

[03:22] first raid, Uldir. They ended up having

[03:24] three players that would be live from

[03:25] the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in London,

[03:27] UK. Those players were Sco, Ginji, and

[03:29] Nakkiles. This would kind of be the

[03:30] first look under the hood of world first

[03:32] raiding and what it really could be. And

[03:34] taking kind of a look out at the

[03:35] landscape of what the world first scene

[03:37] really looks like, it looked kind of

[03:39] bleak going into Battle for Azeroth.

[03:41] Paragon, they had died. Exorsus had

[03:44] taken a pretty significant step back in

[03:45] terms of their roster post-Antorus.

[03:47] Serenity, like I said earlier, they were

[03:48] dead. And so, it kind of looked like it

[03:51] was just ripe for the taking for Method

[03:53] that they were going to have pretty much

[03:54] no competition. What's changed? Like

[03:56] what made it possible now all these

[03:58] years later? Um I guess you could start

[04:00] with saying the first one is that in

[04:02] general there isn't as much competition

[04:05] in the rating scene as there was in the

[04:06] past. That's obviously a big one.

[04:08] And Method at this time they were also

[04:09] going pretty hardcore for the expansion

[04:11] launch. They were requiring three

[04:12] characters minimum for splits, but a lot

[04:15] of players were maintaining a fourth alt

[04:16] for splits. This is probably funny if

[04:18] you're kind of looking at how players

[04:20] are running 15 characters in 2026, but

[04:22] having that many characters leveled and

[04:23] geared in 2018 is a big deal. Another

[04:25] thing that's kind of important to know

[04:26] about the Race World First event is that

[04:28] Method is going to be streaming without

[04:30] comms. This is going to end up changing

[04:32] in the future, but for the first few

[04:34] tiers that we're going to be talking

[04:35] about the Race World First, just know

[04:37] that no comms is going to be the norm.

[04:39] Voice communications not the, you know,

[04:41] fully shown. Like obviously we're going

[04:43] to be chatting in private what we should

[04:46] do cuz okay, you can still watch the

[04:48] stream, you can still see the weak

[04:50] auras but

[04:52] you don't understand fully everything. I

[04:54] think that's from that.

[04:56] >> [laughter]

[04:57] >> So with all of that set up, the

[04:59] self-named World First Race begins.

[05:01] It's about as expected. Method looks

[05:03] dominant and there is no other

[05:05] competition realistically.

[05:07] And that's kind of a lie on multiple

[05:09] fronts.

[05:10] First off,

[05:11] the fifth boss of the instance, Fetid

[05:13] Devourer, ends up being literally

[05:15] unkillable. Corpuscular adds on this

[05:17] fight just had way too much HP. Perfect

[05:19] play wouldn't really allow you to have

[05:21] enough DPS to kill them in time. It was

[05:23] very clearly overtuned and it was not

[05:25] particularly close. And the second lie

[05:27] is that there wasn't really competition.

[05:29] And at this time a relatively unknown

[05:31] North American guild named Limit had

[05:33] decided that they wanted to go a little

[05:34] bit harder in Uldir than they had in the

[05:36] past. They'd been US First for a while

[05:38] now, but they were raiding evenings

[05:39] only.

[05:40] However, it looks like their schedule

[05:43] has changed and they're doing a full day

[05:45] raid schedule. But at the same time

[05:47] they're notably not streaming. Nobody

[05:48] really knows a bunch about Limit at this

[05:50] time, nor is it known how long they're

[05:52] going to be able to keep up with Method.

[05:54] But, both of the guilds were deadlocked

[05:56] onto Fetid Devourer, and with two nerfs

[05:58] to Fetid Devourer, both Method and Limit

[06:01] are finally able to down the dog after

[06:02] 133 attempts and move further on into

[06:05] Uldir.

[06:13] Then, Method and Limit are trading blows

[06:14] where Method downs Zul with a world

[06:16] first nice five sub rogue strategy.

[06:19] Limit ends up killing the penultimate

[06:20] boss Mythrax world first on a Saturday

[06:22] with some really cheeky intermission

[06:24] strategies where they force spawn the

[06:26] ads on a rock, proving that not

[06:28] streaming actually has a lot of

[06:29] advantages. And that ends up being the

[06:31] strategy that Method ends up adopting

[06:32] and killing the boss later with.

[06:34] However, while Limit did end up killing

[06:36] Mythrax first, that is just the

[06:37] penultimate fight. And [music]

[06:39] at this time, the first to the moon

[06:41] first to G'huun meme is born. Uh NA

[06:43] basically at this point had not had a

[06:45] world first in boss kill since the heart

[06:46] of fear in Mists of Pandaria, and at the

[06:48] same time, a lot is kind of on the line

[06:50] for Method here. This was the first time

[06:52] streaming world first progression. If

[06:54] Method ends up losing, there is a high

[06:55] degree of likelihood that we just kind

[06:57] of end up going back into the shadows

[06:59] where world first progression may never

[07:01] be streamed again. It kind of depends on

[07:03] what ends up happening with sponsors and

[07:05] how successful this event ends up being.

[07:07] So, yeah, Sunday comes and goes, and we

[07:08] finally get two more guilds killing

[07:09] Mythrax with Exorsus and Method.

[07:11] Vanquisher's Runes also at this time had

[07:13] been used basically for all the race

[07:15] world first contending So,

[07:18] Vanquisher's Runes at this point were

[07:19] also criminally overpowered. They were

[07:20] 5% versatility, aka 5% increased damage

[07:24] dealt and 2 and 1/2% damage reductions.

[07:26] Most of these Vanquisher's were not

[07:28] saved for G'huun, instead being opted to

[07:30] use on the wall, which was Fetid

[07:32] Devourer all those days earlier.

[07:34] But, realistically, with the Mythrax

[07:36] kills, it's only kind of a two-horse

[07:38] race between Method and Limit. And we're

[07:39] kind of in the dark for how leading

[07:41] guild Limit is doing on G'huun. However,

[07:43] we do see what Method is up to. Four

[07:46] warlocks were basically required on that

[07:47] fight, and progression is steady.

[07:48] Unfortunately though for Method, it

[07:50] seems like there may be a snag in the

[07:51] plans.

[07:53] G'huun

[07:54] is hard. And Method, their best attempt

[07:56] pre-reset is 4%, and this is the first

[08:00] time this ends up happening in a realms

[08:02] notably have their resets lockout 16

[08:05] hours prior to European realms, meaning

[08:08] that something crazy can happen where

[08:10] Limit can enter the raid on Tuesday,

[08:12] get their Vantus Runes unlocked, get

[08:15] their

[08:16] chests that you have in BfA, and get the

[08:19] additional gear from the previous

[08:21] re-clear. And we saw that Method earlier

[08:24] had a 4% wipe. This means that honestly

[08:27] if Method is able to actually use their

[08:28] Vantus Runes on G'huun, then G'huun

[08:30] would have already previously died. And

[08:32] if the North American guild is at the

[08:33] exact same point,

[08:35] you know, this is like a near guaranteed

[08:37] world first for the upstart guild.

[08:39] And this is a situation where if Limit

[08:42] is anywhere near where Method are, this

[08:44] should be a near guaranteed world first

[08:47] in their first tier of trying to push

[08:49] for this. That is until the extend

[08:52] incident.

[08:56] All right, so explain to me the extend

[08:59] incident all the way back in the day on

[09:01] G'huun. What exactly happened? So

[09:03] basically, they got G'huun like really

[09:06] really low. Yeah, it was extremely close

[09:08] on G'huun, and they just knew if we

[09:10] extend or not extend this, if we kill

[09:12] this we get world first, first time in

[09:15] NA in forever. The lockout comes up,

[09:17] they can either re-clear, they know

[09:19] Method is really close, or they can do a

[09:22] little risky

[09:23] extending of the lockout, which means

[09:25] they don't have to re-clear. In that

[09:27] time, Blizzard made some changes to the

[09:30] Vantus Runes. They made changes to that

[09:32] so you didn't get as much versatility,

[09:34] and basically made the fight just like

[09:38] a percent 2% harder and that was kind of

[09:41] the difference between killing it right

[09:44] after the extension or or not. So as you

[09:47] can probably tell

[09:48] Method ends up winning on stream. They

[09:50] down G'huun after 285 attempts. They end

[09:52] up having north of 150,000 viewers

[09:54] watching them kill G'huun and the pilot

[09:57] for the Race to World First is

[09:58] green-lit, springboarding us forward

[10:00] into the future.

[10:01] >> [screaming]

[10:06] [screaming]

[10:09] >> IN OTHER GOOD NEWS, LIMIT'S GM AT THE

[10:10] TIME, MAX announces on Twitter that

[10:12] they're going to be going whole hog for

[10:14] the next year meaning that there was

[10:15] going to be good competition for

[10:17] back-to-back-to-back

[10:18] World First Race champions, Method.

[10:23] And now moving into the next season,

[10:24] everything is bigger and better with the

[10:25] Race to World First. The competition's

[10:27] more fierce with both Limit and Method

[10:29] committed to going hard versus one

[10:30] another. Method is also dedicating to

[10:32] putting on a larger-scale production

[10:34] with bigger sponsors. They're also going

[10:35] to have more casters, more players at

[10:37] the venue, and even renamed the event to

[10:39] the Race to World First. Which honestly,

[10:41] this has a better sound than the World

[10:43] First Race, admittedly. On top of that,

[10:44] there's even me casting the event.

[10:47] Anyway, talking about the landscape of

[10:49] the race a little bit post G'huun.

[10:51] Limit's still going to be raiding off

[10:52] stream but dedicated to pushing for

[10:54] World First once more. We also kind of

[10:56] know that they already had the promise

[10:57] and potential to win given all the drama

[10:59] surrounding G'huun.

[11:00] But Method has the experience and that

[11:03] has to play into the thought process

[11:05] between, you know, both of the guilds.

[11:07] World First Race rating, it kind of

[11:09] comes down to who can kill the final

[11:11] boss as fast as possible and it's always

[11:13] about doing everything you can,

[11:15] asterisk, that's not an exploit, double

[11:18] asterisk, sometimes it's an exploit,

[11:20] we'll talk about that later. This is

[11:21] also very involved prior to the release

[11:23] of Battle of Dazar'alor as both guilds

[11:25] were going harder on farm and split

[11:26] characters. Additionally, there was also

[11:28] a cheeky piece of heroic gear that could

[11:30] be available to NA Alliance from a quest

[11:33] through the gated content of war mode

[11:35] PvP. And obviously Limit at the time

[11:37] took this opportunity to throw down

[11:38] $1,500 worth of gold for one piece of

[11:42] Heroic tier on 51 characters.

[11:44] And European fans at the time, they were

[11:46] pretty salty. Uh they stated that this

[11:48] is just another

[11:49] disadvantage on top of the 16 hours that

[11:52] EU has, and this would never allow them

[11:54] to win or something.

[11:56] Basically, it was just free gear after

[11:58] all, and that's where the picture of the

[11:59] fame guild this game is bad comes from.

[12:03] So, this is kind of all the setup that

[12:04] we need for pre-BOD. Once Battle of

[12:06] Dazar'alor comes out, it's all pretty

[12:07] clear that the raid is quite a bit

[12:09] easier than Uldir was with no mid-tier

[12:11] walls at all. Method ends up waking up,

[12:13] and Limit, they're already on the

[12:14] penultimate fight in Stormwall Blockade.

[12:16] Everybody kind of assumed that

[12:17] Mekkatorque and Ra'wani were going to be

[12:19] very challenging due to lore

[12:20] implications that kind of came out prior

[12:23] to this raid. At the same time, Ra'wani

[12:25] ended up having a cheese strat for the

[12:27] intermission, and Mekkatorque, well,

[12:29] Mekkatorque was actually hard. It ended

[12:31] up having a pretty insane amount of heal

[12:33] checks and pass-fail mechanics due to

[12:34] bombs and LOS. Method ended up stinking

[12:37] it up on Mekkatorque, and ended up

[12:39] taking 8 hours for an encounter that

[12:41] only took Limit at the time three. In

[12:42] modern race to world first,

[12:45] this would likely be race-losing,

[12:46] especially for a fairly trivial boss.

[12:53] It's all good though, as we have a

[12:55] pretty hard penultimate encounter,

[12:56] right?

[12:58] Well, that was also wrong. Stormwall

[12:59] Blockade was actually quite a bit easier

[13:01] than Mythrax from the previous season,

[13:02] and by the time Method had reached

[13:04] Stormwall Blockade, Limit had already

[13:06] killed it.

[13:09] >> [screaming]

[13:12] >> And so now, guilds end up making it onto

[13:14] the end boss, Jaina Proudmoore. And with

[13:16] Limit raiding in the dark, reaching the

[13:18] boss far earlier, they should have a

[13:19] very significant advantage.

[13:22] There was kind of one weird thing that

[13:23] caught guilds off guard with Jaina

[13:25] Proudmoore though. So, previously, you

[13:26] could actually use one singular immunity

[13:29] ice block in order to be able to remove

[13:31] her chilling touch debuff. Uh this is

[13:34] like the main source of raw damage

[13:35] throughout the entirety of the

[13:36] encounter. This meant that mages were

[13:38] going to be incredibly powerful on Jaina

[13:39] and worth gearing throughout your mythic

[13:41] progression. However, uh during mythic

[13:43] week, Blizzard ended up slamming down a

[13:45] hotfix to how how ice block worked on

[13:48] that chilling touch debuff on Jaina,

[13:50] meaning that all the gear that both

[13:51] Method and Limit that ended up giving to

[13:53] mages, it was completely irrelevant.

[13:55] Mages aren't like the worst DPS in the

[13:57] game this season, but you would probably

[13:59] not have prioritized them for year. And

[14:01] both Limit and Method are not happy

[14:04] about this. They have made pretty

[14:04] drastic uh comp allocations due to this.

[14:08] At same time, it's pretty even playing

[14:10] field and Jaina, well, she was really

[14:12] hard. She also ended up having a quirk

[14:13] where bloodlusting her would end up

[14:15] causing her to ice block herself during

[14:17] the duration of bloodlust, meaning that

[14:19] there's only one time that you can

[14:20] actually lust on her during the fight.

[14:22] Her intermissions, those were brutal and

[14:24] they actually took days of real time to

[14:26] actually progress as the technical

[14:28] nuance of getting to these intermissions

[14:29] and dealing with these intermissions was

[14:31] pretty high. And so, all of this for

[14:33] Jaina Proudmoore is to say hard boss.

[14:35] Uh for progression purposes, Stormwall

[14:36] Blockade died like Wednesday for Limit,

[14:39] Thursday for Method, and we continue to

[14:42] push on into the reset. Monday, it rolls

[14:45] around and Jaina Proudmoore, she's still

[14:46] alive. Method 300 pulls in, Limit's

[14:49] unknown as to like where they are, how

[14:51] deep into the fight they are, and

[14:53] publicly Method is actually trying to

[14:55] progress the end of the fight. The

[14:56] damage check, it looks absolutely

[14:59] insane. You're supposed to kill off this

[15:00] stupid water ele and have this

[15:02] controlled burn at the end of the fight

[15:04] where players are getting ice blocked at

[15:05] the same time. The amount of raid-wide

[15:07] damage is is insane. So, you're on a

[15:10] timer for when you need the boss to

[15:12] actually die.

[15:13] Uh we were faced with quite a big

[15:15] dilemma.

[15:16] Do we kill the water elemental or do we

[15:18] leave it up?

[15:19] And do we get people ice blocked

[15:21] intentionally to break them out, or do

[15:22] we just nuke the boss?

[15:24] These were probably the biggest choices

[15:26] we had to make, and ultimately what

[15:28] enabled us to get world first. I think

[15:29] it was making the right choice.

[15:31] We decided to leave the water early up

[15:33] and just have people that were debuffed

[15:34] with heart of frost move out of the

[15:36] raid, and we decided to just burn the

[15:38] boss rather than doing some sort of

[15:40] control strategy with the ice blocks.

[15:42] So, the best defense for something like

[15:43] this is obviously just kill the boss as

[15:44] fast as possible. And the burn strategy,

[15:46] like you heard Chris Potter talking

[15:47] about there, is the one that Method

[15:48] ended up opting for.

[15:50] And at this point in time, it's still

[15:52] relatively unknown if the burn strategy

[15:54] is even possible. So, yeah, Monday

[15:56] morning rolls around, and all of Method

[15:59] shows up to the raid, and they're troll.

[16:01] And I'm not talking about their players,

[16:02] I'm talking about the race. They're

[16:04] trolls. And this, it was due to the

[16:06] pretty unknown racial ability, the

[16:08] voodoo shuffle, which reads that it

[16:10] reduces the duration of all movement

[16:12] impairing effects by 20%. And this ended

[16:14] up working on chilling touch. So,

[16:16] chilling touch, it had a slow component

[16:18] to it, and by having the voodoo shuffle,

[16:21] it allows you to drop stacks of the dot

[16:22] two ticks earlier. At this moment in

[16:24] time, this is just classic Method. Come

[16:26] up with a new innovative strategy, and

[16:28] have some of the absolute weirdest tech

[16:29] ever.

