After seven days of raiding, the WoW Race for World First (RWF) is over, and European guild Echo has claimed victory. Defeating their chief rivals and Complexity Limit, Echo has claimed their first world-first title as an organization less than a year after their initial founding.
Echo were able to defeat Sylvanas Windrunner after over 170 pulls in the WoW RWF. (Image via Echo)
After over 170 pulls of the final boss, Sylvanas Windrunner, the guild were finally able to secure the kill on the early afternoon (CEST) of July 20th, narrowly clearing the raid within a single lockout.
The race, which began on July 13th, was initially only a North American affair. European guilds and servers in the rest of the world had to wait an additional day for the Mythic tier to hit live. Thanks to this delay the race kicked off with a surprising leader. Underdog NA guild Soniqs Imperative took down The Tarragrue after just two pulls on the very first day. Imperative would hold the lead for three bosses before hitting a wall with the first choice of paths. Pushing late into the night, Complexity Limit was able to take the world-first on Remnant of Ner’zhul before calling it a day. They started the next day off with another world-first, this time on Soulrender Dormazain.
But by then, the European guilds had access to the raid and wasted no time catching up to the NA guilds. Echo and Pieces surged to be second and third to kill Soulrender Dormazain, overtaking the majority of NA guilds on July 14th. But at that point, every guild hit the biggest roadblock in the Mythic raid, Painsmith Raznal.
Defeating the Painsmith
The Painsmith proved to be a real barrier to even the best guilds in the world. A complicated fight that sees all 20 raiders have to navigate a trap-filled arena of floor spikes that can instantly kill you, Painsmith put the breaks on Limit’s lead. Stuck on the boss at over 100 pulls, the guild opted for Heroic tier split runs to gear their raiders instead of more attempts. However, Echo instead took the lead from here, felling the Painsmith on the evening of July 15th.
Echo quickly extended their lead from there, taking out the Guardian of the First Ones later that same day, and leaving Limit behind. However, Echo slowed on their third day of raiding, not killing a boss or even making much progress for the whole of Friday. Instead, the guild focused on split runs and gearing their raiders ready for the final push. This allowed Limit to surge back into the lead for at least one boss.
From there, the number of guilds who had managed to progress so far had fallen to just four, with Limit, Echo, BDGG, and Method the only guilds to reach 9/10 and kill Kel’Thuzad.
Echo Sets Eyes on Victory in the WoW RWF
With Sylvanas Windrunner, the final boss of the Sanctum of Domination, now the only obstacle left between the four remaining guilds and victory, the final stretch began. A punishing and hectic three-phase fight, Sylvanas would require guilds to avoid ridiculous numbers of arrows, spells and other hazards, while taking truly huge amounts of damage.
The second phase would also see the raid move to the chains high above the Maw. Again, raiders needed to navigate past waves of projectiles and confront the elusive Sylvanas while avoiding falling to their deaths. Finally, with the fight moving to platforms high above the realms of the Shadowlands to engage Sylvanas one last time. Here, contending with huge numbers of damaging AoE puddles, more arrows, debuffs, and more, the raiders needed to reduce Sylvanas’ health to 50% to defeat her.
But in heart-breaking fashion, Echo would discover that an earlier rumor that Sylvanas died at 45% on Mythic rather than 50% was true. After reducing the boss to 49.57%, the raid wiped. Calling it a night, Echo started the 19th with a clear timer: If they couldn’t kill the boss before the afternoon Tuesday, July 20th, Complexity Limit would get their raid reset. If Limit gained the advantage of re-clears and the gear they received, there would be almost no way Echo could win. With Limit raiding late into the night, Echo went to bed knowing they would wake up the next day having lost the race.
The Final Fight
Ultimately Limit would be unable to secure the kill on Sylvanas, only getting her so far as 49%. And with Echo waking up soon, it was now Limit’s turn to head to bed, knowing they would wake up to second place. That morning, on July 20th, Echo went hard. And ultimately in one of the cleanest pulls of the entire race (reaching the final phase with all their battle resurrections available), Echo played perfectly to get the kill.
Echo claimed victory after an incredible race that shows exactly why people love the Race for World First.
