December 24, 2022

Echo Voices Opinion about the Race to World First 2022: Vault of the Incarnates

The Race to World First (RWF) has ended. Raszageth has fallen. Echo prevailed as the winner. However, the Co-CEO of Echo, Roger Brown, isn’t satisfied with how things played out in the race. On his Twitter, he expressed his discontentment:

It is alarming that it took us 3 days of splits/mythic plus to gear up and only 2 days to reach the last boss.

Hope in the future RWF is more about mythic prog and less about gearing. Not good for players or viewers.
— George (@RogerbrownWoW) December 19, 2022

And he is not the only one who thinks this way. After all, many players are surprised that Blizzard is not responsible and does not provide the best conditions for the RWF. Given that this is one of the grandest events in the WoW community. They have expressed their opinions on how to improve the circumstance under his tweet:

Run the RWF on a separate server specialized for tournaments only, and invite 20 of the best guilds from around the world there
All participants should have a similar item level

“Have RWF in a tournament style realm where everyone starts/has the same ilvl”

“RWF should be an event supported by Blizzard by being held on a tournament realm. Everyone should have the exact same standard ilvl during the whole race. This way, I believe it would be easier to scale the content, so you guys neither can’t nor have to boost your ilvl 1/x”

Don’t release Heroic and Mythic in the same week
Make Normal, Heroic, and Mythic share lockout in the first few weeks to stop the splits.

“I think the idea of releasing Mythic raid at the same time with Normal and Heroic is bad. It worked very well until now with Normal/Heroic releases a week earlier than Mythic, it gives you time to do as many splits as you want without affecting the actual Race.”

There are also concerns about how professional players affect the changes in raids and dungeons. For instance, the release of all three difficulties at the same time is a bright perk for casual players, but it causes problems in RWF. Blizzard is not a stranger to organizing E-sports activities. Their AWC and MDI are great examples of how the company handles these events. It would be fantastic if they took the RWF into account and arranged a professional and enjoyable environment for contestants, players, and viewers alike.