[16:30] So, with this marquee troll strategy,

[16:32] and the boss is already really low,

[16:34] Method doesn't kill the boss. And

[16:36] unfortunately, Monday comes and goes,

[16:38] and there's still no kill for Method.

[16:40] What is their best attempt at this point

[16:41] though? It's 7%. Boss notably dies a

[16:44] little bit higher than normal bosses. It

[16:45] dies at 5.5%, which it doesn't really

[16:47] die, but not really relevant.

[16:49] And the damage check, it just kind of

[16:51] seems like it's not there for Method.

[16:54] And we're running into the same problem

[16:55] that we had last year. Limit, they have

[16:57] a few more hours in the reset before the

[16:59] re-clear happens, and Limit inevitably

[17:01] wins off the back of 16-hour head start.

[17:04] And this is what I would say,

[17:06] except for the fact that Method woke up

[17:08] Tuesday morning and had an absolutely

[17:10] miraculous kill of Jaina Proudmoore.

[17:16] >> [screaming]

[17:18] >> LET'S [ __ ] GO.

[17:21] Method like we saw earlier,

[17:23] they basically all land on a burn

[17:24] strategy with things like battle

[17:26] restoration shaman and double disc

[17:28] priest and committed to try to just

[17:29] doing as much damage as possible to beat

[17:31] all of the mechanics on the fight. This

[17:33] is an incredibly risky strategy that

[17:35] could have lost them the race. However,

[17:37] this was the only way of actually

[17:38] killing the boss on week one and in

[17:40] hindsight, Limit, well, they opted

[17:43] actually for a safer strategy that

[17:44] required more HPS and less DPS.

[17:47] And Method, they are dominant and

[17:49] continue to prove why they're just so

[17:50] damn good. And that's basically the end

[17:52] of Bot. There was a surprising lack of

[17:54] drama post here. Limit seemed more

[17:56] committed now more than ever before to

[17:58] continue to push forward in the race

[17:59] world first scene. And Method, well,

[18:01] they've won four races in a row, so

[18:03] they're really cementing like a legacy

[18:04] level performance here, proving that

[18:06] they are the best.

[18:11] How were the vibes coming out of Battle

[18:13] of Dazar'alor? Were things like really

[18:14] down in the dumps after two tiers of

[18:16] like, you know, not streaming, like like

[18:18] fully committing to getting trying to

[18:19] get race to world first? Like how were

[18:21] the vibes after that tier? Yeah, that

[18:22] was a rough. That was very rough. Um

[18:27] the the one good thing was it kind of

[18:29] was like, "Here's a bunch of things we

[18:32] know we can improve on."

[18:33] Cuz like same with the extension, it was

[18:35] like, "Okay, never do that again." Like

[18:37] at least you know like

[18:39] how to do better, but

[18:41] yeah, Battle of Dazar'alor, there was

[18:43] some math on Jaina with what to do, how

[18:46] many healers to use, where to use the

[18:47] lust and stuff like that. So at least

[18:50] like we had something to work off of,

[18:51] but I remember it being pretty rough cuz

[18:54] I mean, every one of these tiers, it's

[18:56] like, "This is the one. We're going to

[18:57] do it." And then we fell flat and I

[18:59] mean, Eternal Palace

[19:01] I think was much worse on the vibes, but

[19:05] maybe that was just uh

[19:07] I don't know. That At least for me,

[19:09] Eternal Palace is the worst one, but

[19:10] Battle of Dazar'alor was pretty rough

[19:12] cuz like we thought we had it. We were

[19:14] so far ahead and then

[19:16] you know, you just hit that I mean, the

[19:17] wall literally on Jaina.

[19:20] BOD wraps up and there's a mini raid

[19:22] that contains two bosses. It's not

[19:25] especially relevant to the story of the

[19:27] Race to World First as it's one, not an

[19:29] end-tier boss, and two, Limit and Method

[19:30] both end up not throwing too many

[19:32] attempts at it in any real manner. Limit

[19:34] does end up doing two days of

[19:35] progression. Method did a few days worth

[19:37] of prog in total. This raid ends up

[19:40] overlapping with the MDI and many

[19:41] players from both Limit and Method are

[19:42] competing in said MDI. And so, the end

[19:45] boss of Crucible of Storms, it's Uu'nat.

[19:48] This ends up actually being one of the

[19:49] hardest end bosses of all time. It ends

[19:50] up eclipsing 700 attempts prior to the

[19:52] first kill. And most of the time I

[19:55] probably would have ignored this, but

[19:56] there's some context that's actually

[19:57] relevant with this raid that sets us up

[19:59] for future tiers. Method ends up killing

[20:01] the boss world second.

[20:03] Limit ends up killing it like world

[20:04] 25th, so weeks later.

[20:07] And this may lead you to wonder, who

[20:08] killed this boss world first? And so,

[20:10] that is where the next contender,

[20:12] Pieces, shows up. Where Pieces, this is

[20:14] a brand new guild that is brand new to

[20:16] the Race to World First scene. They're

[20:18] previously an evening raiding team that

[20:20] normally raids 5 to 6 hours a night, 7

[20:22] days a week. They've decided to actually

[20:24] participate in the Race to World First

[20:26] in both Crucible of Storms and moving on

[20:28] into the future. And downing Uu'nat,

[20:30] this is actually a really powerful first

[20:32] statement for them. Taking 730 attempts

[20:35] for an end boss, that's no small feat.

[20:37] That's largely regarded as one of the

[20:38] hardest end bosses of all time. I think

[20:40] that goes down in history as the the

[20:41] most attempts that have ever been taken

[20:43] on a boss. Unfortunately for them,

[20:45] Crucible of Storms not really seen as a

[20:46] real world first due to it not being the

[20:48] end boss of a tier. However, everybody's

[20:50] kind of on alert that Pieces could be a

[20:52] real contender moving into Azshara's

[20:53] Eternal Palace, making this a

[20:55] three-horse race.

[20:57] Now, here comes the drama. It's not

[20:58] really relevant to the story of the Race

[21:00] to World First,

[21:01] but it's still pretty fun drama. So,

[21:03] previously Method had actually been

[21:04] doing their Race to World First events

[21:06] in the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in London,

[21:08] UK. Red Bull was giving them the venue,

[21:10] running the production for the event as

[21:12] what I would describe as a production

[21:14] partner for Method. So, Red Bull, they

[21:16] decide that they want the Race World

[21:18] First product larger and under one

[21:20] umbrella. This makes sense. Basically,

[21:22] what the pitch was is that they want to

[21:23] migrate the Method stream onto the Red

[21:25] Bull Gaming stream, pick up additional

[21:27] guilds to make the World First race a

[21:30] cumulative product. Basically, putting

[21:32] all of the guilds that would participate

[21:34] in the Race World First on one channel.

[21:36] They also wanted to get all guilds

[21:37] involved in one singular location. This

[21:39] sounds really cool, right? However,

[21:42] Method, they don't really want this.

[21:44] They continue to want ownership to their

[21:45] product. This is just standard business

[21:47] stuff that normally people don't hear

[21:49] about. So, Red Bull and Method, they're

[21:51] parting ways. Not really dramatic,

[21:53] right? This is until Sco just slammed

[21:57] down a TwitLonger, airs all of this out,

[21:59] tries to pin the blame solely on Red

[22:01] Bull, he ends up stating that a

[22:02] third-party corporation tried to steal

[22:04] away the community event from the

[22:05] community. The irony is not lost here.

[22:07] And then he announced that Pieces and

[22:08] Limit are going to be streaming the Race

[22:10] World First at the Red Bull Gaming

[22:11] Sphere. For obvious reasons, leaking

[22:14] your competition's event and, you know,

[22:17] claiming that the corporate an evil

[22:18] corporation's trying to take your event

[22:20] from you is a little bit weird.

[22:22] Unfortunately, Red Bull ends up never

[22:23] working in WoW again after Eternal

[22:25] Palace for obvious reasons, and nobody's

[22:27] really happy about this entire

[22:29] situation.

[22:30] But good news, there's a three-horse

[22:31] race.

[22:33] We're also blessed by some equally as

[22:34] exciting news. We're going to be able to

[22:36] see both Pieces and Limit raid on

[22:38] broadcast for the first time at the Red

[22:39] Bull Gaming Sphere. And Method, well,

[22:41] they found a new venue in Krefeld,

[22:42] Germany, so everybody's got a broadcast.

[22:45] All right, drama's out of the way. We

[22:46] set the stage. Now, Azshara's Eternal

[22:48] Palace. This raid comes out, and the

[22:50] raid kind of goes pretty much as

[22:52] expected. That is, however, until Limit

[22:54] encounters the buzzsaw that is probably

[22:56] the most difficult fourth boss in

[22:58] history, Lady Ashvane. So, she ended up

[23:01] requiring a stupid amount of healing if

[23:03] the strategy of the boss was done the

[23:04] intended way. Guilds eventually opted to

[23:06] three tank this boss and more or less

[23:08] ease the most difficult part of the

[23:10] fight and turning it into mostly a

[23:12] damage check instead of a staunch heal

[23:14] check. And now, Limit, they end up

[23:15] killing it, but it's not until their

[23:18] second day. And Method, they on the

[23:20] other hand end up downing Lady Ashvane

[23:22] world first in 35 attempts after seeing

[23:24] Limit swap to a three tanking strategy

[23:26] late into their first day. And this this

[23:28] is actually the earliest I've ever

[23:30] actually seen a European guild get a

[23:33] world first. And something that I end up

[23:35] mentioning earlier, and that's common

[23:37] trope that we're going to have to keep

[23:38] watching out for into the future, is

[23:39] that if Method ever ends up killing a

[23:41] boss ahead of Limit, they win the race

[23:43] to world first outright. Uh is that

[23:45] going to stay true on something like a

[23:46] fourth boss with pretty minimal stakes?

[23:49] I guess we're going to have to see. Now,

[23:50] with these minimal stakes here, Limit,

[23:52] they come back and they end up downing

[23:53] the fifth boss of the raid, Orgozoa,

[23:54] world first. Method fires back, gets

[23:56] Queen's Court world first. And this kind

[23:59] of sets us up where the penultimate

[24:00] encounter of the raid here, Zul, is

[24:03] standing in front of both Method and

[24:04] Limit.

[24:06] As Zul, this is kind of an encounter

[24:07] that relies on a couple individuals to

[24:08] do 90% of the work on the fight. Two

[24:10] sets of three players end up going down

[24:12] into a phase called the Delirium Realm.

[24:14] They need to kill adds in time. There's

[24:15] also an upstairs phase, and they have to

[24:17] kill an add in time as well.

[24:19] Uh

[24:20] there's core people doing very specific

[24:22] jobs and a majority of the work on this

[24:24] fight. And the tank is probably the

[24:26] other most important person there, where

[24:28] tentacles are constantly slamming down

[24:30] alongside, you know, over the course of

[24:32] the entire room, where, you know, it's

[24:34] cutting off and denying space rather

[24:36] quickly. So, the tank positioning the

[24:37] boss effectively is a huge deal.

[24:40] And so, having a tank who could quickly

[24:42] assess and determine where the safe

[24:44] spots in the room are was integral to

[24:46] being able to progress this encounter at

[24:47] all.

[24:48] And so, Limit, they actually end up

[24:49] going on to pioneer this strategy that

[24:51] every guild ends up using for the rest

[24:53] of time on this fight, where they relied

[24:55] on one tanking this encounter with a

[24:57] Brewmaster monk. And so, there's a tank

[25:00] mechanic on this fight that involves the

[25:01] two tanks

[25:03] being tethered together.

[25:05] And apparently, if you just didn't have

[25:07] a second tank, it would go on the

[25:08] nearest DPS. And Limit discovered that

[25:10] they could just put that on their Havoc

[25:11] Demon Hunter. Their Havoc Demon Hunter

[25:13] can leech through all the damage that

[25:14] they're taking from this tether. This

[25:16] allows the DPS checks on this fight that

[25:18] were so hard earlier with the Delirium

[25:20] Realm and the upstairs phase to be met a

[25:23] lot easier than otherwise anticipated.

[25:26] And Limit, honestly, they were just far

[25:28] more consistent on their Delirium

[25:29] Realms. Method is struggling a ton

[25:32] getting their players to be able to kill

[25:33] the ads downstairs without dying.

[25:40] So, we had never actually seen this

[25:43] before. What was it like to take a step

[25:45] out of the raid and have been one

[25:48] tanking Za'qul and like, you know, you

[25:51] pivoting to that outside the raid leader

[25:53] role? Ben, I haven't been asked a

[25:55] question like this in such a long time.

[25:56] Yeah, it was really interesting. I I

[25:58] mean, the way we were doing it is like

[25:59] back then the your raid leader had to be

[26:01] in the raid. It was the only thing you'd

[26:02] ever thought of.

[26:03] So, we actually didn't have Ben in

[26:04] initially. Like when we started solo

[26:06] tanking, I think it was like an hour or

[26:07] two before dinner and I was doing it

[26:10] while raid leading and I'm like,

[26:12] "This is doable. This is fine.

[26:14] It's just like I could just like walk

[26:16] over to your computer,

[26:17] put on your headset, and just like raid

[26:20] lead basically from your mic." And

[26:22] that's what we did. It wasn't like

[26:23] high-tech at all. I literally he

[26:24] couldn't even hear his weak auras going

[26:26] off or anything. Like I was just or

[26:28] comms. He was He had no headset on. I

[26:31] was just raid leading from behind his

[26:33] computer basically for an hour until we

[26:35] figured out a more elegant solution than

[26:37] that.

[26:38] And so, Limit is so far ahead going into

[26:40] Queen Azshara, but we see Limit ahead a

[26:43] lot of the time cuz they're,

[26:44] you know, an NA guild. But, how far

[26:45] ahead were they going into Queen

[26:46] Azshara?

[26:48] 26 hours. Uh so, a 26-hour head start

[26:52] going into the final boss, this is

[26:54] should be race winning. Uh, under almost

[26:56] all circumstances, this should be race

[26:58] winning. Until we saw what Queen Azshara

[27:01] was all about. And Queen Azshara, she

[27:03] had an intermission phase where you

[27:04] needed to kill three of Queen Azshara's

[27:06] minions, uh, these ads

[27:08] frankly just had way too much HP. The

[27:10] phase was not completable in time, and

[27:12] for Limit they were just waiting.

[27:13] Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of

[27:16] pulls deep into the boss,

[27:17] there is no end in sight. This boss is

[27:19] actually just not killable. And whenever

[27:21] something like this happens, this is

[27:22] actually perfect for Method, who they

[27:25] have a 26-hour disadvantage, but the

[27:28] hundreds of pulls on a boss that's not

[27:30] killable for Limit, Method's able to

[27:32] completely catch back up. And both of

[27:33] them are walled at the same phase two

[27:35] intermission. So the guilds, they're

[27:37] kind of sitting there, they're in limbo,

[27:38] and then it happens. The boss is

[27:40] hotfixed.

[27:41] Arcane Vulnerability, which is the main

[27:43] damage source on the entire encounter

[27:45] gets nerfed, but the most notable nerf

[27:48] to the encounter was the intermission

[27:49] that had this impossible possible DPS

[27:50] check, it went from a 2-minute enrage to

[27:53] a 3-minute enrage. And that meant the

[27:55] DPS check was now doable from something

[27:57] that was previously impossible. And

[27:59] Method and Limit, they end up busting

[28:00] through the P2 wall that had walled

[28:02] everybody off fairly quickly. After

[28:04] these hotfixes happened, Method ended up

[28:06] playing a better composition throughout

[28:07] the entirety of progression, and they

[28:09] win the race world first again off of

[28:11] the back of many people would say pretty

[28:13] poorly timed nerfs.

[28:20] The compositional differences basically

[28:21] Method was two healing with double disc

[28:23] priest. They ended up having Maras on a

[28:24] moonkin. He was slamming off heals

[28:26] whenever that was required. And this

[28:28] meant that any other DPS check that was

[28:29] associated with the fight was completely

[28:31] irrelevant. And so coming out of the

[28:33] raid, a lot of the story lines

[28:34] surrounding this raid were about a

[28:36] couple of things. One, Method goated.

[28:39] Downing Queen Azshara in 350 pulls to

[28:41] Limit's 550 pulls is downright

[28:43] impressive. Every tier it feels like

[28:45] Method and Limit are very close, but

[28:47] somehow Method ends up pulling a rabbit

[28:49] out of the hat any point at any time

[28:51] it's necessary. And the other storyline,

[28:53] it involves Limit. Limit really kind of

[28:56] did get robbed here.

