What is the Race to World First on World of Warcraft?

Much to the chagrin of Mandatory fans and WoW esports in general, there is no new competition until the end of June, at least not on the official circuit. Unintentionally created by the players several years ago, the Race to World First is the next must-see community event. This crazy race now brings together the best guilds in the world, in a fierce battle to take down the ultimate boss in the latest raids added to the game. Kusa and Lapi will cover the event on Twitch, while Maystine to join Echo for several days. His goal? To win the World First! In the meantime 9 MayIn the light of the start date of the next Raid, we invite you to discover how the race works.

The history of competitive raiding on WoW

Since the release of WoW in 2004, Raids have been an integral part of the game. Riding is a guild activity. It often requires many hours of play, as it is essential to acquire the best items and optimise the different classes of the members, in order to take down the bosses lurking in a dungeon. Raids were originally intended to be a challenge for players and a good way to get interesting rewards. All in all, it was a good time with friends!

However, a form of competition soon emerged between the top guilds: all of them wanted to establish their supremacy over the others, by eliminating the last Raid boss in pole position. These were the beginnings of the Race to World First (RWF). We are talking about a time when Ruined, Nihilum or Paragon guilds dominated the servers. No camera, no stream, no sponsorAt that time, players were not particularly keen to share their strategies, for fear of being left behind. To find information or simply to follow the World First race, one had to browse through page-long discussions on specialised forums and constantly refresh the pages to get the latest news.

The interest of external players in competing guilds only appears after the expansion Legionreleased in 2016. While the hype was starting to build with each new Raid, it all really came to a head in August 2018, when Battle for AzerothThe seventh extension is deployed. Methodone of the guilds that sit at the top of the overall ranking, does a sensational announcement It will broadcast its Uldir Raid progress live on Twitch, including the final boss:

I would like to personally invite you, our community, to join our side once again as we take on the Uldir Raid in Mythic and the mighty G'huun alongside all of you. It is with great pride that we can announce that, for the first time in Method's 13 year history, the Race to World First will be streamed live on Twitch.

Scott 'Sco' McMillan, co-creator of Method

Furthermore, the guild explains that it wants to publicise its race in a way that has never been done beforeWith commentators and other analysts gathered at the Redbull Gaming Sphere London to bring this first ever sponsored RWF event in WoW history to life. Despite the initial questions, it's a real successThis is especially true since Method took first place. A few months later, in 2019, Method will stream another Raid, but this time with much more colossal means The Redbull Gaming Sphere London: several players from the guild are gathered in the Redbull Gaming Sphere London and a dozen views are streamed, offering an ever more entertaining show to the players of the community.

The Race to World First is growing in popularity and is becoming the community event not to be missed, so other teams, including Limit and Pieces, are joining in this new adventure. Streaming and sponsoring are now part of the breedWith the increasing number of simultaneous events, the RWF takes on a new look: it is a real media marathon lasting several days.

While Europe has been the undisputed leader for several years, Limit wins its first ever World First at of the Raid Ny'alothataking the title on American soil at the same time. The race was no longer just an in-game inter-guild challenge, but became a super inter-continental competition. Huge sums are spent to get the best equipment and complete raids before others. The Americans retained the World First in the next raid, before kneeling before Echo's supremacyEuropean newcomers.

With a back to back to back on the counter, this young structure does not intend to stop there and will give all it has for the Raid Aberrus, the Shadowed Cruciblewhich starts between 9 and 10 May.

The format of the Race to World First

As you can see, the Race to World First is an unofficial competition, which consists of complete a RaidIf possible, with a minimum of attempts, but above all before all other guilds. Here, entire guilds are racing through the dungeons, in other words, there are often more than twenty players, armed to the teeth, bent on knocking down the bumps. This is a far cry from of the MDIthe official Blizzard competition, in which our Mandatory team is participating.

There are several levels of Raidof increasing difficulty: Normal, Heroics and Mythics. It is mainly the Mythics rank that interests the competing Guilds, and this is the one we will deal with in more detail. The number of bosses to take down varies from Raid to Raid. In all cases, the winning team is considered to be the one who beat the very last boss in the firstIt doesn't matter if another team has several TOP 1s on the other bosses in the raid. Completing a Raid at this level is particularly complex and demanding, and requires knowing the patterns, timings, cooldowns and a whole lot of other information by heart.

Even if the race is a community one, Blizzard still keeps an eye on on the runs of the different guilds, and even checks that no cheating or bug exploitation was used to take down the last boss.

Guilds to watch out for in this new edition

This race brings together thousands of guilds from all over the world, but only a handful of them have the resources to compete for World First. With their excellent results in recent races and their involvement in the races, our ambassadors advise you to keep an eye on Echo (and Maystine), Liquid, Method for the future Raid Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible.

Echo - This sports structure was only created in 2020, but has already captured the audience of the World First race. With a number of talented players, it has achieved a perfect record in the last three Raids and is the favourite for the upcoming Raid.

• World First - Raid Vault of the Incarnates - Dragonflight Extension - December 2022
• World First - Raid Sepulcher of the First Ones - Shadowlands Extension - March 2022
• World First - Raid Sanctum of Domination - Shadowlands Extension - July 2021

Liquid (formerly Complexity Limit) - Arguably the best American team of the last few years, it was this guild that put the US back in the running by winning the continent's first World First in a long time. Experienced, they have been around since 2015.

• World First - Raid Castle Nathria - Shadowlands Extension - December 2020
• World First - Raid Ny'alotha - Battle for Azeroth Expansion - February 2020

Method - The guild has long been a fixture in WoW raiding, dominating the competition between the Legion and Battle for Azeroth expansions, and was even the originator of the RWF as we know it today. While the guild has not won a title in recent editions of the race, it has twice placed in the top three and is looking to reclaim its number one spot.

• World First - Raid The Eternal Palace - Battle for Azeroth Expansion - July 2019
• World First - Raid Battle of Dazar'alor - Battle for Azeroth Expansion - February 2019
• World First - Uldir Raid - Battle for Azeroth Extension - September 2018
• World First - Raid Antorus, the Burnind Throne - Legion Extension - December 2017
• World First - Raid Tomb of Sargeras - Legion Extension - July 2017

This is not an exhaustive list, Method has been used many times in previous raids.

Of course, other guilds could also surprise us, such as BDGGShe has been very involved in the race for several years, even coming fourth on two occasions.

How to follow the competition?

If there is a community Mandatory guild, it has no pretension to take the title today or tomorrow. It is therefore not our guild, nor the Mandatory team We will be following the Echo Guild, with whom Maystine will be participating in the race. Our follow-up will be available through a page dedicated to the RWF. This will be put online soon.

In addition, our two ambassadors, Kusa and LapiIn addition, the team will be taking part in a live broadcast of the stages to comment on and debrief on the competition's progress.

Access to Lapi's Twitch channel.
Access to Kusa's Twitch channel.