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What's it like to battle for a WoW World First?
Limit's Thdlock, Pieces' Daniel Flor and shoutcaster MrGM reveal what it's like to battle against the clock in World of Warcraft's latest raid.
Since July 16, the guilds of Limit and Pieces have been at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in London, racing head-to-head to be World First in the third raid of World of Warcraft's Battle for Azeroth expansion.
On July 23 at 4pm, the game reset for North American guild Limit, who are playing on American servers, wiping out everything they'd worked for, around the clock, over the past seven days. The game reset for Pieces, and fellow EU guild Method, on July 24 at 8am.
Below, guild members Dan Flor (Pieces) and Thdlock (Limit), reveal what it's really like to be a part of the raid, 22 hours a day. But first, let's hear from caster MrGM, who's been broadcasting this incredibly intense race to World First for the past week.
Dan 'MrGM' Carter – broadcaster
MrGM, right, watches the action in the Queen Azshara World First race
© Henry Knock
"The raid has been awesome so far! Blizzard have done a really good job with this one; aesthetically it's really cool, and the bosses and mechanics are really 'out there', especially with it being set underwater. They tend to step it up each year with the new expansions.
"In terms of the race itself, we've seen POVs from different guilds, jumped around different regions and seen how they complete the raid, looked at their compositions and examined different tactics. It's something we didn't see in previous tiers, as usually it's only one guild streaming all the content. Seeing JTH, for instance, pushing ahead from out of nowhere has been pretty incredible to watch; this variety can only be for the better!"
Pieces have been going absolutely crazy – you get goosebumps hearing them celebrate
"Being here in the Red Bull Gaming Sphere for some of the kills has just been incredible. It’s funny, you'd imagine the Americans would go more nuts than the EU guys, but Pieces have been going absolutely crazy for some of them! You get goosebumps hearing them celebrate sometimes – and hopefully one of them gets world first, so I can see that play out around me.
"What does it mean for a guild to get World First? First and foremost it’s bragging rights. Being first in the world for that raid, putting yourself out there online is massive; a lot of players have seen huge success from being World First raiders. Pieces, for example, got the last one, they’re the ‘reigning champions’ I guess, and they’re all launching their own streams for the first time. We’re trying to showcase their streams, give them promotion and join their communities; it's cool.
"If you're champions, there’s a lot of pressure to defend your title. I think Pieces are under a lot of pressure this time.
"[I maintain my focus] by not taking it too seriously and getting hung up on things; just relaxing, treating it like a podcast and bouncing off my co-casters. It's great to have segments with call-ins, gameplay highlights and fun bits, rather than always focusing on the raid."
Daniel Flor – Pieces guild raider
Pieces' Dan Flor
© Jak Howard
"I think the raid's great, there’s a really good difficulty curve. I'm a bit sad that a lot of the checks in this raid are numbers checks – for example, in Crucible of Storms Uu’nat, there were a lot of different ways to handle the mechanics, which encouraged different strategies among the guilds; as opposed to what I feel like is a pure numbers game in this raid. Personally I would like it to be more centred around creativity than pure numbers.
"It’s a really good experience so far. Everyone here has been really accommodating. I was worried that it would be more of a corporate thing, almost mechanical, but I get the complete opposite here – everyone is super-passionate, engaging in banter and it's really good to be here. On top of that, you have all your guild-mates around you, so you can really feel the atmosphere around you when something cool happens – they’re right there. It’s really hard to put into words, but it’s a very positive experience!"
I don't want nerfs; I want to win legitimately, otherwise it doesn't mean as much to me
"A typical day? Wake up at the hotel, shower, put on deodorant, because no-one likes a smelly nerd! When we get to the Sphere, we sit down for 10-15 to discuss the plan, then raid for 3-4 hours before lunch. We try to treat this like a work day; decent break times, making sure people don’t go hungry, and water breaks to avoid burning out. We raid for 14-15 hours a day at this point, and everything is on a good schedule, so everyone can experience going all-in on a World First and spending time with guild-mates; and that should be the focus.
"The Limit guys are great dudes. We have normal banter obviously, we also talk about good bits and bad bits, but it's been a great experience overall. Obviously there’s a bit of pushing each other forward; when we hear them cheering, we’re all looking at each other like, 'we need to get more damage!' That rivalry doesn’t bother me at all, it's not going to make it harder for me to finish the raid. It gives me motivation – I want to be the person that screams on the other side of the wall! It drives me because I'm competitive and you get to meet some top raiders. It's cool!"
We mostly focus on improving ourselves rather than copying other guilds
"Do I watch other guilds on my off-time? No, my dude, I sleep! You’re being very optimistic. Basically, we leave the Sphere at around 11-12, and then we have to look at logs, recent wipes, writing things down we want to look at, analyse our stats, come up with strategies and create solutions. If there's downtime, then sure we can look at Limit having a good pull, but we mostly focus on improving ourselves rather than copying other guilds. Though it is nice to pop into other streams to say hi!
"The way I keep focused is by treating this like a job. I like to think I have a really good work ethic and when I play as hardcore as this, I need to have the same ethic as any other job. A lot of work and preparation goes into this and if I don't have the work ethic to back that up, then I probably shouldn’t be here."
Kevin 'Thdlock' Arean – Limit Guild raider
Thdlock has proven to be a key part of Limit's set-up
© Jak Howard
"I really like the bosses in this raid – the first three were relatively easy, but since then the bosses have been really, really good. They’re super-well-tuned, even for guilds like us that over-prepare. Almost all the bosses, like Lady Ashvane, are bosses that die at the last moment; with shields popping, adds overwhelming you, cast effects ongoing as you get the final DPS in. I'm enjoying the DPS checks; Pieces didn't? That's the Shamans!
"There have been 4-5 people together at events like Blizzcon, but this is the first time we’ve all seen each other and bootcamped together. Everything's comfortable, the computers are great and we’re chilling, chatting during our breaks. 90 ping is fine, I play with 50 at home so, no problem. If a West Coast player connects to our East Coast Chicago server, they get 80 ping, so I’ve barely felt the ping difference at all."
9 min
Za'qul, Harbinger of Ny'alotha boss kill video
WoW guild Limit get the World First kill of Za'qul, Harbinger of Ny'alotha
"It’s really cool being in the same venue as Pieces, and since we’re ahead we get to meme them for taking 6 ele Shamans! Though I think Blizzard nerfed all their strats from PTR, so that’s a bit unfortunate. At the start of the race both teams were a bit more secretive, but as we’ve moved on we’ve both become much friendlier. We aren’t telling each other stuff, but when they’re probing for information we give them hints – fun stuff, I guess!
"Being World First is obviously what I work for. I put in some of the most effort that I can in terms of making my character as strong as possible. I spend around 16 hours a day doing the most monotonous tasks to get the most minor power increases, just in case it's required for the boss. Obviously having done all that work, getting World First would be amazing to me!"
Of course, the race is far from over. Tune into the race to World First live on twitch.tv/redbull!