[28:58] Um they get robbed for a chance at the

[28:59] Race to World First due to an impossible

[29:01] boss and shitty hotfix timings. If these

[29:04] hotfix timings weren't preferred for

[29:06] Method, you know, we'd probably have a

[29:07] different story where it would be Limit

[29:08] killing the boss ahead and Method's, you

[29:11] know, complaining about hotfix timings

[29:13] at the same time. Limit did get screwed

[29:14] here. There's also a narrative at this

[29:16] time about Limit choking, and this is a

[29:19] hard narrative to ignore since they were

[29:21] ahead on three bosses going into the

[29:22] final boss, and then they lose. And the

[29:25] common kind of sentiment is maybe Method

[29:27] winning these Race to World First is

[29:29] something that's going to be inevitable.

[29:32] So, storyline-wise, we're going into the

[29:33] final raid of Battle for Azeroth.

[29:35] Method, they're basically looking for a

[29:37] sweep. Limit had been on the cusp of

[29:39] winning World First, but Method has just

[29:41] figured it out every single time

[29:42] whenever they needed to. In the final

[29:44] tier of the expansion, this was Method's

[29:45] to lose. Limit also at the time has been

[29:47] making some pretty big moves. They end

[29:48] up inking a deal with Complexity,

[29:49] turning them into Complexity Limit. They

[29:51] also end up committing to streaming

[29:53] pretty much every POV with almost all of

[29:55] their players in person at the GameStop

[29:57] Performance Center, home of Complexity.

[29:59] At the same time, they also end up

[30:00] picking up two outside the raid

[30:02] {quotation marks} helpers in the form of

[30:04] WeakAuras guru Relo and DBM's Mystical

[30:07] OS. And there's also a brand new system

[30:10] for this patch, corruption. Corruption

[30:12] basically made characters very, very

[30:14] overpowered. And corruption could

[30:15] actually be as high as 20% of your

[30:17] damage, and for the Race to World First

[30:18] guilds, uh Echoing Void, I remember that

[30:20] one was super broken. Corruption in

[30:22] general was just turbo OP. I remember at

[30:24] the time as well, Naggie ended up

[30:26] putting on a piece of cloth pants,

[30:29] breaking his uh armor mastery bonus in

[30:31] order to be able to wear more

[30:32] corruption. Absolutely ridiculous. But,

[30:35] how does the corruption equate to the

[30:36] Race to World First? Well, the drops on

[30:38] corruption pieces, they were RNG,

[30:40] kind of. Uh BOEs could actually at the

[30:43] time contain corruption, meaning you had

[30:46] race world first guilds shelling out

[30:48] hundreds of millions of gold in order to

[30:50] outfit their entire team with

[30:51] corruption. And this is where the gold

[30:53] arms race really begins, where there was

[30:55] basically no amount of gold that could

[30:56] be offered up to these guilds that they

[30:58] would decline if it meant that they had

[31:00] an advantage in the race world first.

[31:02] You would spend 100 million gold if you

[31:03] had to. We are gone from the days where

[31:05] swapping factions is taboo. We are

[31:09] emptying the bank.

[31:11] And so now moving on to the raid itself,

[31:13] Ny'alotha is a 12-boss instance, and

[31:15] this is one of the largest raids in

[31:16] history.

[31:17] And everybody's kind of expecting a

[31:18] multi-week affair as you do with 12-boss

[31:20] instances. In the race, it kicks off

[31:22] fairly standard. First few bosses go

[31:24] down easily.

[31:25] There's only a couple of bosses that end

[31:27] up being race world first relevant.

[31:29] First is the seventh boss of the raid,

[31:30] Ra-den. Ra-den was fairly controversial

[31:32] by the community, but not really to race

[31:34] world first guilds. Uh he basically had

[31:36] a fairly quick respawn rate, which

[31:38] allowed guilds to do some I would

[31:40] describe them as creative strategies

[31:41] with things like havoc demon hunters

[31:43] metamorphosis and destro warlocks

[31:45] grimoire of supremacy. Basically,

[31:47] players were stacking buffs over and

[31:48] over again because Ra-den ended up

[31:51] respawning every 20 seconds. Uh this

[31:53] allowed things like havoc demon hunter

[31:54] to have 20 more seconds of demon form up

[31:56] time. Warlocks ended up having 160%

[31:58] damage amp during their first infernals

[32:00] for destruction.

[32:01] Blizzard goes through and eventually

[32:02] fixes this on the reset by having Ra-den

[32:05] respawn 20 seconds later.

[32:08] But it was an integral strategy in both

[32:10] Limit and Method killing Ra-den, where

[32:11] some people called for the banning of

[32:13] the guilds for this.

[32:14] It's kind of laughable, really. Uh you

[32:16] know, these weren't really that big of

[32:17] exploits in the grand scheme of things.

[32:19] Both guilds ended up taking down Ra-den

[32:20] in around 80 pulls. And you know, this

[32:23] is a fairly tough encounter. Even with

[32:25] it being a pretty tough encounter, both

[32:26] Method and Limit roughly kill it at the

[32:28] same time during their second day of

[32:30] raiding, meaning that NA still had the

[32:32] 16-hour advantage.

[32:34] The only other pretty early race world

[32:36] first relevant boss was the eighth boss

[32:38] in Drest'agath. This is an encounter

[32:40] where you just kill ads over and over

[32:42] again. Limit ends up making it to

[32:44] Drest'agath first. They end up killing

[32:45] the boss in 15 pulls. AKA this took them

[32:48] 2 hours. Method on the other hand ended

[32:50] up taking 50 attempts. And when asked

[32:53] about this post race, Max from Limit

[32:55] basically said, "I don't know, we just

[32:56] yolo'd the boss." On a boss that Method

[32:59] literally lost 6 hours to on the

[33:01] encounter compared to Limit.

[33:03] And Limit yolo'd the boss. Impressive.

[33:06] Something else has kind of been

[33:07] happening during this race.

[33:10] The long time raid leader for Limit,

[33:11] Maximum, he has not been in the race

[33:13] almost at all. He was in on Drest'agath

[33:16] as a tank. Otherwise, he's been sitting.

[33:18] Originally, the statement from the crew

[33:20] was that now was tanking in order to

[33:22] just get gear as a tank. And tank gear

[33:24] at this point in time is much less

[33:26] relevant than DPS gear, especially with

[33:28] how personal loot worked. However, at

[33:30] some point everybody just kind of

[33:31] realized Max was going to be 21st

[33:34] manning the entire raid. And this this

[33:36] was Limit's trump card. This is a huge

[33:38] deal for the future of the race world

[33:39] first as bringing your raid leader

[33:41] outside the raid is a massive advantage.

[33:43] Most teams hadn't done this up until

[33:45] this point as it's just frankly less

[33:48] fun. At the same time, all the race

[33:49] world first teams are really pushing the

[33:50] envelope here and getting world first is

[33:53] the only thing that matters.

[33:58] And yeah, I don't know. We we did it

[33:59] there

[34:01] on Zul'jin cool and then obviously in

[34:02] Ny'alotha we went into the tier. We

[34:04] actually had tried to do it previously.

[34:06] We recruited a bunch of tanks. We tried

[34:08] to have Trill tank. We recruited two

[34:10] trial tanks all with the intention of

[34:13] let me do this outside the raid thing.

[34:15] Uh but every time the tanking situation

[34:18] just didn't work and the feedback from

[34:19] the guild was like, "This isn't going

[34:21] like we're going to be worse if we do

[34:22] this." basically cuz the tanking options

[34:24] weren't great. Uh and then we when we

[34:26] recruited now it just made sense and it

[34:28] was uh

[34:30] it was like, "Okay, we finally have

[34:31] someone where this makes sense. Let's

[34:32] send it, and then Ny'alotha obviously

[34:33] was super OP, and then everyone's doing

[34:35] it now.

[34:37] So, we're chugging along. Limited Method

[34:39] both make it to the penultimate

[34:40] encounter in Carapace of N'Zoth. Limit

[34:42] has quietly just been playing straight

[34:44] up better than Method. There's no Lady

[34:45] Ashvane hiccups or anything like that.

[34:47] And then something unexpected happens.

[34:49] Limit kills the Carapace of N'Zoth 24

[34:53] hours ahead of Method. This is the exact

[34:55] same situation that happened with Za'qul

[34:57] in the previous tier. And I said in the

[34:59] previous section, but a 24-hour head

[35:01] start going into the final boss should

[35:03] be unloseable. Again, should be

[35:06] unloseable. However, will Method be able

[35:08] to pull magic out of the hat twice?

[35:10] That's kind of the question that's

[35:11] looming on everybody's mind. Method

[35:12] seems to be able to make magic out of

[35:14] absolutely nothing time and time again.

[35:16] And Method were the undeniable favorites

[35:18] coming into this tier.

[35:20] N'Zoth, well, he's hard. He's not Queen

[35:23] Azshara pre-nerf hard, but he's really

[35:26] tough. There's also a secret phase,

[35:28] allegedly. And the core of the N'Zoth

[35:30] encounter revolves around the sanity

[35:32] mechanic, where if you get too low on

[35:34] sanity, you get mind controlled. That's

[35:36] roughly the core of the fight. There are

[35:38] adds that try to drain your sanity, and

[35:40] you have an extra action button that

[35:41] lets you replenish your sanity, but

[35:43] there's a finite amount of uses of this,

[35:45] and that's what happens, and then we get

[35:47] to the secret phase.

[35:53] How did you feel about the secret phase

[35:55] on N'Zoth? Obviously, the casters were

[35:57] kind of cooking up, you know, maybe

[35:58] Magni and Mother shoot this cannon, and

[36:00] the boss starts taking bonus damage. As

[36:03] somebody who was playing it, you guys

[36:04] get to the boss or get to the secret

[36:06] phase, the boss is 70% HP, and you come

[36:09] out of the secret phase, and it's

[36:10] I guess kind of nothing. What What were

[36:12] kind of the vibes like for you guys with

[36:13] that one?

[36:15] Well, part of it was like, is there I

[36:17] mean, I think everybody in Telepasta was

[36:19] like, is there actually more? And coming

[36:21] out of Eternal Palace with like

[36:24] I know we had such a lead there, and

[36:26] then fumbled it. It was like, "Okay,

[36:28] the boss has to have something else."

[36:29] Like, "What is the thing that's going to

[36:31] hard wall us? Are we hard walled right

[36:32] now and they're going to need to nerf

[36:33] the boss? Are we losing progress?" It's

[36:35] kind of like this weird

[36:38] like, "There's got to be more to this

[36:39] boss.

[36:40] What is going to catch us off guard

[36:42] that's going to let the other guild like

[36:43] kind of leapfrog ahead?" But, luckily,

[36:46] the boss is weird and kind of just

[36:48] incremental progress on a down. But,

[36:50] yeah, that secret phase was

[36:52] kind of meh, but

[36:54] I mean, when you win, it doesn't matter.

[36:56] You [laughter] know what I mean? Yeah.

[36:57] >> Like, it was like, "Okay, cool. Good

[36:59] boss. Good raid.

[37:00] GG." I mean, this is my first race

[37:03] casting it. So, I was really excited to

[37:04] see like what was going to happen.

[37:06] Uh I I mean, I think it was the same as

[37:08] like heroic. You went down and they were

[37:10] just like the orbs you had to soak and

[37:11] you just killed the dude and went

[37:12] upstairs and lasted and the boss died

[37:14] eventually, right? Like, it wasn't a

[37:16] whole lot to it, I don't think. Yeah.

[37:17] So, that's heroic, right?

[37:18] >> The speculation was that it was like

[37:19] supposed to be like a secret mythic

[37:20] phase and it was just

[37:22] a whole lot of nothing.

[37:24] So, the community, they think the secret

[37:26] phase is going to be epic, but it's kind

[37:27] of a nothing burger. Limit makes it

[37:28] their first, but the boss is high, like

[37:30] 75% high. And as you heard from Kalamazi

[37:33] and Cams, we didn't even think the boss

[37:35] was remotely killable or we thought that

[37:37] the boss had to have a damage amp or

[37:39] something. But, as it turns out, the

[37:41] plan was to just kind of kill the boss

[37:43] from that health threshold. First time

[37:45] the enrage was seen by Limit, how

[37:47] healthy was the boss though on the

[37:48] enrage? 40%. Uh this is going to be

[37:51] basically a massive grind. There were

[37:53] murmurs about the boss potentially

[37:54] needing HP key nerf, but if you're a

[37:56] race world first guild, you can't really

[37:57] focus on these things. You really only

[37:59] try to control what you can control.

[38:01] Unfortunately, for the casters, there

[38:03] was no secret Magni damage amp phase,

[38:05] even though we were cooking on one hard.

[38:07] And so then, Limit got to work

[38:09] chipping away at the HP on the boss.

[38:10] They hit the enrage at 35%. Then they

[38:13] hit their enrage at 25%. 15%. Then

[38:16] everybody begins to recognize that the

[38:17] boss is actually killable.

[38:19] Then Limit does the impossible. They

[38:21] have a 5% wipe. The boss, it dies at

[38:24] 2.2%. So, Limit, they've taken the boss

[38:27] from an in-rage at 40% HP where nobody

[38:29] thought the boss was killable, all the

[38:31] way down to 5%. And then they really do

[38:33] the impossible. They actually kill the

[38:35] boss, bringing home the first NA world

[38:37] first since Heart of Fear.

[38:47] >> [screaming]

[38:56] [screaming]

[39:01] [screaming]

[39:02] >> And you may notice that I've only talked

[39:03] about N'Zoth from the lens of Limit. And

[39:05] that might ask

[39:07] where's Method?

[39:09] Well, Method, they've actually had a

[39:11] horrible tier in Ny'alotha. They end up

[39:13] not killing N'Zoth until 2 days after

[39:15] Limit, which is a completely

[39:16] uncharacteristic fumble by this squad.

[39:20] And they had some pretty bad play by

[39:21] them in total. And as a guild that was

[39:23] trying to sweep the entire expansion,

[39:25] this was pretty surprising from Method.

[39:28] Uh and it was really surprising to see

[39:30] Limit look so dominant, where the tier,

[39:32] it wasn't even particularly close.

[39:34] And now we end BFA and things feel

[39:36] great. The race has started out of

[39:37] nowhere. We have two regional

[39:38] contenders, competition spheres, and the

[39:40] landscape of the Race to World First is

[39:42] growing ever more competitive. This is a

[39:45] very, very bright future for the Race to

[39:47] World First.

[39:49] Okay. So, now I got to talk about a part

[39:51] of the video that honestly, I didn't

[39:53] really want to talk about too much.

[39:56] During the period between Battle for

[39:59] Azeroth and Shadowlands, a troubling

[40:02] situation had emerged outside of the

[40:05] realm of the Race to World First. But,

[40:07] at the same time, it pretty much

[40:08] deserves acknowledgement due to how it

[40:10] changes the story.

[40:11] Uh there were serious allegations of

[40:13] sexual misconduct that were levied

[40:15] against a key figure in Method. Evidence

[40:17] of this indicated that the

[40:19] organization's leadership

[40:21] and their ownership, uh not necessarily

[40:23] the rating team itself, had been aware

[40:25] of multiple prior complaints, but they

[40:28] failed to intervene. The person in

[40:30] question had faced a Twitch ban multiple

[40:33] months prior due to similar concerns.

[40:35] This ends up highlighting a pattern that

[40:36] was not addressed by upper management

[40:39] from Method. In fact, it was actually

[40:41] shown that Method was actually trying to

[40:43] help this person instead of the victims.

[40:46] And now the members of the Method raid

[40:48] team, they felt like Method leadership

[40:50] had acted inappropriately this time, and

[40:52] they decided to break off from Method in

[40:55] order to form their own guild. That is

[40:57] how Echo is formed, and you know,

[41:00] fortunately enough, we don't really ever

[41:02] have to discuss Method again.

[41:05] With all that turmoil in the landscape

[41:07] of the Race to World First scene,

[41:08] everybody is kind of preparing for a

[41:11] Limit sweep of the Shadowlands

[41:12] expansion.

[41:13] That's kind of what's to be expected,

[41:15] right? The fragments of Method ended up

[41:17] forming Echo,

[41:18] and

[41:20] they look like they're probably going to

[41:21] be behind in Castle Nathria progression.

[41:24] Uh Method ends up trying to revive as a

[41:25] new guild, but they're nowhere near as

[41:27] good on a roster level as the previous

[41:29] Method. Maybe Pieces can kind of step up

[41:32] similar to where they were in BFA.

[41:35] BDG is an NA guild, and you know,

[41:38] they're starting to compete for the Race

[41:39] to World First. Maybe NA can have the

[41:41] top two spots. Also, at the same time,

[41:43] the COVID-19 pandemic is also in a full

[41:45] swing at this moment in time, and people

[41:47] are still in lockdown at their homes.

[41:49] This creates this weird dynamic where

[41:50] the Race to World First broadcast and

[41:51] productions are all going to be remote.

