Vault of the Incarnates winner Echo stands as the front runner, with Method and Team Liquid hot on their heels, though several well established guilds will be vying for world rankings, including the return of Chinese competitors on Taiwanese realms. Wowhead is officially partnering with Team Liquid to assist with raid graphics and character models, though we’re here to highlight everyone and keep track of all the community achievements! We’ve put together a list of the top guild and community hosted events, coverage, casters, charity fundraisers, and more.
Wowhead Coverage
As usual, we will be providing our own coverage of the race, with frequent articles highlighting first kills, group compositions, hotfixes, strategies, and any surprises along the way. As a part of our coverage, we’ll also be consolidating information from across the web, including all the different streams, as well as compositional information from Raider.io and WarcraftLogs, so be sure to check our recaps each day to see how the race progresses!
You’ll also be able to learn more about each encounter as the Mythic race guilds encounter them, using our Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible boss guides.
Kazzara, the Hellforged
Amalgamation Chamber
Forgotten Experiments
Rashok
Assault of the Zaqali
Zskarn
Magmorax
Echo of Neltharion
Sarkareth
All of our Race to World First Coverage will be linked here. Including each world first kill, major tuning pass, daily video recaps by Dratnos and Tettles, and more!
North American Guilds
Team Liquid
Going into their eighth year together, North American frontrunner Team Liquid is continuing their legacy with another Race to World First event, featuring six on-site casters while live streaming all of their progression, hosting Q&A sessions, player highlights, and daily giveaways! This tier, Team Liquid will once again be supporting Ocean Conservancy with OurOcean.
Don’t forget to also check out Raid Without Restraint on Youtube to learn more about what it takes to bring the race to life.
Big Dumb Guild
Recently split from Golden Guardians, the Big Dumb Guild is back on their own terms. Although they haven’t formally announced any kind of official event this tier, we expect great things and a lot of entertainment from the fourth place Vault of the Incarnates guild, who are always known to bring a special level of humor to their competitions.
European Guilds
Echo
With a strong second place in Castle Nathria, followed by first place finishes in Sanctum of Domination, Sepulcher of the First Ones, and Vault of the Incarnates, Echo has proven themselves a juggernaut with no signs of stopping. To celebrate the Aberrus Race to World First, they’ve setup an event in Växjö, Sweden, featuring eight players and seven casters on-site to provide entertaining and insightful gameplay and commentary throughout the race!
Method
Holding the record for the most number of World Firsts in WoW history, Method pioneered the first public Race to World First and continues to celebrate community engagement with a live streamed event at 1337 Camp in Germany. Eleven players and nine casters will be on-site to beat bosses and promote mental health with Safe in Our World as their charity partner.
FatSharkYes
Always a major competitor who most recently finished 10th in Vault of the Incarnates, FatSharkYes has avoided the pageantry of the RWF event, preferring to simply do what they do best and focus completely on the progression instead. This Season marks a change, however, as they’re breaking tradition to announce their first ever live streamed progression race!
Asian Guilds
Despite the shutdown of services in China this past January, several top competitors have since started over on Taiwanese servers to continue playing. Not only requiring them to make completely new accounts, they’re also connecting to a different region, which certainly creates a disadvantage for them, but they plan to go all out regardless!
A little thing like that isn’t going to slow them down though. Asian guilds often get overlooked in the West, but many players don’t realize just how incredibly competitive their raid scene can be, with each of the major guilds backed by major private investors and even offering regular salaries to their players… but only as long as they achieve their goals. Team Aster disbanded last year after failing their mandate to be the #1 Chinese raid guild in Sepulcher of the First Ones, with the organization spending a purported $1.85 million USD on the team, including a $3,000 a month salary for players and managers. For many of these players, even more so than their counterparts in the NA and EU, raiding can be a full time job, managing dozens of alts for splits and sales over the course of each tier.
天涯 (Skyline)
Skyline continues as the most well established Chinese raiding guild with top 10 finishes to rival most western guilds, and has brought their entire roster over onto Taiwanese realms. Although their stated goal this tier is merely to “enjoy the game and do your best,” we expect great things from the World 3rd Sepulcher of the First Ones and World 5th Vault of the Incarnates finishers, who will be raiding from an e-sports hotel in Wuxi city.
Mage/Raid Leader HimelodyDPS Warrior YdShaman DPS CuojueDruid DPS Eaple
超界 (Chao Jie)
Chao Jie caused an upset with their World 6th finish in Vault of the Incarnates, narrowly beating out JTH. For this race, they’re pulling out all the stops, bringing 300+ backup characters to supplement their primary 30 player raid team, alongside 40 staff members handling logistics and network engineering to help optimize their connection to Taiwanese servers from their e-sports hotel in Chongqing city.
Priest Healer Hungquan PoV on Douyu
佶天鸿 (JiTianHong / JTH)
JTH has a lengthy pedigree, achieving top ten in every raid since Legion through Sanctum of Domination, most recently finishing 7th place in both Sepulcher and Vault of the Incarnates. They’ve seen the biggest change since moving to new realms, as the only Chinese competitor raiding from home and with significant roster restructuring after failing to achieve desired results in Vault of the Incarnates, despite their top 10 finish.
Watch JTH Raid Leader PoV on Huya
Raider.io
As per usual, Raider.io will also be posting their own coverage of the Race to World First, with analytical articles, opinion pieces, lore summaries, and guild spotlights, as well as their handsome embeds helping keep track of each guild’s ranking and progression.
Read on at Raider.io
Warcraft Logs
World of Warcraft analytics website Warcraft Logs has also stepped up its game, taking a deeper dive into the damage, healing, and death statistics to give readers greater insight into the race. Additionally, their Competition Mode progress board has returned to show encounter progress, pull counts, and the latest victories, updated automatically every 30 seconds.
Dive into Analytics on Warcraft Logs
Of course, several other guilds who have not announced official events will still be competing in the race to world first, and if there’s anything we’ve learned in these events it’s that you never know who might pull ahead unexpectedly! Be sure to check out our coverage over the coming week, as we watch to find out who will become the next world champions of Dragonflight!
