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How WoW World First raiding became one of the biggest things in esports
With viewing figures to rival major esports tournaments, raiding has become a big deal, but where did it all begin and how has it developed into a massive streaming event.
From July 16 2019, WoW fans around the globe watched as the best guilds in the world battled it out to become the first to defeat the Mythic Queen Azshara in the fourth Battle For Azeroth raid.
13 days later and Method clinched it, beating Limit, who were streaming their raid progress live on Twitch.tv/RedBull from the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in London.
This has been the fourth BfA raid and while raid progress wasn't streamed before WoW's latest expansion, the race to world first isn't a new phenomenon in World of Warcraft. In fact, guilds have been competing to be the first to take down raid bosses since Onyxia back in the original World Of Warcraft game (dubbed Vanilla WoW), prior to Burning Crusade, the first expansion that came out in 2007. Fans may not have been watching in their thousands, but it was worth it for the prestige of getting World Firsts.
The early raids
Nihilum were the first guild to perform consistently during Burning Crusade
© Blizzard
EU guild Nihilum were the first notable guild that started to consistently do well at the end of vanilla WoW and this carried on throughout most of the Burning Crusade expansion.
Finnish guild Paragon started making its mark in Wrath of the Lich King –the second expansion that was released in 2008–and continued to dominate the world first race throughout most of the third expansion Cataclysm (2010).
It was with the fourth expansion Mists of Pandaria (2012) that Method, another big EU guild, really began to take hold as they claimed the world first title for all five raids in that expansion.
The challenge of early raids
Most of us know – either through experience or having been told – that back in the early days, raiding was quite the challenge, even for players and guilds that weren't looking to win any races. A good amount of time and dedication was needed to farm the right gear – with the correct resistances to counter specific boss abilities – as well as complete attunement quest chains in order to unlock the raid. And even then, you absolutely needed an organised guild to raid with.
Raiding in recent times has been made easier with the removal of attunements as well as the addition of various group finder tools and quality of life features so it's often easy to forget how much dedication and patience is needed if you want to play in a top guild. But then, most of us have never really had the chance to see it.
Behind closed doors
Throughout the years, those top guilds that had been competing for the world first title had kept the race, along with a great deal of the preparation for it, firmly behind closed doors. Other players only ever got the chance to see the fight when the kill video was released after the boss had been downed.
Understandably, those going for the world first didn't want to give competing guilds any advantage by sharing their raid set-up or boss strategies. But it left supporters very much on the outside, relying on announcements from the guilds themselves or other news sources, that they'd been successful after the race was over.
The streaming era
We first got to see a World First race unfold in 2018 when Method, from EU server Tarren Mill, decided to live stream Mythic Uldir on the latest expansion Battle For Azeroth.
We got to see the seemingly endless wipes on Fetid Devourer, then Mythrax, which US guild Limit had managed to take down a full 12 hours before Method. Then the pressure was on for Method to take down G'huun before the US server reset, which would give Limit an even bigger advantage with the chance to collect weekly Mythic+ caches and farm more gear from the Heroic raid, 24 hours ahead of the EU server reset. In the end, Method was able to kill G'huun and claim the world first on the eighth day, after a whopping 285 wipes.
Method pushed to the limit
Following the huge success of the Uldir stream, more guilds decided to stream their progress for the next World First race, Battle of Dazar’Alor, the most notable being Exorsus. This time around, Method sent seven of their raiders to the Red Bull Gaming Sphere for the event, complete with special guests such as Mike "Preach" and Rich Campbell with ongoing commentary, along with after-shows once the race for world first was over.
While the bosses in the Battle of Dazar’Alor raid seemed to go down pretty quickly, Method hit a their first wall with the seventh boss, Mekkatorque and, to the surprise (and amusement) of many, they decided to swap out Method's GM, Sco in favour of using another Death Knight tank to help with the fight's mechanics.
By this point, Limit had already reached the final boss, Jaina Proudmore so Method had their work cut out for them, having to kill another boss before reaching the same point. Another obstacle presented itself in the form of a hotfix was implemented by Blizzard - a hotfix that also 'fixed' the Jaina strategy that Method was using - but this was soon reversed and the momentum continued. The weekly reset came and went for Limit, once again but Method was able to claim the world first Jaina kill on the Tuesday night after 346 wipes!
Pieces shock Method
Most recently, the two-boss raid, Crucible of Storms saw a surprising turn of events with Pieces (Draenor EU) claiming the World First, relegating Method to second place.
While Pieces were able to win a mini-raid, would they have what takes to defeat Method in a longer eight-boss raid – we were about to find out.
Method back on top
Pieces and Limit are competing at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere
© Henry Knock
Limit kicked off the Rise of Azshara raid at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere
© Henry Knock
Limit got the world first kills on the opening and the third bosses
© Henry Knock
It's tense on opening night of the raid at the Red Bull Gaming Spere
© Henry Knock
In what was possibly the most hyped race to World First yet, Pieces and Limit streamed their progress on the Eternal Palace raid from the Red Bull Gaming Sphere – and with Method also streaming from their base in Germany, World Of Warcraft fans were able to follow the action like never before as the contest ebbed and flowed right up to the 13th and final day.
After nearly two weeks, one reset and a couple of hotfixes that made Queen Azshara actually beatable, it was Method who landed the first killer blow, knocking down the final boss as Limit were sleeping after a gruelling day's raid. It was Method's 12th World First, meaning that they are still the dominant force in World Of Warcraft PvE. Limit, meanwhile, took out Azshara the following day and had to settle for being runners up again. After their success in the mini-raid, Pieces couldn't keep pace with their rivals in this one.
What will happen next time? Watch this space!