[41:53] Maybe this ends up being a new era for

[41:55] the productions themselves. Everything

[41:57] was kind of in turmoil, but one thing

[41:58] was pretty consistent. Everybody

[42:00] expected Limit to be super dominant. And

[42:03] another thing is certain here. This is

[42:04] actually the largest amount of

[42:05] contenders that we will ever have for

[42:07] the Race to World First at the same

[42:08] time.

[42:09] Everybody really was expecting a

[42:10] dominant Limit victory. Again, talking

[42:12] about the 21st manning of the raid. At

[42:15] this point moving forward, every guild's

[42:17] going to be 21st manning. They're all

[42:18] going to have outside raid leading and

[42:20] add-on help. Uh that stuff, you know,

[42:23] from one tier to the next, those were

[42:25] some of the biggest pickups and biggest

[42:26] changes on a structural level. Moving

[42:28] into the raid, the raid kicks off and we

[42:31] have more or less the same stuff

[42:32] happening. The first few bosses in

[42:34] Shriekwing, Huntsman Altimor, Hungering

[42:36] Destroyer, these first couple bosses,

[42:38] they're essentially one-shots. Uh then

[42:39] we end up at the decision point of Lady

[42:41] Inerva Darkvein, Artificer's Imax, and

[42:44] Sun King's Salvation.

[42:45] You know, most of guilds end up going to

[42:46] Sun King's Salvation. At the same time,

[42:48] these are not especially hard bosses.

[42:52] So, all these bosses, they end up dying

[42:54] day one sub 45 cumulative pulls. This is

[42:58] all very typical for the Race to World

[42:59] First. Kill as many bosses as you can on

[43:01] day one of Mythic. So, Limit that kills

[43:03] Imax, like I said earlier, but it was

[43:05] pretty late in the day. They decide to

[43:07] pull a boss, Council of Blood, a couple

[43:09] times off stream to see timings and

[43:11] mechanics and to test a couple of

[43:13] different kill orders of bosses.

[43:15] But, the boss

[43:17] died after 13 attempts

[43:20] off stream. Now, the kill of this fight

[43:22] is locally recorded. But, this is

[43:24] definitely the first time where we ever

[43:26] experience a Race to World First guild,

[43:28] quote unquote, going dark. Uh this

[43:30] unfortunately would not be the last

[43:32] where going dark is essentially where a

[43:34] team decides that is the most

[43:36] definitely in a massive advantage

[43:39] to pull a boss off stream. Where

[43:42] otherwise you would be getting a massive

[43:43] disadvantage if you were to pull it on

[43:45] stream. This tends to be reserved for

[43:48] end bosses or, you you know, you reach a

[43:51] boss at the very end of your raid day,

[43:53] you pull it two times, you turn your

[43:54] stream off, and you go to bed. On top of

[43:56] that as well, it could potentially be to

[43:58] not give up any strategies, weak auras,

[44:00] add-ons, or similar things. And it's

[44:02] something that ends up becoming

[44:03] increasingly common as of late as we'll

[44:05] see being discussed in future tiers, as

[44:07] well.

[44:08] But, the reason it was notable here was

[44:10] first off, this was basically the first

[44:11] time this ends up ever happening, and

[44:13] the viewers were not happy. Uh some

[44:16] would even claim that it was a fake race

[44:17] world first due to this. This ends up

[44:19] being pretty funny considering where we

[44:21] are now, but uh you know, I remember

[44:23] viewers at the time as well calling for

[44:24] sponsors to drop the organization and

[44:27] whatnot. But, viewers and being

[44:28] clueless, name a more iconic duo. But,

[44:30] yeah, Limit kind of weirdly killed

[44:32] Council of Blood off stream, which is

[44:33] which is really, really strange. And the

[44:35] European contenders, they actually end

[44:36] up starting their raid day, and it's

[44:37] pretty apparent that Echo, this is a

[44:39] very real team. Method and Pieces look

[44:42] pretty much like they'll be battling

[44:43] with BDG for third through fifth. We're

[44:45] back to a situation where it's a

[44:46] two-horse race.

[44:47] And we get to the meat of the race,

[44:49] Sludgefist, Stone Legion Generals, and

[44:51] Sire Denathrius. All three very brutal

[44:53] encounters. Sludgefist, this is widely

[44:55] regarded as the best patchwork fight of

[44:57] all time with incredible damage amps,

[44:59] insane healing checks, and just an

[45:01] absolute tightest DPS check of a modern

[45:03] race world first boss. Race world first

[45:05] kills, they end up killing this boss 10

[45:07] seconds post enrage, and the boss like

[45:09] crashing into the wall, all the rubble

[45:11] is crumbling down. Uh Limit ends up

[45:13] killing it first around 15 hours ahead

[45:15] of Echo. However, what happens next ends

[45:17] up halting progression.

[45:24] Tell me about your favorite boss of all

[45:26] time, Stone Legion Generals, and what

[45:27] made that boss just so epic for the race

[45:30] world first?

[45:32] For the race world first? Okay, in the

[45:33] race world first,

[45:35] Stone Legion Generals?

[45:38] Uh it was really cool because there were

[45:41] so much exciting different things that

[45:43] could happen. Like, the boss's abilities

[45:46] could cast in a a different order, and

[45:48] that would really change how you had to

[45:50] play the fight. That was actually kind

[45:52] of cool for the race world first because

[45:54] it required a degree of adaptation. But,

[45:57] it also some combinations were a lot

[45:58] harder than others. There were also a

[46:00] lot of exciting I don't want to call

[46:02] them bugs, but uh little mini features

[46:04] that that fight had. Uh for instance,

[46:07] you had this part of the fight where

[46:09] General Draven was fighting these

[46:11] enemies up in the air, and he would hit

[46:15] them down to like 30% and then they

[46:16] would drop down and you would try and

[46:18] kill them and you try and kill them all

[46:19] around the same time, but he could miss

[46:23] them and they would just stay up in the

[46:25] air for way longer. And he could also

[46:28] crit them and they would drop with like

[46:30] way less health. So, that was really

[46:32] fun.

[46:33] Uh the intermission also, you would have

[46:36] a void walker tank some of the tank hits

[46:41] that General Call would do when she was

[46:42] down because it was too brutal for your

[46:45] tank to actually live that. So, you

[46:47] would have but you'd have to be far

[46:48] enough away that the void walker was the

[46:50] only target because she would target

[46:52] like any player within 30 yards over the

[46:55] void walker in melee. So, you would

[46:57] bring the boss all the way over to

[46:58] Narnia and then you would like double

[47:00] leap away and the void walker would

[47:02] still be there. And you're warlock, so

[47:04] your warlock would get to do this really

[47:05] fun gameplay where they would be

[47:06] re-summoning their void walker and then

[47:09] they would be doing a curse rotation as

[47:10] well. So, of every 60 seconds, like 10

[47:13] of their globals would be summoning pets

[47:15] and casting curses, which they really

[47:17] enjoyed.

[47:19] Um

[47:20] yeah, and then also you would have your

[47:22] priest. You'd use all your your resses.

[47:24] I guess you'd also use ankh totem on

[47:26] your priest. Mass dispelling and just

[47:29] getting themselves killed was this

[47:31] debuff that was like a it was a

[47:33] moderately dangerous dot for 30 seconds.

[47:36] And then when you dispelled it, both the

[47:37] person who got dispelled and the person

[47:39] doing the dispelling got a nasty dot for

[47:41] 6 seconds, but you could just MD it and

[47:43] then just the priest would die and you'd

[47:45] basically delete all of the extra dots

[47:48] and

[47:49] then you'd have them angel form and take

[47:50] the angel form res thing or the

[47:53] ankh totem. So, that was pretty fun as

[47:55] well. And you'd also just get to go

[47:56] healing immune every time you put the

[47:59] any of the gargoyles below 30% health.

[48:01] And the best part was phase one was like

[48:04] one general plus gargoyles. Yeah. Phase

[48:06] two was the other general plus

[48:08] gargoyles. And then phase three was just

[48:10] both generals, but that was way easier

[48:12] than either phase one or phase two

[48:14] because gargoyles were more difficult to

[48:16] deal with than either of the actual

[48:17] bosses. So once you got to phase three,

[48:20] you got there a couple of times and the

[48:21] bosses died which was really fun and

[48:23] satisfying to kill. Worst fight of all

[48:25] time?

[48:27] Yeah. Yeah, not not close.

[48:30] But both guilds they end up being stuck

[48:31] on Stone Legion Generals for multiple

[48:33] days, whole wiping bugs, DPS checks,

[48:35] spell queuing, and just needing to work

[48:36] through every possible overlap. That

[48:38] proved to be a very difficult challenge.

[48:41] As historically, this is where Method

[48:43] won many of their race to world firsts.

[48:45] Whenever the going got tough and

[48:47] progression started to halt for the NA

[48:49] contenders.

[48:51] On a boss that feels impossible to kill,

[48:53] this is where that 16-hour advantage

[48:54] completely gets erased and you can just

[48:56] begin to out strat the other team.

[48:59] And kind of an insane comp stack was

[49:01] required for this boss where you ended

[49:03] up having like three to four Night Fae

[49:04] hunters in order to be able to kill the

[49:06] ads during the intermission. And this is

[49:08] widely regarded as one of the worst

[49:10] bosses of all time due to difficulty

[49:11] bugs and comp stacking that was

[49:13] required.

[49:14] And both Echo and Limit end up killing

[49:17] this boss a day before their reset. So

[49:20] Limit ends up killing it on Monday, Echo

[49:21] ends up killing it on Tuesday.

[49:24] Oh. They go even and we have to get one

[49:26] more eruption soak. One more eruption

[49:27] >> go. Let's go.

[49:28] COME ON.

[49:30] COME ON.

[49:31] YEAH. [screaming]

[49:33] LIMIT ENDS UP PULLING SIRE DENATHRIUS

[49:34] FOR A FEW HOURS ON stream and goes to do

[49:36] some chores and pieces out until the

[49:38] Tuesday reset.

[49:39] Echo ends up killing Stone Legion

[49:40] Generals a bit earlier in their raid

[49:42] day.

[49:44] Um so a bit faster than it took Limit,

[49:45] but it still wasn't enough to be fully

[49:47] catched up on that 16-hour disadvantage.

[49:49] They had end up cutting their 15-hour

[49:51] Sludgefist split down to 9 hours, but

[49:54] we're onto the final boss. This is where

[49:56] you can actually end up making up the

[49:57] most time. I also forgot to mention this

[49:58] at the time,

[49:59] but this is like the 21st of December.

[50:01] People are less than thrilled about the

[50:03] idea of the Race to World First

[50:04] overlapping with Christmas.

[50:06] However, this is the most important week

[50:08] of the year for a lot of these

[50:09] competitors. Christmas, it can wait.

[50:16] What was it like, the decision to go

[50:18] dark on Sire Denathrius? You know, not

[50:21] many guilds had ever raided off stream

[50:23] before. Obviously,

[50:26] uh Limit at the time ended up killing

[50:28] Council of Blood off stream, which was a

[50:30] little bit controversial. But then you

[50:31] guys pushed the envelope and decided to

[50:33] not stream the first beginning

[50:34] progression of Sire Denathrius. What was

[50:36] that decision like? I don't remember

[50:37] 100% if what I'm about to say is

[50:40] accurate. It was already like a little

[50:42] bit later in the day uh when we killed

[50:45] Stone Legion. The idea was that, hey,

[50:48] you know, because we're going to

[50:50] go to bed, we don't want to give too

[50:52] much information out.

[50:55] Um

[50:56] so

[50:57] especially because phase one generally

[51:00] was pretty easy to get through, right?

[51:02] Like one way or another, you could make

[51:03] it to phase two. Try to get some info

[51:06] cook overnight for phase two, but try

[51:09] not to give that out. It was a little

[51:11] bit uncharted territory, I must say as

[51:13] well. It's been so long, so I don't

[51:15] remember the exact thought process, but

[51:17] it was more like maybe it was a reaction

[51:20] to the Council of Blood situation. Uh I

[51:24] would say that's when we started

[51:26] thinking a lot about, you know, like we

[51:28] have like a real competitor because

[51:31] in Ny'alotha, we got a little bit

[51:33] stomped back when, you know, Method was

[51:36] a thing, right? Um Mhm. But uh yeah,

[51:39] coming out of a loss also

[51:42] recently forming Echo, it was a lot of

[51:45] stuff going on in our mind, so

[51:47] I don't know, It was It was not like

[51:49] super like it was not super planned, I

[51:51] would say. It was more like, "Oh, great.

[51:54] We got Stone Legion General."

[51:56] Then we go to Sire Denathrius and we

[51:58] were like,

[51:59] "Okay, we don't want to give too much to

[52:02] you know, give away too much of our

[52:04] advantage here." Yeah, that was it. Now,

[52:06] having said that, okay. [laughter]

[52:09] We failed at doing this. I don't know if

[52:12] you remember because we said, "Okay,

[52:14] guys, we'll just play phase one and I if

[52:17] we manage to reach phase two, like as

[52:19] we're falling down, just turn off the

[52:21] stream, like turn it to black or

[52:22] something, right?" And we thought

[52:24] actually it's going to be a little bit

[52:25] funny as well, right? Like for the

[52:26] audience, like little did we know

[52:29] people would be up in arms about it. But

[52:32] >> Yeah.

[52:33] Yeah, but but one of our the players

[52:37] did not manage this. So, we actually

[52:39] ended up streaming phase two.

[52:42] It really is a pretty significant

[52:44] competitive disadvantage to show some

[52:46] stuff on stream, especially that

[52:48] relating towards the end boss.

[52:50] At the same time, fans are also rightly

[52:52] upset. This is just the natural order of

[52:54] how the Race to World First works. Good

[52:56] news, Denathrius doesn't die off stream.

[52:59] Reset happens, both guilds re-clear, no

[53:01] G'huun incidents. However, when Limit

[53:03] Echo make it back to Denathrius,

[53:05] something interesting happens.

[53:07] Echo turns back on competition mode on

[53:09] Warcraft Logs, and they had previously

[53:10] had a 25.9% wipe prior to the reset.

[53:14] Earlier I had stated that Limit's best

[53:15] pull was around 50%. So, that going dark

[53:18] sentiment, it was actually heavily

[53:20] rewarded. Immediately rewarded. On top

[53:22] of all of this as well, there's also a

[53:23] secret Mythic phase that pretty much

[53:26] everyone had known about. Echo's P2

[53:28] Denathrius strategy ends up being a bit

[53:30] better than where Limit's are. Every

[53:33] other guild in the world ends up copying

[53:34] the Echo P2 strategy, and this is set up

[53:37] in a way where Echo should win in Race

[53:40] to World First. As a brand new

[53:42] organization coming on the race to world

[53:43] first scene, winning would be

[53:44] unbelievable. So, I say

[53:47] should win.

[53:49] Unfortunately, though, Echo actually

[53:51] ends up having an insanely bad time on

[53:53] their Mythic re-clear, while Limit was,

[53:56] I would say, fairly effortless. This

[53:58] includes a one-shot of Stone Legion

[53:59] Generals by Limit.

[54:01] Um this is a huge deal as the additional

[54:03] reset worth of gear for both sides is

[54:05] going to be make or break on an end boss

[54:07] like Sire Denathrius that we see Echo

[54:10] already has it at sub 50%. And so, the

[54:12] time that it ends up taking these guilds

[54:14] to re-clear, this ends up being around 2

[54:16] and 1/2 hours for Limit and over six for

[54:19] Echo. Not a great feeling. And now,

[54:21] Echo, they were still doing heroic

[54:23] splits, and Limit is pulling Sire

[54:26] Denathrius with that 16-hour head start

[54:28] with the a few additional hours that

[54:29] they gained from being able to do their

[54:31] re-clear faster. They've already

[54:32] finished all of their chores, and Echo

[54:35] believes that they want a little bit

[54:36] more gear for the end of Denathrius.

[54:38] However, Limit catapults themselves into

[54:41] the lead and makes it into P3 on

[54:43] Denathrius, basically just busting down

[54:45] that wall, and

[54:47] they forced Echo, I guess is the best

[54:49] way of describing it, to call splits

[54:51] quits early prior to where they wanted

[54:53] to,

[54:54] and then immediately start pulling

[54:56] Denathrius. This put us in a great

[54:58] situation where both Limit and Echo are

[55:01] simultaneously pulling a sub 30% end

[55:03] boss and progging the final phase

[55:05] together.

[55:07] And even though Echo was really far

[55:09] ahead coming out of the reset, the

[55:10] superior play from Limit on the end

[55:12] points of Denathrius, this proved to be

[55:14] instrumental, ends up allowing them to

[55:16] take down Denathrius world first, giving

[55:18] in a a back-to-back champion, and

[55:20] Christmas

[55:21] Christmas was saved.

[55:30] >> [screaming]

[55:33] >> Narratively, Echo looked really good.

