Raider.IO Leaderboards
Week 1 of Midnight Season 2
The Race to World First ended the first week with Method in the lead at Mythic 5/9. Liquid and Echo were behind, ending the week at Mythic 4/9.
This doesn't quite tell the full story, as both Liquid and Echo did many Mythic splits during this week to gear up instead. Heroic and Normal splits took much longer this tier, as both difficulties were much harder than expected, with many bugs and overtuned bosses. Liquid didn't even enter Mythic until Sunday, five days into the Race to World First. With only two days left in the raiding week, it was very unlikely that Ula'tek was going to fall, so they took a short-term leaderboard loss for a long-term gear gain by splitting Mythic bosses across their many characters.
It's likely that Liquid and Echo could have killed Mythic Sszorak during the first week, but instead they spent the time gearing more characters.
Team Liquid Stream Leaderboard for Week 1 End
As of the writing of this article, Method, Echo, and Liquid have all now defeated Mythic Twin Fangs and are on the 7th boss of The Venomous Abyss in the second week of the race.
Comparison to Past Tiers
There are nine bosses in this tier: eight in The Venomous Abyss Raid and one (technically unofficial) Lair boss. With Week 1 ending with only Mythic 5/9, we haven't seen this level of progression speed in a Race to World First since the Liberation of Undermine. Stix Bunkjunker was a brutal boss that only 6 guilds killed in the first 9 days of progression.
Looking at previous tiers, Race to World First guilds usually get to at least 7 Mythic bosses before the week ends, with the exception being Liberation of Undermine. Sepulcher is also an exception, as closer to half the available bosses were defeated in Week 1, but Halondrus acted as a legendary raid progression wall.
Raid Week 1 ProgressGuilds Achieved
Midnight Season 25/9Method
Midnight Season 17/7Liquid, Method, Echo
Manaforge Omega7/9Echo, Method, Liquid
Liberation of Undermine5/9Echo
Nerub-ar Palace7/8Liquid, Echo, Method
Amirdrassil7/9Liquid, Echo, Method, and more.
Aberrus9/9Liquid, Echo, Method
Vault of the Incarnates8/9Liquid, Echo
Sepulcher of the First Ones7/11Liquid, Echo, Method, Pieces
This tier, Heroic Venomous Abyss provides a much better progression curve into Mythic. That said, many guilds that are not participating in the Race to World First may run into roadblocks, since the traditional nerfs that follow in the wake of RWF kills aren't happening at the speed players are used to. We've already seen the Mythic Lair boss receive two sets of nerfs, and only Liquid has killed it at the time of writing this article.
There is speculation that non-RWF guilds are going to get stuck on Mythic Sszorak this week. The encounter has a tight DPS check, and because Liquid and Echo have not killed it before the weekly reset, the boss hasn't been nerfed to a non-RWF level.
Blizzard mentioned in a recent Tettles interview that they know bosses need nerfs after the Race to World First, and sometimes design bosses with that in mind. As Sszorak was not defeated, Blizzard was unable to nerf it - but they can do a mid-week nerf as they did with Heroic Ula'tek last week, or with Stix Bunkjunker (twice) in the Liberation of Undermine.
Whether the race will enter a third week is still unknown, but for now, the Race to World First for Venomous Abyss may end as one of the more controversial races in terms of tuning and difficulty.
