It was another big day in the race and this time we even had quite a few top guilds enter and get some kills! Liquid ended the day strong but there were more guilds progressing on un-killed bosses than ever, with some World Firsts on the menu as well.
The first part of the day was all about the Forgotten Experiments, as more and more guilds ran up against the first real test of the raid. 3/9 was now a common spot be in, with over 90 guilds ending the day there. A very intense battle took place across the (CET) day and into the evening, as guilds like Conspiracy, Tony Halme Pro Skater, Sabotage, Veneration, Vesper, Melee Mechanics, Honolulu and more trying to get that World First. However, in the (CET) evening some top guilds decided to finally join the fray, first with FatSharkYes moving into Mythic, followed by BDG.
The two quickly overtook the other guilds and one-shot most bosses leading up to the Experiments, and in the end it was the obese sharks that took the fourth boss down World First, after a 1% wipe and 12 pulls:
BDG also moved past the other guilds, some of whom had been working on the boss for 1-2 days, and grabbed the World 2nd.
Rashok, the Elder had been almost entirely ignored up until that point, despite being available at the same time as the Experiments, but now he was the only way forward, so we once again saw a buildup of guilds gathering. FSY and BDG gave up after a few tries, the EU guild going to sleep and the US one back to splits and Mythic+. This once again created some serious competition for the World First, and this time it was Vesper, Melee Mechanics, Vision and Instant Dollars going at it. Vesper held the lead a while, but as soon as Instant Dollars got to the boss it just clicked for them. Previously the first few tries for any guild came to around 50-60%, and the then best was around 45%. But, at pull 2 of Rashok, Instant Dollars just destroyed the boss’s health and managed to get it down to 21%, a pretty incredible feat. The next pulls weren’t as spectacular, but ID later proved that it wasn’t just a fluke, as they got another great pull, this time at 23%.
While all this was happened Liquid had entered the raid. After almost 3 days of non-stop splits the guild had racked up 442 boss kills between Normal and Heroic to gear up their characters, with the help of… well their helpers. As they 1-shot the first two bosses they went directly to the Forgotten Experiments, and while we may have been expecting just another 1-shot, the boss actually was much harder than the others, even for Liquid! It took them 5 pulls to take it down, and they headed to the Zaqali after, actually wiping there once. After that it was time for a break, but progress continued and they found themselves in front of Rashok, the Elder.
Here’s the item levels and tier set bonuses for the guilds that pushed on Rashok:
Liquid’s very first pull instantly became the best on the boss, as they got him down to under 20%:
The second pull was even lower, as Liquid dropped a healer to try and take the boss before the scaling damage got to be too much, and they got the boss to 15% on pull 2, and then even further down to 8% on pull 3.
Liquid is still going at it right now, still at their 8% best, so if you want to catch that potential World First, head on over to their stream.
I can’t really express just how great it’s been covering all these different and new guilds fighting for World Firsts, despite everyone being aware that whenever the top guilds arrived they would grab whatever was available in terms of WFs. Even the progress graphic is looking much more colorful and cool, with many different guild claiming first kills! The rest of the logos on there will almost definitely be white and/or orange, but this same-week Mythic isn’t quite as bad as I had feared. Splits as a GOOD thing for us viewers? Now that’s a weird one.
At the end of the day we had 10 guilds in the top 4/9 pack, all standing in front of Rashok. Echo and Method came in but are still on their splits/Mythic+ regiment, but we should be seeing them in Mythic by the end of the day. Make sure to check out Raider.IO’s live coverage, with even more clips, stats and analysis!