[55:36] Even though everybody kind of expected

[55:38] Limit to sweep, Echo actually proved

[55:40] that they didn't need Method. Method

[55:42] needed them. And with a few

[55:44] improvements,

[55:45] everybody kind of expected that we could

[55:47] see Echo winning Race to World First

[55:48] again soon.

[55:50] At the same time, you know, Limit does

[55:52] feel like they're a little bit ahead. If

[55:53] they continue to put their foot on the

[55:54] gas, it's going to be tough for Echo to

[55:56] be able to come back from this.

[55:58] In the wake of Limit's victory over

[56:00] Echo, and Echo honestly having a pretty

[56:01] positive showing in Castle Nathria, the

[56:03] next raid that we have in front of us is

[56:05] the Sanctum of Domination. With this as

[56:07] well, we also have the COVID-19

[56:09] pandemic. It's still raging at this

[56:10] point. And with most of the world

[56:12] sitting inside, the number of eyes on

[56:13] the Race to World First has never been

[56:15] higher. However, unlike Castle Nathria,

[56:17] this raid is not viewed as favorably as

[56:20] Nathria was. Uh this was due to a couple

[56:22] reasons, but probably the most relevant

[56:24] one towards the Race to World First is

[56:25] the Shards of Domination system, where

[56:28] this was supposed to work like tier

[56:29] sets,

[56:30] and they were RNG drops from the raid.

[56:32] The shards themselves, they were gems

[56:34] that you put on gear that you obtained

[56:36] from the raid. But the shards had only a

[56:38] chance to drop once per boss, regardless

[56:40] of difficulty, or from the world boss

[56:42] outside the raid. And the gear that you

[56:44] would end up putting it on, obviously,

[56:46] there was only specific slots that you

[56:47] could put these Shards of Domination in.

[56:49] And for the Race to World First, this is

[56:51] an even bigger emphasis on doing normal

[56:53] and heroic splits. And the difference in

[56:55] splits, it was pretty massive, where

[56:57] between the two main contenders, and

[56:59] Limit and Echo, Echo ends up doing a lot

[57:01] more splits, and they have a one item

[57:03] level advantage throughout the entirety

[57:05] of the Sanctum of Domination Race to

[57:07] World First. So, that is some context

[57:10] just from the Race to World First

[57:11] perspective. You know, this tier wasn't

[57:12] viewed super fondly for other reasons,

[57:13] but that's probably the most Race to

[57:15] World First relevant thing that you need

[57:16] to know.

[57:17] Raid opens. Limit and BDGG start their

[57:19] days doing chores like Korthia farming,

[57:22] Torghast, splits. You you kind of get

[57:24] the the gist of like what's going to be

[57:25] going on. You got to do a bunch of

[57:27] chores. Uh first guild inside the raid

[57:28] is Imperative. They had partnered with

[57:30] esports.org Sonics before this race.

[57:32] Also hoping to join in on competing for

[57:34] the race to world first. We're probably

[57:36] never going to mention them again, but

[57:37] you know, they ended up securing world

[57:38] first on three bosses and then before

[57:40] Limit wakes up, gets world second on the

[57:42] nine overtaking Imperative. Then they

[57:44] get the world first on Remnant of

[57:45] Ner'zhul, the fourth boss in the raid.

[57:47] BDGG was looking pretty promising on the

[57:49] first day taking down the first three

[57:51] bosses at quick pace and even spending

[57:53] less pulls on the second boss Eye of the

[57:54] Jailer than Limit did. However, after

[57:57] killing the third boss, BDGG decided to

[57:59] go to Soul Render instead of towards

[58:01] Remnant of Ner'zhul. And for BDGG, you

[58:03] know, this was pretty costly. Limit goes

[58:05] for Remnant of Ner'zhul, they kill it in

[58:07] a couple hours like I said before moving

[58:08] on to Soul Render. But Soul Render, that

[58:10] was a pretty massive step up in

[58:11] difficulty. BDGG eventually has to

[58:13] backtrack, goes and kills Remnant of

[58:15] Ner'zhul, then comes back to Soul Render

[58:18] Dormazain and you know, everybody's kind

[58:20] of locked on that boss.

[58:22] Limit takes some time and after some

[58:23] 20-odd pulls, Soul Render was getting as

[58:25] low as 20%. They actually decide to

[58:27] pause their mythic progress figuring

[58:30] that this boss could not be killed

[58:31] without snagging some gear upgrades and

[58:33] instead they go and opt to heroic and

[58:35] normal splits. Yes, I said normal

[58:38] splits. Again, like like we were talking

[58:40] about earlier with Shards of Domination,

[58:41] splits were very important in this tier

[58:43] in order to be able to get the unique

[58:44] armor pieces and your Domination's

[58:46] Shards and those Domination Shard slots.

[58:49] And with a few hours of splits, Blizzard

[58:50] decides that Soul Render Dormazain may

[58:52] be a little bit too hard. Uh they end up

[58:54] nerfing it down a little bit and greatly

[58:56] reducing the damage it dealt on mythic

[58:58] difficulty. And after hearing this,

[59:00] Limit walks back into raid, downs Soul

[59:02] Render Dormazain in three pulls, they

[59:04] get the world first on that and then

[59:05] they're on to the fifth boss of the

[59:06] raid. Limit immediately turn off their

[59:08] streams for after Soul Render and it's

[59:10] the end of their raid day. They don't

[59:11] want to reveal any strategies for what's

[59:13] inevitably going to be the first

[59:15] roadblock of the raid, Pain Smith

[59:17] Raznal. Echo on the other hand, after EU

[59:19] reset happens, they wake up, they do a

[59:21] little bit of chores, they step foot in

[59:22] the raid as early as possible. It still

[59:25] does take them a solid eight hours to

[59:26] catch up to limit at the five out of 10

[59:28] bosses mark due to the chores that you

[59:30] have to do with things like Torghast and

[59:32] splits and whatever else that you have

[59:33] to do to be able to participate in the

[59:35] race world first. The other

[59:36] participating European guilds in Method

[59:38] and Pieces, they only end up making it

[59:39] to four out of 10 on their first day

[59:41] while American guilds BDGG and Instant

[59:43] Dollars joined in at the five out of 10

[59:45] mark with only an hour left in the day.

[59:47] So, we're actually seeing competition

[59:49] that is relatively close more so than

[59:51] ever before realistically, but at the

[59:53] same time it still feels like there's a

[59:54] two-horse race only between both Limit

[59:57] and Echo. And after catching up to Limit

[59:59] and reaching the sixth boss, the first

[1:00:01] real wall of the race presented itself

[1:00:03] in

[1:00:05] Uh basically, this is an all-time very

[1:00:07] cool boss fight. If you talk to a bunch

[1:00:08] of people from this era, they might cite

[1:00:10] this as one of their favorite bosses of

[1:00:11] all time. Everyone is standing on a

[1:00:13] platform suspended in the air over a

[1:00:15] pool of lava. It's held up by four

[1:00:17] chains, one in each corner. The boss had

[1:00:20] seen some tuning changes during the day

[1:00:22] before guilds even made it there, but

[1:00:23] none of those hotfixes end up really

[1:00:25] affecting the race. So, what's the deal

[1:00:27] with this boss? Why is it an all-time

[1:00:28] wall? Well, as the second day comes to a

[1:00:31] close, the current standings see Echo

[1:00:32] with a slight lead with less pulls as

[1:00:34] they go to sleep on Pain Smith reaching

[1:00:36] 38.5% on that boss after only 48 pulls.

[1:00:40] Now, the important part about Pain Smith

[1:00:41] is at the 40% mark since that is around

[1:00:43] the time that you were making it to the

[1:00:44] second intermission. During the

[1:00:45] intermission, several spike balls come

[1:00:47] hurtling towards you where you have to

[1:00:49] find gaps in between them while trying

[1:00:51] to dodge fire on the ground. In some of

[1:00:53] these sets, the spike balls don't even

[1:00:55] have a gap to go through. So, players

[1:00:57] need to find increasingly clever

[1:00:58] solutions to be able to clear this gap.

[1:01:00] Things like Venthyr Door of Shadows,

[1:01:02] Night Fae Soulshape, you know, Demon

[1:01:03] Hunters could glide and backflip, Goblin

[1:01:06] Rocket Jump. I remember most of Limit's

[1:01:07] guild at this time as well. They ended

[1:01:09] up changing Goblin for this boss to be

[1:01:10] able to jump off the platform and then

[1:01:12] rocket jump back onto it. Just an

[1:01:15] absolutely terrible strategy if you were

[1:01:17] a poor Disc Priest on this fight. And

[1:01:19] the very last set of spike balls, the

[1:01:21] entire raid takes a Demonic Gateway to

[1:01:23] be able to clear it to drop a cluster of

[1:01:24] adds that need to be killed within 12

[1:01:26] seconds, else it is a wipe. All this is

[1:01:28] just to say it's a bunch of mumbo jumbo

[1:01:30] to say the fight's really hard. And

[1:01:31] realistically as well, Painmsith, it is

[1:01:33] a boss that is phased based on

[1:01:35] percentages and the need for immediate

[1:01:38] damage in each intermission. This

[1:01:39] naturally leads players towards wanting

[1:01:41] to stop DPS on the boss during the end

[1:01:43] of each phase in order for him to be

[1:01:45] able to phase at the correct timer based

[1:01:47] on both healing and offensive cooldowns.

[1:01:50] For offensive CDs, this was usually

[1:01:51] dictated around the balance druid

[1:01:52] cooldowns as what those were some of the

[1:01:53] best in the game. However, there's also

[1:01:55] a difference between guilds here where

[1:01:57] Echo, they end up having their moonkins

[1:01:59] playing the night fae covenant where

[1:02:01] Limit end up going for the venthyr

[1:02:02] covenant, meaning that the moonkin CDs

[1:02:05] for Echo, you know, they can do whatever

[1:02:06] they want. And balance druid, well, it

[1:02:08] was definitely the stack in this raid

[1:02:10] where Echo ended up playing four of them

[1:02:11] and Limit ended up playing three of

[1:02:13] them. It was just OP.

[1:02:14] And so to recap, at the end of the

[1:02:15] second day, both the highest guilds were

[1:02:17] pretty deep into progression on

[1:02:18] Painmsith where Limit, they end up

[1:02:19] ending their day around the 20% marker.

[1:02:21] So the third day, that starts for Echo

[1:02:23] and they have the knowledge from Limit's

[1:02:25] struggles on Painmsith the day before

[1:02:26] and everyone is thinking that Echo are

[1:02:28] going to jump into heroic splits to eke

[1:02:30] out some more power to help them kill

[1:02:31] the boss. However, this immediately did

[1:02:33] not happen. Echo just opts to do a few

[1:02:35] normal splits instead for some socketed

[1:02:38] gear before going straight back into

[1:02:40] mythic.

[1:02:41] Now this turns out to be a really good

[1:02:42] decision as they would end up taking

[1:02:43] some pretty advantageous turns during

[1:02:45] their day.

[1:02:46] And even though it ends up taking almost

[1:02:48] their entire day, Echo eventually kills

[1:02:51] Painmsith securing their first world

[1:02:53] first for the race and moving into the

[1:02:54] lead.

[1:02:58] And fresh off a kill on Painmsith, Echo

[1:03:00] decides to go to Guardian of the First

[1:03:01] Ones. Now this boss could was expected

[1:03:04] to be an all-time banger like

[1:03:05] Sludgefist. Especially after seeing

[1:03:07] Painmsith Raznal, I remember the

[1:03:08] casters, we thought this was going to be

[1:03:10] Sludgefist 2. It's in a later part of

[1:03:12] the raid, it's a single target boss with

[1:03:14] a relatively simple mechanics check. You

[1:03:17] know, if this fight has some tight

[1:03:18] tuning, it could end up to be another

[1:03:20] wall.

[1:03:21] Unfortunately, well, that didn't happen.

[1:03:23] Guardian of the First Ones is more like

[1:03:24] a loot piñata than a real boss.

[1:03:27] In 24 pulls and over 2 and 1/2 hours,

[1:03:29] that's all it took for Echo to be able

[1:03:30] to down this fight.

[1:03:32] And Echo, they're starting to take a

[1:03:33] pretty commanding lead. Meanwhile, over

[1:03:34] on NA, Limit, they start their day by

[1:03:36] diving into heroic splits, and they

[1:03:38] don't finish their splits until after

[1:03:40] Echo had gone to bed. Once Limit has

[1:03:42] finished their splits, they walk in to

[1:03:44] Painsmith with a considerable two and a

[1:03:46] half item level lead over Echo. And with

[1:03:48] this two and a half item level lead, it

[1:03:50] was time for them to make some pretty

[1:03:51] real strides in the race. At least that

[1:03:53] was the plan. But in reality, it took

[1:03:55] Limit 6 hours and 40 additional pulls to

[1:03:58] finally kill Painsmith Raznal with that

[1:04:00] two and a half item level advantage.

[1:04:02] Something that's probably not supposed

[1:04:03] to happen.

[1:04:04] Now, at least after the horror of

[1:04:05] Painsmith, Limit could go to Guardian of

[1:04:08] the First Ones, which dies in around 17

[1:04:10] pulls in less than 2 hours, and that

[1:04:12] kind of ends their third raid day. Both

[1:04:14] guilds are seven out of 10 on the

[1:04:15] leaderboards. Echo has made some really

[1:04:17] big strides, bigger so than Limit, but

[1:04:19] Limit has pulled the eighth boss a few

[1:04:21] times with Fate Scribe Roh-Kalo being

[1:04:23] pulled off stream prior to going to bed.

[1:04:26] Day four, fairly underwhelming. Limit,

[1:04:28] you know, they're sporting a

[1:04:29] considerable item level lead over Echo.

[1:04:32] Echo wakes up, and they head immediately

[1:04:34] into heroic splits, which they've been

[1:04:35] putting off since the week started.

[1:04:37] And they continue with their heroic

[1:04:38] splits for the entire day. Limit,

[1:04:40] however, they don't really have any more

[1:04:41] heroic splits. They put their gear into

[1:04:42] drive, and they keep going. Fate Scribe,

[1:04:45] this is a fight that actually not as

[1:04:47] challenging as you would expect. And

[1:04:49] Limit gets him down to around 20% a few

[1:04:51] hours into their day.

[1:04:53] And Fate Scribe, it's not really a hard

[1:04:54] wall. Limit ends up getting him down in

[1:04:56] a pull count of 53 attempts after just a

[1:04:58] couple of hours because pull count

[1:05:00] doesn't always reflect exactly how hard

[1:05:01] a fight is. Fate Scribe was was

[1:05:03] relatively easy.

[1:05:05] And Echo, they're still doing heroic

[1:05:06] splits. So, the fourth day of the race

[1:05:07] was fairly uneventful, but it's

[1:05:08] seemingly now all about Limit as they

[1:05:10] approach the final two bosses of the

[1:05:12] raid. This is the part of the race where

[1:05:13] the viewers are at the edge of their

[1:05:14] seats waiting for any singular point of

[1:05:17] progression to be able to happen.

[1:05:18] So, you know, we got the penultimate, we

[1:05:20] got the final boss. The penultimate boss

[1:05:21] in this raid is Kel'Thuzad, the very

[1:05:23] same Lich Lord that players defeated all

[1:05:26] those years prior in Naxxramas. I don't

[1:05:27] really know how How many times are we

[1:05:28] going to kill this guy? Like, do we

[1:05:30] really have to kill this guy again?

[1:05:31] Well, in this fight, we actually have to

[1:05:32] kill him some more times, four to be

[1:05:34] exact. Yes, the answer is four. We are

[1:05:36] killing him four more times. And you

[1:05:38] have to repeat the same phase of killing

[1:05:39] him over and over and over again and

[1:05:41] sending players downstairs to kill his

[1:05:43] remnant. And after securing a Fate

[1:05:45] Scribe kill and getting into the lead,

[1:05:47] Limit had felt good about the time that

[1:05:49] they had left on their day, and they

[1:05:50] actually started making pretty steady

[1:05:51] progress onto KT, reaching about 44% on

[1:05:54] the boss over 64 pulls during their day.

[1:05:56] The fight does have some pretty annoying

[1:05:58] adds with some enrages, and there's also

[1:06:00] some nasty overlaps of copies and the

[1:06:02] tanks spawning around the room that has

[1:06:04] to be interrupted fairly quickly,

[1:06:05] otherwise it can, you know, you can

[1:06:06] start to cause a problem. But, you know,

[1:06:09] the phase is pretty much rinse and

[1:06:11] repeat, which race world first guilds

[1:06:12] tend to be pretty good at dealing with.

[1:06:15] So, queue day five.

[1:06:16] The race is getting exciting now. Echo

[1:06:18] swiftly kills off Fate Scribe Roh-Kalo

[1:06:20] at the beginning of their day, and

[1:06:21] they're heading onto KT.

[1:06:23] And judging by the day before, it seemed

[1:06:24] like we were going to see a lot of KT

[1:06:25] progression in the coming time. However,

[1:06:27] Echo, they had different plans. They

[1:06:30] cooked up a strategy overnight using a

[1:06:32] cheat death trinket that dropped from

[1:06:34] Fate Scribe itself, and this fight had a

[1:06:37] I would describe it as UDK interaction

[1:06:39] where the copies of the tank add

[1:06:41] whenever they would spawn. And this is

[1:06:42] the messiest part of the fight. If the

[1:06:43] tank dies, the adds will also disappear.

[1:06:47] And since they were now all wearing

[1:06:49] cheat death trinkets, this meant that

[1:06:50] you could essentially skip the mechanic.

[1:06:52] And so, you would put the cheat death

[1:06:53] trinket on things like your havoc Demon

[1:06:55] Hunter, your Death Knights, your tanks,

[1:06:57] just anybody, and they would taunt the

[1:06:58] boss and kind of cheese these tank adds.

[1:07:02] According to players, this bug was also

[1:07:03] reported during PTR testing, but it

[1:07:05] never ended up getting fixed. Now, this

[1:07:06] is a little bit unfortunate for viewers

[1:07:08] of the race, but it was really huge for

[1:07:09] Echo as this allowed them to spring into

[1:07:12] the lead and killing Kel'thuzad the

[1:07:14] penultimate fight in a measly 22 pulls.

[1:07:17] Echo, they're also completely done with

[1:07:18] their splits at this time and they have

[1:07:20] amassed a considerable lead over Limit

[1:07:21] and Aversion level all things considered

[1:07:23] that they have a one item level lead

[1:07:24] like we cited earlier.

[1:07:26] And Limit, well, they end up adopting

[1:07:27] the Echo strat for this boss shortly

[1:07:29] after Echo killed it and a little over

[1:07:32] an hour after Echo ends up killing it,

[1:07:34] Limit Limit ends up downing the boss as

[1:07:35] well.

[1:07:36] And realistically judging by the pull

[1:07:38] counts so far in this raid between the

[1:07:40] two guilds and their average item level,

[1:07:41] it's pretty clear at this point that

[1:07:42] Echo is the favorite to win this race.

[1:07:46] But, we have a final boss ahead of us

[1:07:48] and I mean we've seen some stuff so far

[1:07:50] during the history of the Race to World

[1:07:51] First and here comes the fun part, the

[1:07:53] final boss, Sylvanas Windrunner.

[1:07:56] And both guilds they reach it about at

[1:07:57] the same time and they start pulling

[1:07:59] almost immediately and it doesn't really

[1:08:00] take very long for the guilds to reach

[1:08:02] phase two of Sylvanas Windrunner where

[1:08:05] you end up walking up this gauntlet to

[1:08:07] Oribos where Sylvanas' final stand

[1:08:09] really takes place. Now, on this fight

[1:08:12] there have actually been mutterings in

[1:08:13] the community about a secret mythic

[1:08:15] phase for a while. Um the Sylvanas fight

[1:08:18] on other difficulties usually ended at

[1:08:20] 50% HP. Granted, the rumors of a secret

[1:08:23] mythic phase, they kind of happen every

[1:08:25] single tier, but there was weird data

[1:08:28] mining around this time as well where

[1:08:30] Sylvanas wouldn't trigger or she would

[1:08:33] trigger something at 45% HP. So, players

[1:08:36] were kind of wondering like what was

[1:08:37] this 45% trigger that was actually

[1:08:39] happening.

[1:08:40] But, the guilds they actually kind of

[1:08:41] expected that this was going to be the

[1:08:43] actual kill percent for the fight as

[1:08:44] opposed to something like a completely

[1:08:45] secret mythic phase.

[1:08:47] And the guilds they can't really focus

[1:08:48] on this at the same time. All they can

[1:08:50] really do is control what you can

[1:08:51] control and they just need to continue

[1:08:53] to reach the end point of this fight and

[1:08:55] that's the most important thing on these

[1:08:56] guilds' minds. So, day five it

[1:08:58] concludes. KT's gone down for both

[1:08:59] guilds and uh both of the guilds are

[1:09:02] reaching pretty deep into Sylvanas.

[1:09:03] We've actually seen Limit reach into the

[1:09:05] final phase, phase three, finishing at

[1:09:07] 70% while Echo, unfortunately, they had

[1:09:09] not seen the final phase yet, but the

[1:09:12] moment that they woke up, this wouldn't

[1:09:13] actually last very long as, you know,

[1:09:15] day six starts and Echo immediately

[1:09:16] starts gaming, reaching a 65% marker

[1:09:19] before Limit is even awake. And this is

[1:09:21] easily the best part of the race for

[1:09:23] viewers as Limit and Echo are

[1:09:24] simultaneously pulling the end boss at

[1:09:26] the exact same time, racing side by

[1:09:27] side. This is the part of the race where

[1:09:29] pretty much everybody tunes in. You got

[1:09:30] the multi-monitor setup where you're

[1:09:32] watching both guilds, main monitor

[1:09:34] content type of beat. And it's truly a

[1:09:35] special experience if you're a fan of

[1:09:37] the race for world first. Now, for

[1:09:38] Limit, they did seem to struggle,

[1:09:40] however, and they were, you know, kind

[1:09:42] of stuck more or less at 63% as their

[1:09:45] best pull while Echo, they were edging

[1:09:47] ever so closely to that 50% marker,

[1:09:50] wiping on 50.6% twice. And players, you

[1:09:53] know, the boss died at 50% on heroic.

[1:09:55] And for a lot of people, it was still up

[1:09:57] in the air as to whether or not Sylvanas

[1:09:58] would die at 50% or not or if you had to

[1:10:01] push the boss further. But the answer to

[1:10:03] that was something that Echo would

[1:10:05] eventually have to find out, much to

[1:10:06] their own despair.

[1:10:08] This moment of Echo players seeing the

[1:10:10] health tick below 50% and the boss not

[1:10:12] dying and you know, you see the life

[1:10:15] kind of drain out of their face as they

[1:10:16] realize that they got to get the boss 5%

[1:10:18] lower to 45% spawned a ton of memes and,

[1:10:22] you know, you watch their faces get hit

[1:10:24] by the reality check of a lifetime was

[1:10:26] easily the best moment from this entire

[1:10:28] race.

[1:10:30] Roger Brown's face is just unbeatable.

[1:10:33] >> [laughter]

[1:10:33] >> Like it's such a good clip.

[1:10:35] So, this is where the news breaks and as

[1:10:37] the news about the boss dying at 45%

[1:10:39] breaks to Limit, they actually

[1:10:41] immediately decide to do something a

[1:10:42] little bit bold. They go back into

[1:10:44] heroic splits to try to secure the very

[1:10:46] last amount of gear and the

[1:10:48] last amount of upgrades that were

[1:10:50] possible. There weren't really that many

[1:10:52] that could be obtained, but there were

[1:10:53] some.

[1:10:54] But Limit kind of recognizes at this

[1:10:55] point as well that gear is going to be a

[1:10:57] main limiting factor since Echo already

[1:10:59] had more gear than them and that fight

[1:11:01] was really hard.

[1:11:02] Echo on the other hand, they actually

[1:11:03] take some time off to reassess and they

[1:11:05] don't pull the boss again for a while

[1:11:06] since they got to figure out where we're

[1:11:08] getting 5% boss HP from.

[1:11:10] Uh it's a huge deal for them. They're

[1:11:12] just like sitting there trying to math

[1:11:14] out like what is the cleanest possible

[1:11:16] phase three where we're able to chunk

[1:11:18] away as much HP from the boss.

[1:11:20] And most and while most of the damage

[1:11:21] optimization should happen in P3, Echo

[1:11:23] ends up devising a new strategy for

[1:11:25] phase two.

[1:11:26] A little bit of a cheese strategy with

[1:11:28] now on a blood death knight

[1:11:30] solo tanking one of the sides while

[1:11:31] everybody else kills the other side of

[1:11:33] the platform in order to be able to save

[1:11:35] cool downs for parts of the phase where

[1:11:36] you can actually damage Sylvanas

[1:11:38] Windrunner. This would end up making her

[1:11:40] significantly lower entering phase

[1:11:41] three.

[1:11:43] Blizzard was not happy about this and

[1:11:44] they immediately hot fixed that. You you

[1:11:46] should not be doing that. Although Echo

[1:11:48] probably would have killed it with the

[1:11:48] strategy rather quickly if they didn't.

[1:11:51] It was a bit more of a flash in the pan

[1:11:52] than anything weird and the hot fix

[1:11:53] actually does not end up slowing them

[1:11:55] down tremendously and Echo continues to

[1:11:57] dominate on their day ending at a best

[1:11:59] pull of 46.5%

[1:12:01] into phase three. They're 1.5% away from

[1:12:04] the finish line and Echo call it a day

[1:12:06] on pull 155. Now for Echo,

[1:12:10] you just got to be terrified. Uh

[1:12:12] calling an end of day whenever you were

[1:12:14] this close could be scary as there's no

[1:12:16] guarantee that you're not going to wake

[1:12:18] up and already have lost. And with Echo

[1:12:20] I've gone to sleep, you know, this is

[1:12:21] pretty much make or break for Limit. For

[1:12:22] Limit it really seems like Echo can just

[1:12:24] like wake up and kill the boss anytime

[1:12:26] they want. Uh you know, 1 and 1/2%

[1:12:29] that's just some additional crits and

[1:12:30] that boss ends up going down. Limit did

[1:12:32] however actually move into the lead

[1:12:34] eventually and once they did it was pull

[1:12:36] after pull after pull where you see

[1:12:37] between 175 and 185 attempts, they were

[1:12:41] making it all the way into deep P3 as

[1:12:44] often as possible and their best

[1:12:46] attempt, what is it at? 45.4%.

[1:12:49] However, at this point in time Limit,

[1:12:51] they were really feeling the time crunch

[1:12:52] as they decided to not end their raid

[1:12:54] day yet and they just had to keep on

[1:12:56] pulling the boss.

[1:12:58] And Limit, they ended up staying up so

[1:13:00] late in fact that Echo had time to wake

[1:13:02] up and continue to pull the boss.

[1:13:08] Talking about the decision to stay up

[1:13:09] really late and push for a kill on

[1:13:11] Sylvanas, what kind of factors in to the

[1:13:15] decision to stay up super late,

[1:13:16] especially whenever you're up against

[1:13:18] the reset versus, you know, just going

[1:13:20] to bed and, you know, waking up,

[1:13:22] collecting all the loot, and then being

[1:13:24] able to kill the boss with the extra

[1:13:25] reset worth of gear? So, Sylvanas was

[1:13:27] interesting. I I think just in general

[1:13:29] across all bosses, it's basically never

[1:13:31] worth it to stay up 1 minute late to

[1:13:33] kill any boss that isn't the end boss.

[1:13:35] And I that includes like second-to-last

[1:13:37] bosses. Uh recently you've seen guilds

[1:13:40] like stay up to kill those for like

[1:13:41] better vaults and stuff. I actually

[1:13:43] think that is still hurting you in the

[1:13:44] long run unless you kill it like right

[1:13:46] away, which that's like slippery slope,

[1:13:48] right? Oh, we'll kill it soon. And an

[1:13:49] hour goes by, what do you do now, right?

[1:13:51] Kind of thing. Uh but on Sylvanas,

[1:13:54] yeah, I mean, we basically knew they

[1:13:55] were going to kill it really early into

[1:13:57] their next raid. That whole raid it we'd

[1:13:59] made a few mistakes up until that point

[1:14:01] and we were kind of uh especially

[1:14:03] Kel'Thuzad where we felt like kind of

[1:14:04] behind and we knew we could kill it. Uh

[1:14:08] so, we were like, okay, let's stay up

[1:14:09] and do it because we feel like if we go

[1:14:11] to bed, they're they're definitely going

[1:14:12] to kill it. And part of it is

[1:14:14] we could have gone to bed, woke up as

[1:14:16] soon as the reset was there. Maybe

[1:14:17] there's no maintenance. I remember there

[1:14:18] was some maintenance. And then we could

[1:14:20] maybe sneak in a kill, open our vaults.

[1:14:22] And I think I I think literally even

[1:14:24] after we lost, we one-shotted on the

[1:14:25] reset if I remember correctly.

[1:14:26] >> Mhm. Um so, like that could have been

[1:14:29] our way to winning. But I think that

[1:14:31] wouldn't have been okay

[1:14:33] to a lot of us.

[1:14:34] Like like if if we won the race to world

[1:14:36] first by getting a reset of gear and

[1:14:37] one-shotting it

[1:14:39] and then they killed it in their first

[1:14:40] reset, we would have literally killed it

[1:14:42] first, but it wouldn't have felt like we

[1:14:44] won the race to world first. So, I think

[1:14:45] there was a lot of pushing because we

[1:14:47] knew they were definitely going to kill

[1:14:48] it in the reset.

[1:14:50] So,

[1:14:51] we felt like we had to do the same and

[1:14:52] we basically pulled the boss until we

[1:14:54] could [music] no longer do it. Uh we had

[1:14:57] one wipe where I feel like it validated

[1:14:58] our reason to stay up. We we had our

[1:15:00] healer DC

[1:15:01] uh for the entire last phase when we had

[1:15:03] a 1% lower push than we ever have and

[1:15:05] this is coming off of

[1:15:07] like five or six back-to-back [music]

[1:15:08] seeing to the end of the fights. We were

[1:15:10] as locked in as humanly possible

[1:15:12] and that DC

[1:15:14] would have been the kill. I'm so sure in

[1:15:16] my mind that it would have it would have

[1:15:18] died on that pull. And then after it

[1:15:20] didn't, I feel like the entire guild

[1:15:22] felt like

[1:15:23] their entire sails were deflated, you

[1:15:26] know? Like that it just it took all the

[1:15:28] wind out of us. We were basically

[1:15:29] running on fumes at that point but

[1:15:31] knowing that all of us kind of no one we

[1:15:33] didn't this wasn't vocalized but I feel

[1:15:34] like all of us felt like

[1:15:37] like that would if we're going to kill

[1:15:38] this boss, that was going to be the

[1:15:39] kill. And then we like shambled wiped

[1:15:41] for like an hour and a half, called it

[1:15:42] and then woke up and lost. Right, so.

[1:15:44] That was

[1:15:46] They're not able to get over the finish

[1:15:47] line in time. You know, with the reset

[1:15:49] looming, if Echo is unable to kill the

[1:15:51] boss on reset one, it would have been

[1:15:54] catastrophic. But unfortunately enough

[1:15:55] for them, Echo's got that fresh sleep

[1:15:58] buff. They've already seen everything

[1:15:59] that Limit has been doing up until this

[1:16:01] point and Echo are able to take down

[1:16:04] Sylvanas, claiming that world first for

[1:16:06] them. And this is the first world first

[1:16:07] for Echo after their split off from

[1:16:09] Method. You know, people didn't really

[1:16:10] know what we were going to expect from

[1:16:12] this brand new bootstrap up and starting

[1:16:15] org. But they are not only serious

[1:16:16] contenders, they are the real deal and

[1:16:19] you know, they should be favorites to

[1:16:20] win the race world first or best case

[1:16:21] scenario, they should at least be 50/50

[1:16:23] and shown a lot of respect.

[1:16:32] So, normally we don't talk about

[1:16:33] downtime between tiers but the 9.1

[1:16:36] downtime between Sanctum of Domination

[1:16:38] and Sepulcher of the First Ones, this is

[1:16:40] a pretty turbulent time for Blizzard.

[1:16:41] They were still dealing with the after

[1:16:42] effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and try

[1:16:44] to get people back in the office. Uh

[1:16:46] they also had internal lawsuits going on

[1:16:47] at this time. Um and without going too

[1:16:50] much into details, the downtime between

[1:16:51] SOD and Sepulcher of the First Ones was

[1:16:54] an unprecedented 8 months, making it

[1:16:57] possibly one of the longest durations of

[1:16:59] a mid-expansion raid tier we've ever

[1:17:00] seen.

[1:17:02] Now, I wouldn't talk about this time if

[1:17:04] we didn't have something specific to say

[1:17:05] about the Race to World First. The

[1:17:07] biggest shakeup actually comes from the

[1:17:08] team Limit. They originally inked a deal

[1:17:10] with Complexity to become Complexity

[1:17:11] Limit all the way back in 2019, and

[1:17:13] they've been competing for a while.

[1:17:15] Their contract was set to expire, and

[1:17:17] they were actively looking for new

[1:17:18] representation. There was, you know,

[1:17:20] some bait tweets about who their new

[1:17:23] team was going to be, and they end up

[1:17:24] finally announcing that they were going

[1:17:25] to be partnering with Team Liquid,

[1:17:27] marking the end of the Limit branding

[1:17:29] era as they were going to be simply

[1:17:31] renaming to Liquid. Now, we are just

[1:17:33] going to simply refer to them as Liquid

[1:17:34] for the rest of the video. God, I've

[1:17:36] been trying so hard to not call them

[1:17:37] Liquid the entire time. I hope I didn't

[1:17:39] mess it up at some point, but they were

[1:17:41] Limit, and now they're Liquid.

[1:17:44] In comes the Sepulcher of the First

[1:17:45] Ones, and you better strap in as viewer,

[1:17:46] because this is the longest and most

[1:17:48] difficult raid that we are ever going to

[1:17:49] see, and this raid was absolutely

[1:17:51] bananas. So, during PTR testing for this

[1:17:54] tier, we saw some differences between

[1:17:56] this and previous tiers, mostly related

[1:17:58] towards where PTR testing ended up

[1:18:00] working. So, the testing for Sepulcher,

[1:18:03] it stopped after Anduin, which was the

[1:18:05] eighth boss of the raid of an 11-boss

[1:18:07] raid tier. This meant that the last

[1:18:08] three bosses would release without any

[1:18:10] public testing. The seventh boss,

[1:18:11] Halondrus, this was a boss that was

[1:18:14] completely different during raid testing

[1:18:15] than what ended up being shipped for the

[1:18:17] raid. We'll see some context for that in

[1:18:19] a little bit later as to how that turned

[1:18:21] out.

[1:18:22] The raid tier also eventually came with

[1:18:24] the inclusion of double legendaries and

[1:18:26] the full return of tier sets, meaning

[1:18:28] there was a large chunk of power that

[1:18:30] would be backloaded uh that your

[1:18:31] character would get throughout this

[1:18:33] raid. The top five guilds were already

[1:18:35] aware of this during the PTR cycle. The

[1:18:37] double-edged theory is could release on

[1:18:39] week five of the patch, meaning the

[1:18:41] third week of Mythic. We've never seen a

[1:18:43] raid make it to that long. You know,

[1:18:45] it's basically been since Hellfire

[1:18:46] Citadel. So, you know, pre-race world

[1:18:48] first era, not really a thing that

[1:18:49] people were planning for, but it could

[1:18:51] happen. And, you know, maybe if the raid

[1:18:54] is tuned around it, could be a natural

[1:18:55] way to nerf the raid. So, with Liquid

[1:18:57] newly signed and the guild riding the

[1:18:58] high of new representation, a new venue

[1:19:00] to play from for the race world first,

[1:19:02] the raiders are ready for the final tier

[1:19:05] of Shadowlands. Will this new-found

[1:19:07] passion be enough to be able to defeat

[1:19:09] the reigning champions from Europe?

[1:19:11] So, the raid releases, and for heroic

[1:19:13] week, you could only kill bosses up to

[1:19:16] and including Anduin. So, what did this

[1:19:18] mean for tier sets? As a lot of power

[1:19:20] were contained in these tier sets, this

[1:19:22] meant that the world first guilds were

[1:19:23] doing a ton of splits, trying to get as

[1:19:26] much tier as humanly possible off of all

[1:19:28] of the bosses that it was available

[1:19:30] from. Unfortunately, though, two

[1:19:32] important pieces of tier were locked

[1:19:34] behind Lords of Dread and Rygelon,

[1:19:36] meaning that you could not guarantee the

[1:19:37] four-piece. The only thing that you

[1:19:39] could guarantee, even with the most

[1:19:40] splits possible, were three pieces of

[1:19:42] tier. And this created the situation

[1:19:44] where we saw full days of splits, and,

[1:19:47] you know, these full days of splits

[1:19:48] become increasingly more common as the

[1:19:50] race to world first unfolds over the

[1:19:52] next couple of tiers. Uh doing splits

[1:19:54] can be tedious and repetitive, so

[1:19:55] naturally, raiders find any source of

[1:19:57] entertainment for themselves that they

[1:19:58] can possibly consume.

[1:20:01] >> [screaming and cheering]

[1:20:10] >> This group owns.

[1:20:13] So, we have the heroic week, Mythic

[1:20:15] comes out, splits are being done for

[1:20:16] Lords of Dread and Rygelon, like I said.

[1:20:18] Day two of Mythic being released, Liquid

[1:20:21] is the first of the competing guilds to

[1:20:22] step out of splits and get some

[1:20:24] progression going. And it goes exactly

[1:20:26] how you kind of expect, uh especially

[1:20:27] with whatever we've seen so far from the

[1:20:29] race to world first. Liquid kills the

[1:20:30] first four bosses within four hours of

[1:20:32] stepping into Mythic. They take some

[1:20:34] pulls on the fifth boss, Prototype

[1:20:36] Pantheon. They go back to heroic splits,

[1:20:38] and they decide to return the day after

[1:20:40] with a little bit more gear. And in

[1:20:42] typical Race to World First fashion, the

[1:20:44] NA guild always takes the initial lead

[1:20:45] before EU gets into gearing, and they

[1:20:47] start catching up. And this raid was

[1:20:48] also no different. Liquid ends up also

[1:20:50] taking the fifth and sixth boss,

[1:20:51] Prototype Pantheon and Lihuvim, before

[1:20:53] Echo even steps foot in the raid. Echo

[1:20:55] follows suit the day after, and for

[1:20:56] Lihuvim, it was pretty clear that having

[1:20:58] a good strategy that mattered a lot. And

[1:21:00] with all the information that they

[1:21:01] learned, Echo swooped in, took all that

[1:21:03] information, and killed all the exact

[1:21:05] same bosses that Liquid did, and, you

[1:21:06] know, it saved them a lot of

[1:21:07] troubleshooting on the fight. And this

[1:21:09] is where things actually start to fall

[1:21:11] into Echo's favor. As Liquid's waking up

[1:21:13] for their fourth day after Mythic has

[1:21:15] released, Echo has already started

[1:21:17] pulling Halondrus. Let's talk about

[1:21:18] Halondrus for a bit. This boss

[1:21:21] is probably the single most mechanically

[1:21:23] challenging boss that Blizzard has ever

[1:21:25] released. Uh it ended up amassing a

[1:21:27] whopping 358

[1:21:29] pulls before falling, which is very rare

[1:21:31] considering there's four bosses still

[1:21:33] left in this raid. Uh you know, we did

[1:21:35] see something similar to like a mid-tier

[1:21:37] wall with Painsmith, but it's it's

[1:21:38] pretty rare. And for viewers though, you

[1:21:40] know, this was a fairly fun back and

[1:21:42] forth to witness, as there was always

[1:21:44] this tension of you could wipe it at any

[1:21:45] point. And it was a lot of days of

[1:21:47] progression. Echo ended up stopping

[1:21:49] their first day on 109 pulls with their

[1:21:51] best attempt being only 50%, and Liquid

[1:21:53] eventually ended their first day of prog

[1:21:56] at 187 pulls with a 41% best. So, I

[1:22:01] think you could tell that you were just

[1:22:02] wiping on CD to bombs exploding. There

[1:22:05] was just 100

[1:22:07] pass-fail mechanics, a thousand

[1:22:08] pass-fail mechanics at any point here.

[1:22:11] And the days, they start to run

[1:22:12] together. Uh they keep going down the

[1:22:14] exact same, Liquid and Echo basically

[1:22:15] just pulling Halondrus, making very slow

[1:22:17] progression. Somehow they continue to

[1:22:19] keep finding more split characters to do

[1:22:20] at any point. It was very strange, and

[1:22:23] it was pretty clear at this point that

[1:22:24] it was a two-horse race for Liquid and

[1:22:26] Echo. 358 pulls and several hot fixes

[1:22:29] later, the boss got nerfed a couple

[1:22:30] times. Liquid finally manages to secure

[1:22:32] the world first on Halondrus on the

[1:22:33] seventh day of the race with just one

[1:22:35] day left on the first reset. So, to give

[1:22:38] some context for the length of this

[1:22:39] race, previous race tiers guilds were

[1:22:40] either at the last boss at the time of

[1:22:42] the reset or the boss was already dead.

[1:22:44] At minimum, you were at the penultimate

[1:22:45] fight, but Sepulcher of the First Ones

[1:22:47] was now nearing the end of the first

[1:22:49] reset and there's four bosses still left

[1:22:52] standing including the final boss and

[1:22:54] the Jailer. By all intents and purposes,

[1:22:56] this raid is already shaping up to be

[1:22:58] more of a marathon than a sprint. And

[1:22:59] then as they're in a reset happens and

[1:23:02] EU has their final day on the first

[1:23:03] reset, both Echo and Pieces manage to

[1:23:05] kill Halondrus. Echo went for a quick

[1:23:08] look and it took a couple pulls on

[1:23:09] Anduin. They didn't really commit to

[1:23:11] anything. They had some chores that they

[1:23:12] wanted to do on that weekly reset with

[1:23:15] like Mythic Plus and filling up their

[1:23:16] vaults and whatnot. So,

[1:23:18] somehow they just found more splits to

[1:23:20] do. And after the reset, Echo and Liquid

[1:23:22] are pretty much doing mostly the same

[1:23:24] thing where they finish their splits and

[1:23:26] then they started chipping away at

[1:23:27] Anduin. For some reason, he also proved

[1:23:30] to be a very difficult boss. Anduin

[1:23:32] eventually does end up falling with

[1:23:34] Liquid taking it down on world first. It

[1:23:36] was a very thrilling kill with the only

[1:23:38] man left standing being the Blood Death

[1:23:40] Knight. This is the kind of kill that

[1:23:41] players always hope for where

[1:23:43] everybody's used up all their resources,

[1:23:45] 19 players are dead, and then the tank

[1:23:47] is the only person left standing. It is

[1:23:49] truly one of those hype moments that you

[1:23:51] can only get in World of Warcraft and

[1:23:53] it's it's just an example of how cool

[1:23:55] raiding can truly be. Let him focus.

[1:24:00] Let's go.

[1:24:03] Let's go.

[1:24:07] So, Anduin dies to Liquid and this

[1:24:09] leaves three bosses still left to go in

[1:24:11] the race. Echo also eventually kills

[1:24:13] Anduin four and a half hours after

[1:24:16] Liquid. So, Echo is catching up

[1:24:17] dramatically. Even though the reset just

[1:24:19] happened, Echo is right on the heels of

[1:24:20] Liquid here. So, we got the final three

[1:24:22] bosses and you can either choose Lords

[1:24:24] of Dread or Rygelon. The initial idea

[1:24:26] from Liquid, since they were there

[1:24:28] first, was to go to Lords of Dread,

[1:24:29] which seemed like it was supposed to be

[1:24:31] the easier of the bosses, where Rygelon

[1:24:33] was kind of anticipated to be this like

[1:24:35] patchwork wall, huge gear check type of

[1:24:37] boss. And whenever you like looked at

[1:24:39] the amount of HP, it was just

[1:24:40] ridiculous. Uh Lords of Dread, it seemed

[1:24:42] like it was supposed to be more of a

[1:24:43] mechanics check than a damage check.

[1:24:46] And Liquid, they end up getting there

[1:24:48] and they get the boss to 40% after seven

[1:24:50] pulls. Maybe this is the reprieve that

[1:24:52] we need from Race World First Halondrus,

[1:24:53] have been just hundreds of pulls on

[1:24:56] Halondrus, hundreds of pulls on Anduin.

[1:24:57] Maybe Lords of Dread is going to be a

[1:24:58] little bit easier. Unfortunately,

[1:25:00] though, the boss was definitely not as

[1:25:01] easy as it seemed, as uh very quickly

[1:25:04] the guilds started to hit the enrage.

[1:25:06] Liquid hits the enrage and the boss is

[1:25:08] like nowhere close to being dead. Then,

[1:25:11] Liquid kind of takes a U-turn. They go

[1:25:13] to Rygelon. Oh, maybe maybe this boss is

[1:25:14] a little bit more killable. Uh they also

[1:25:17] soon realize that Rygelon was not any

[1:25:19] easier of a boss. And as a viewer, you

[1:25:21] kind of take a look at this and you're

[1:25:22] just like, "Oh, oh goodness gracious. We

[1:25:24] are going to be here for a very long

[1:25:25] time." So, Liquid now has Rygelon at 70%

[1:25:29] HP. Lords of Dread is at like 20% HP and

[1:25:32] they've seen the enrage. And Liquid's

[1:25:33] done and they called it a day.

[1:25:36] But if you're Echo here, you've killed

[1:25:37] Anduin and you're now starting your day

[1:25:39] and you have all of this information

[1:25:40] that what Liquid has done. And so, you

[1:25:42] see that Liquid has not made strides on

[1:25:44] either Lords of Dread or like Rygelon.

[1:25:46] So, now Echo has really good information

[1:25:47] on both of those bosses. What do they

[1:25:49] do?

[1:25:50] Well, Echo ends up Lords of Dread and

[1:25:52] they actually end up killing the boss

[1:25:53] after only 62 pulls with a raid comp

[1:25:56] that was stacked with primarily melee

[1:25:58] specialization and only four ranged DPS

[1:26:00] or ranged players in general.

[1:26:02] This makes Lords of Dread one of the

[1:26:04] first bosses in years without a mage in

[1:26:05] the comp, as the intellect buff would

[1:26:07] only be relevant for the healers and the

[1:26:09] token warlock. So, basically, we didn't

[1:26:11] need a mage. There was also this

[1:26:12] narrative at the time where Liquid said

[1:26:15] that Lords of Dread was mathematically

[1:26:17] impossible. I'm not actually sure where

[1:26:19] this narrative came from and while I

[1:26:21] started doing research for this video,

[1:26:22] I'm wondering if like Dratnos and I

[1:26:24] ended up making up this narrative.

[1:26:27] [laughter]

[1:26:28] Um like it could it could have been

[1:26:29] legitimately made up. I'm not even 100%

[1:26:31] sure, but there was a narrative that

[1:26:32] Lords of Dread was mathematically

[1:26:33] impossible because for both Echo and

[1:26:36] then Liquid whenever they go to kill

[1:26:37] Lords of Dread, they do this cheeky

[1:26:39] strategy where they use the Bonesmith

[1:26:41] cheat death, uh Bonesmith and Army's

[1:26:43] cheat death on Death Knights in order to

[1:26:45] extend the boss enrage far, far, far

[1:26:47] past where it was anticipated to go

[1:26:49] because like I said earlier, Liquid hit

[1:26:51] the enrage in the boss at like 15% HP so

[1:26:53] it looked like it was like, "Oh, okay.

[1:26:54] This enrage isn't insane." But with

[1:26:56] cheating it, it was possible. So Liquid

[1:26:58] yoinks the strategy from Echo, they kill

[1:27:00] Lords of Dread 3 hours later. Echo ends

[1:27:02] up going to Ragnaros. Now Liquid's on

[1:27:04] Ragnaros and we have both guilds

[1:27:05] simultaneously pulling Ragnaros

[1:27:08] who has a lot of HP, you know, it is

[1:27:10] just one of it's going to be one of the

[1:27:11] hardest patchwork bosses of all time in

[1:27:13] the hardest raid tier.

[1:27:15] And by this point in the race, we were

[1:27:16] in pretty much unprecedented territory.

[1:27:19] We had the second reset of Mythic week

[1:27:21] uh slowly approaching. Two bosses are

[1:27:23] still left standing. At this point,

[1:27:25] everybody realizes that we're going to

[1:27:26] the third reset and that double

[1:27:28] legendaries are on the table meaning

[1:27:30] that if you were slacking on your

[1:27:31] reputation to be able to get double

[1:27:32] legendaries unlocked, you were in

[1:27:33] trouble. Fortunately enough, all these

[1:27:34] race for world first guilds have uh

[1:27:36] people who, let's say, have no life and

[1:27:39] they were already farming reputation

[1:27:41] even even though it was very unlikely to

[1:27:43] get to double legendaries.

[1:27:45] At the same time, you know, we've been

[1:27:46] here for a very long time and being

[1:27:48] fully locked in for that period of time

[1:27:50] already takes an insane amount of

[1:27:51] determination, but being away from your

[1:27:53] family, not sleeping in your own bed,

[1:27:55] there is a serious mental strain that's

[1:27:57] being told on all of the players from

[1:27:59] both of the competing organizations and

[1:28:01] everybody's starting to feel fatigue

[1:28:02] setting in. This race seems to kind of

[1:28:04] be boiling down to a test of endurance

[1:28:06] and for Echo having killed Lords of

[1:28:07] Dread before Liquid and establishing a

[1:28:09] lead of sorts, And kind of get the

[1:28:11] second win for them as they're now

[1:28:13] starting to push down the doors of the

[1:28:15] Jailer.

[1:28:19] How is the mental strain on a raid tier

[1:28:22] that ends up being that long? That is

[1:28:24] like the first raid tier that we've seen

[1:28:26] in a very long time

[1:28:27] that went over two resets. Like what is

[1:28:29] what is the mental strain like on a raid

[1:28:31] tier like that?

[1:28:32] I mean, you were there. So, you you also

[1:28:35] have some some insight into this. I

[1:28:37] don't know if I felt that

[1:28:40] big of a difference. Like obviously you

[1:28:42] do realize some point hey, it's been so

[1:28:44] many days. Like what's going on? But

[1:28:47] I don't know, maybe the fact that it was

[1:28:48] such a good raid. Like I enjoyed the

[1:28:50] bosses. I don't think that we felt like

[1:28:54] super exhausted. At least from our side.

[1:28:58] Um especially after getting ahead like

[1:29:02] on um

[1:29:03] the the the Dreadlords.

[1:29:04] >> Yeah, yeah, Lords of Dread. Yeah, yeah.

[1:29:06] Yeah, Lords of Dread, yes. Like after

[1:29:08] getting ahead on Lords of Dread, I think

[1:29:10] we got kind of like the second wind

[1:29:12] effect. Like we we started getting hyped

[1:29:15] again. So, I I would say actually the

[1:29:17] worst it got was

[1:29:19] around Halondrus and Anduin.

[1:29:21] But then when you start getting closer

[1:29:23] to the end,

[1:29:25] it almost felt like

[1:29:26] more excitement. Uh so, yeah. I don't

[1:29:29] know.

[1:29:31] Now, the next couple days, they're about

[1:29:32] Ra'gelon and Echo, they're managing to

[1:29:35] keep the lead that they had found on

[1:29:36] Lords of Dread, and they eventually end

[1:29:37] up killing Ra'gelon on pull 204. Liquid

[1:29:40] follows suit some hours later tying up

[1:29:42] the race with only one boss left

[1:29:43] standing as we're approaching the third

[1:29:44] week of Mythic. Now, the guilds they

[1:29:46] reach the Jailer on a Monday right

[1:29:48] before the third week of Mythic, the

[1:29:49] week where double legendaries become

[1:29:51] available. So, we know at this point in

[1:29:53] time, casters all know this, players all

[1:29:55] know this, that the boss is going to be

[1:29:58] killed with double legendaries in some

[1:29:59] capacity. And so, now all of the guilds

[1:30:01] are kind of scrambling to make sure that

[1:30:02] everybody's got enough rep. And with

[1:30:04] this additional time, both Liquid and

[1:30:06] Echo do end up pulling the Jailer a

[1:30:07] little bit, but a lot of this time is

[1:30:09] honestly just spent trying to recoup,

[1:30:11] recharge, do any additional chores that

[1:30:14] are ready for the next reset, and just

[1:30:16] preparing yourself for the long haul

[1:30:17] that is the final boss in the Jailer.

[1:30:20] So, both resets happen. Echo actually

[1:30:22] gets to see Liquid do a few hours of

[1:30:24] pulling the Jailer after the re-clear,

[1:30:25] and at this point, guilds have both seen

[1:30:27] a little bit of phase three, the final

[1:30:29] phase of the fight, but they really

[1:30:30] struggled to get their consistency with

[1:30:32] both phase one and phase two, and none

[1:30:33] of the guilds had really put any serious

[1:30:35] distance on that final phase. And Echo,

[1:30:37] their re-clear went about as good as it

[1:30:38] could, and it only ended up taking three

[1:30:40] pulls. You know, they were able to kill

[1:30:42] Halondrus rather quickly, something that

[1:30:44] seemed impossible. And this is where

[1:30:46] Echo really starts to kind of break away

[1:30:47] from Liquid. And on the Jailer, Echo

[1:30:50] start to look like the definitive

[1:30:52] favorites to be able to win the race to

[1:30:53] world first, making bigger strides for

[1:30:55] every raid day, and they're conserving

[1:30:57] energy, and it looks like they're just

[1:30:58] kind of getting that second wind.

[1:31:00] Blizzard does end up pushing kind of a

[1:31:01] hot fix to Jailer to nerf the fight a

[1:31:03] little bit while guilds were progressing

[1:31:05] it. It doesn't really end up, you know,

[1:31:06] changing realistically the [music]

[1:31:09] essence of the race to world first. You

[1:31:10] know, you do see some large nerfs.

[1:31:12] Basically, what this did was it

[1:31:13] increased the consistency of guilds for

[1:31:16] phase three, where it reduced the number

[1:31:18] of people that needed to be alive in

[1:31:19] phase three to be able to

[1:31:20] continue to progress the phase.

[1:31:22] Initially, you had to have all 20

[1:31:23] players alive, then it got nerfed down

[1:31:25] to 17. This meant that, you know, the

[1:31:27] fight just was easier to continue to see

[1:31:29] progression on. It wasn't like a a

[1:31:31] kill-changing kind of nerf.

[1:31:33] And whenever this nerf came through,

[1:31:35] this is where the learning process sped

[1:31:36] up, and Echo really hit the gas.

[1:31:39] In the days, they were really slow, you

[1:31:40] know, at some point we had Liquid and

[1:31:42] Echo at 48 and 41%, then it was like

[1:31:45] Liquid and Echo at Liquid was at like

[1:31:48] 35%, and Echo was at 20%, and then it

[1:31:51] happened. A secret phase.

[1:31:54] The hardest end boss of all time has a

[1:31:56] secret phase.

[1:31:58] Watch out for the file. Don't don't

[1:32:00] spread the Yeah, if that touches one

[1:32:01] person, Deep Shades in a little bit of

[1:32:02] danger there. Lar got also running away.

[1:32:04] Jailer now at 14% 4 seconds until we all

[1:32:08] get in a little bit of extra time. All

[1:32:10] ads are dead. 12 + 2

[1:32:12] come on and he's walking through the

[1:32:14] middle of the room. COME ON 11% 11 10 5

[1:32:18] 10 5

[1:32:18] 10 5 COME ON HIT THE 10% GUYS 10 10

[1:32:22] 10 9 WHAT

[1:32:26] WE SAW

[1:32:26] >> [screaming]

[1:32:27] >> LET'S GO

[1:32:29] WE SAW IT.

[1:32:31] OKAY, SECRET PHASE THE WIPE HAPPENED

[1:32:33] BECAUSE THE ETERNITY'S END ALREADY WENT

[1:32:34] OFF. They have to hit it before. No,

[1:32:37] man.

[1:32:38] But we saw it. This 10% IS CONFIRMED.

[1:32:42] >> [laughter]

[1:32:44] >> IT'S REAL.

[1:32:46] It's real. We're going to get to go

[1:32:47] home.

[1:32:49] >> [laughter]

[1:32:49] >> And this is something that you just love

[1:32:51] to see as a viewer and as a caster just

[1:32:53] this miraculous secret phase. I remember

[1:32:56] Dratnos, Ginji, and myself were all

[1:32:57] casting for Echo at this point in time

[1:33:00] and

[1:33:01] >> [laughter]

[1:33:01] >> just the resonance of we get to go home

[1:33:04] was like it was the most genuine thing

[1:33:06] between the three of us. It was like oh

[1:33:08] my God, the boss is almost dead. Please

[1:33:10] send us home.

[1:33:11] And in the liquid camp having seen the

[1:33:13] secret phase and the liquid continuing

[1:33:15] to fall further and further behind Echo

[1:33:17] wakes up on day 19 of this race. Let me

[1:33:19] let me just say day 19 of this race is

[1:33:21] insane.

[1:33:22] And they start to see huge progress and

[1:33:24] it was evident very early on that this

[1:33:26] boss was going to be Echo's kill. Echo

[1:33:28] did not take their foot off the gas just

[1:33:30] because of this though and they very

[1:33:31] deservedly took home another world first

[1:33:34] title as they emerged victorious on the

[1:33:36] last rate of Shadowlands, the hardest

[1:33:37] rate of all time. All the buffs up. Get

[1:33:40] away from there. Get away from there.

[1:33:42] You're okay. I mean soak the frontal.

[1:33:44] YEAH.

[1:33:57] So annoying.

[1:34:00] >> And this raid it goes down in history as

[1:34:01] one of the most iconic Race to World

[1:34:02] First ever. It's just unbelievable how

[1:34:05] long and how difficult it truly was, and

[1:34:07] having the pleasure of watching Race to

[1:34:09] World First guilds compete against the

[1:34:10] hardest content that WoW has to offer in

[1:34:12] this manner is truly a pleasure.

[1:34:17] And as Shadowlands finally comes to an

[1:34:19] end, we now enter Dragonflight. In the

[1:34:22] game it saw some pretty big fundamental

[1:34:24] changes where there were things like new

[1:34:26] talent trees, no more borrowed power,

[1:34:29] revamped profession systems. Uh there

[1:34:31] was like a simultaneous release for

[1:34:32] heroic and mythic all the time.

[1:34:34] There was also the inclusion of powerful

[1:34:36] items that were tagged as very rare. And

[1:34:38] of course, there was the brand new class

[1:34:40] Evoker with a healer spec and a DPS

[1:34:43] spec. And then with all of that, we also

[1:34:45] have a brand new raid and a brand new

[1:34:47] Race to World First to talk about in

[1:34:49] Vault of the Incarnates.

[1:34:50] Now, the biggest change for Dragonflight

[1:34:52] concerning the Race to World First was

[1:34:53] definitely the game moving away from

[1:34:55] borrowed power systems that had been a

[1:34:57] staple for three expansions at this

[1:34:58] point. This would affect the Race to

[1:35:00] World First pretty uh greatly, honestly,

[1:35:03] as the value of heroic and normal splits

[1:35:04] would skyrocket. Then, you'll factor in

[1:35:07] the very rare tagged items, which have a

[1:35:10] lower than normal drop rate. And with

[1:35:12] their power, all 20 players in your raid

[1:35:14] basically want them. These are very good

[1:35:16] items to target for all of your 14 mages

[1:35:19] if you are one of the persons who mains

[1:35:21] mage.

[1:35:22] Race to World First at this point as

[1:35:23] well has also gained a huge audience

[1:35:25] compared to where it first started. So,

[1:35:27] the arms race of adding more and more

[1:35:29] splits was natural for guilds.

[1:35:31] Optimizing your splits for even like a

[1:35:33] 2/10 or 3/10 of an item level lead can

[1:35:35] actually make the difference between a

[1:35:36] world first and losing the race.

[1:35:39] This race here also marked the first

[1:35:40] time that they would actually release

[1:35:41] all difficulties at the exact same time,

[1:35:43] meaning that our top two guilds would

[1:35:45] not step foot into mythic for the first

[1:35:47] few days while they were basically doing

[1:35:49] all of their splits. While simultaneous

[1:35:50] release is going to be the staple going

[1:35:52] forward, I would say it's not exactly

[1:35:55] fantastic for viewership, I will admit.

[1:35:58] So, for the first couple of days after

[1:35:59] Vault of the Incarnates released,

[1:36:01] nothing really happened. The guilds were

[1:36:03] just kind of doing their splits, and it

[1:36:05] really wasn't until day three of the

[1:36:07] raid where we finally got some Mythic

[1:36:09] action just straight across the board.

[1:36:11] Liquid was the first of the competing

[1:36:13] guilds to step foot into the raid on

[1:36:15] Mythic, shocker, I know. The world first

[1:36:17] kills on the first and the second boss,

[1:36:19] though, they did come from this really

[1:36:20] great guild called Vesper, who happened

[1:36:23] to have this really good Moonkin player

[1:36:25] on their roster, believe it or not.

[1:36:26] Little bit of casting experience, little

[1:36:27] bit of world first experience, you know.

[1:36:29] With the real race world first aside,

[1:36:31] Liquid made swift work of the first

[1:36:32] couple of bosses as they took down both

[1:36:34] Eranogorr and Primal Council on one

[1:36:35] pull. Then they went on to bang out

[1:36:38] Terros in five pulls and Sennarth in 12.

[1:36:40] Liquid also ends up poking their head

[1:36:42] onto the Dathea encounter for a couple

[1:36:44] of hours and choosing to go to there

[1:36:46] instead of Kurog Grimtotem.

[1:36:48] And the next day would be fairly similar

[1:36:50] with Echo still opting to finish up all

[1:36:52] of their splits while watching Liquid

[1:36:54] and gathering information, but Liquid,

[1:36:56] they didn't really waste any time, and

[1:36:58] after some initial Mythic Plus farming

[1:36:59] at the very beginning of the day, they

[1:37:01] went into the raid to continue their

[1:37:02] Dathea progression. And Dathea, she was

[1:37:04] a little bit overtuned, and after a 30%

[1:37:06] wipe on pull 50, Blizzard decided that

[1:37:08] the boss was way too hard to kill, um

[1:37:11] and they nerfed the health of the boss

[1:37:12] by 15%.

[1:37:14] By the way, just for context, a 15% nerf

[1:37:17] is massive. Normally people get up in

[1:37:18] arms about a 5% nerf, but 15 is just

[1:37:21] crazy. The first pull after this 15%

[1:37:23] nerf as well, Liquid gets the boss

[1:37:24] immediately to 7%, and then another

[1:37:26] seven pulls after that, the boss dies.

[1:37:28] And Liquid, well, they were five out of

[1:37:30] eight before Echo even stepped foot into

[1:37:31] the raid. Then, loaded with all of the

[1:37:33] gear and all of the information that

[1:37:34] they normally have, we see Echo finally

[1:37:37] enter the raid with an attempt to catch

[1:37:39] up, which they did in almost no time,

[1:37:41] spending one pull on most of the initial

[1:37:44] bosses. They ended up spending like five

[1:37:45] on Terros, another 10 on Sennarth. then

[1:37:47] they went to Dathia, you know, even

[1:37:49] though Dathia had been nerfed, you know,

[1:37:51] it was still a little bit of a tough

[1:37:52] wall, rough mechanics check. Echo ends

[1:37:54] up spending 59 pulls on a boss that

[1:37:56] Liquid had already killed, which is

[1:37:58] tough. However,

[1:38:00] you know, Echo does kill it before going

[1:38:01] to bed, so no harm no foul. Um Liquid on

[1:38:03] the other hand, they're farming Kurog

[1:38:05] Grimtotem trying to get him killed, and

[1:38:07] then eventually they kill him on pull 59

[1:38:10] after the raid catches another round of

[1:38:11] nerfs. So, for context, to this raid

[1:38:13] tier was also very close to Christmas,

[1:38:15] and the uh Blizzard dev team probably

[1:38:18] didn't want to work over the holidays, I

[1:38:19] think is the biggest estimate here. Um

[1:38:22] and they were sounding the alarms trying

[1:38:23] to make sure that the race world first

[1:38:24] did not go over Christmas. So, yeah,

[1:38:26] Kurog Grimtotem died, and uh honestly,

[1:38:29] this is kind of notable. This is the

[1:38:30] first raid boss in modern WoW history to

[1:38:32] have actually been killed without a

[1:38:33] warlock present in the world first kill,

[1:38:35] but just more of a fun fact than

[1:38:36] anything else. And so, the general story

[1:38:38] for this race so far has kind of kind of

[1:38:40] been around nerf timings and splits. Uh

[1:38:42] really unfun parts of the race world

[1:38:44] first, admittedly. And more than once

[1:38:46] now, Liquid has gone to a boss, spent

[1:38:48] pulls progressing it, seen Blizzard nerf

[1:38:50] it while they're sitting there, and you

[1:38:52] know, then moved on to the next boss.

[1:38:53] Echo on the other hand, they have fully

[1:38:55] tied it up with Liquid, they secured a

[1:38:56] world second kill on Kurog Grimtotem,

[1:38:58] and for the rest of the day, we were

[1:39:00] going to be seeing both guilds

[1:39:01] progressing the penultimate encounter,

[1:39:02] Broodkeeper Diurna, at the exact same

[1:39:04] time. And by the end of the day, Liquid

[1:39:06] would still have but as the boss got

[1:39:07] lower and lower, the differences got

[1:39:08] smaller and smaller. Then, Liquid

[1:39:11] finally reached this 10% mark on the

[1:39:13] boss,

[1:39:14] and that's kind of where Echo kicked it

[1:39:16] into gear, ending up their day only 1%

[1:39:19] behind Liquid. Except, Echo didn't end

[1:39:22] their day. Even though it was the time

[1:39:24] that Echo was supposed to be finishing

[1:39:25] the raid, they decided to stay up a

[1:39:27] little bit longer to try to secure the

[1:39:28] Broodkeeper kill. And both guilds were

[1:39:30] pushing for the final

[1:39:32] 10% at the exact same time. And for

[1:39:35] Liquid, they ended up snagging the world

[1:39:36] first kill on Broodkeeper Diurna, but

[1:39:38] Echo, they followed suit an hour or so

[1:39:39] later, so this is a huge deal. And in

[1:39:41] real time, we're on day seven, and this

[1:39:43] is due to all the splits. Thus, we're

[1:39:45] approaching the new reset. Uh we have

[1:39:47] both guilds progressing the final boss

[1:39:49] at the exact same time, and both guilds

[1:39:50] having spent a few pulls on Raszageth

[1:39:52] phase one, which was an insanely

[1:39:54] difficult phase, and it straight-up made

[1:39:56] the new Evoker class mandatory in order

[1:39:58] for everybody to live through the new